Paper proposals on any aspect of biography, autobiography, memoir, and personal narrative are welcome. Literary papers as well as creative works will be accepted.

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Panels are now forming for presentations regarding all aspects (historical, literary, cultural, etc.) of Captivity Narratives. All topics and approaches to the genre are welcomed. Graduate students/future teachers are particularly welcome to participate – or to simply register to attend the conference and its captivity narrative panels.

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Panels are now being formed in the Children’s / Young Adult Culture area. Scholars, researchers, professionals, teachers, graduate students and others interested in this area are encouraged to submit an abstract.

This area covers a wide variety of possible mediums: traditional book/literature culture, but also comics, graphic novels, film, television, music, video games, toys, internet environment, fan fiction, advertising, and marketing tie-ins to books and films, just to name a few.  Proposals on fiction, non-fiction, poetry, or cross-genre topics are welcome.  Interdisciplinary approaches are especially welcome, as are presentations that go beyond the traditional scholarly paper format.

Topics may include, but are not limited to:

• The art and industry of the Picture Book – both historical and current trends (I’d love to see more presentations on picture books, including wordless picture books)
• Diversity in children’s and YA literature (gender, race/ethnicity, disability, body image, sexual identity, language)
• Use of innovative or “novel” formats for both children’s and YA literature
• The next “big” thing in children’s and YA literature
• Film adaptation issues
• Historical approaches to and the history of children’s and YA literature and culture
• New approaches to reading children’s and YA literature and culture
• Re-imaginings of myth, fairy tale, and other traditional stories
• Explorations of specific authors in the children’s and YA areas
• Fan fiction and fan followings of books, films, and authors
• Beyond books and films
• The pedagogy of children’s/YA culture (K-12 and college)

Proposals on other topics related to Children’s and YA Culture will be read with interest.

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The Area Chair of the Cormac McCarthy Area of the SWPACA conference is seeking paper proposals on any aspect of the work of Cormac McCarthy, including novels, plays, and television and film scripts and adaptations.  We invite presentations about all facets of McCarthy’s work in forms ranging from critical essays to analyses employing recognized research methodologies. The chair also welcomes pre-formed panels, but will need submissions to be uploaded individually as required by the SWPACA. Paper presentations should be 15 minutes and should present an arguable thesis or develop a compelling question.

Topics of interest include, but are not limited to:

• McCarthy and the West
• McCarthy and apocalypse
• Narration and historical imaginaries in McCarthy’s work
• Narrative theory approaches to McCarthy’s writing
• Gender and sexuality studies approaches to McCarthy’s work
• McCarthy and Hollywood
• Issues in film adaptation
• Neoliberal discourse and/in McCarthy
• Southern gothic and its meaning now
• Horror and McCarthy

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The Creative Writing sessions at SWPACA seek original writing on any theme and in any genre (poetry, fiction, creative non-fiction, drama). Presentations and panels on creative writing pedagogy will also be considered.

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The Ecocriticism and the Environment area welcomes abstracts on film, literature, advertising, video games, social media, architecture, music, religion, and any other method of human expression dealing with interactions between popular culture and the physical environment. Possible topics include, but are not limited to, abstracts connected to animals, landscapes, plants, natural disasters, climate and climate change, ecosystems, hydrology, evolution, etc.

Past presentations have covered:

-the representation of animals in media such as cute animal videos and wildlife documentaries.

-“cli-fi” and nature in other types of science fiction and fantasy literature.

-how climate change is conceptualized through music, political cartoons, cards, and other forms of popular culture.

-the public response to environmental holidays, nuclear testing, and natural disaster in oral history and the arts.

These ideas are representative, and certainly not an exhaustive list.

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Papers are now being accepted on topics related to any aspect of European popular culture and literature. Scholars, graduate students, instructors, and others interested in European popular culture and literature are invited to participate. European novels, poetry, plays, film, television, fashion, food, religion, music, folkways & mores are possible topics.

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The Folklore Studies panel seeks (presents/requests) presentations on any area of folklore studies including folklore and literature, social customs, food lore, myths and legends, and so on. The study does not need to be restricted to folklore as it appears strictly in literature, but can take a wide ranging view on all aspects of folklore as it presents itself historically, socially, and literarily.

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The area chair seeks presentation proposals on formal, cultural, historical, and theoretical dimensions of sequential art in all its forms (comics, graphic novels, anime, etc.).

Presentations may focus on a single work, put works into productive conversation with one another, or investigate relationships between works of sequential art and their transmedia adaptations; in the latter case, however, significant emphasis should be placed on sequential art – those proposals focusing too much on film, television, gaming, or other formats will not be read favorably.

Authors may also submit field-provoking critical literature reviews intended to reframe scholarly discussion around major disciplinary themes or questions, works of sequential art history or historiography, ethnographic work concerning sequential art audiences, studies of the sequential art industry’s political economy, or investigations into new forms of sequential art storytelling, consumption, distribution, or marketing.

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Submissions for panels and individual papers on all aspects of Linguistics are welcome. Submissions on the following topics in Applied Linguistics are especially encouraged:

• Language Pedagogy
• Linguistic Landscapes
• Bilingualism
• Language in the Media
• L2 Teaching and Learning
• Discourse Analysis
• Language and Gender

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The Area Chair is now accepting proposals to the Literature (General) category. This area will provide a forum for scholarly presentations on literary subjects outside of our more specific literature areas. Before submitting to the General area, please peruse the specific area list on this page.

Areas of interest might include:

• Literary theory
• Literary history
• Interdisciplinary approaches to literary analysis
• Aesthetics
• Experimental writing (other than poetry – see specific area lists)
• Genre criticism
• Historical or cultural criticism
• Regional literatures
• Popular forms of literary expression beyond our noted areas

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As popular genres, mystery and detective fiction reflect a wide range of changes in society in contemporary works, but they also have a venerable classic tradition. Submissions are welcomed that address mystery and detective fiction from both ends of this spectrum and every point in between.

Some possibilities:

• Research addressing or applying theoretical or structural topics in the genre
• Work focusing on any subgenre or aspect of mystery and detective fiction, from the hard-boiled to the cozy and from the latest trends to the classics
• Work applying other theoretical approaches to representations of detectives and other characters from a wide range of racial, ethnic, gender, and sexual identities
• Papers addressing particular regional aspects of mystery or detective fiction
• Work on international writers in the genre
• Analyses of television or film adaptations of the genre

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All scholars working in the areas of myth and/or fairy tales are invited to submit paper or panel proposals for the upcoming SWPACA Conference. Panels are now forming on topics related to all aspects of myths and fairy tales and their connections to popular culture. To participate in this area, you do not need to present on both myths and fairy tales; one or the other is perfectly fine. Presentations considering both genres are of course welcome and can stimulate interesting discussions. Proposals for forming your own Myth or Fairy Tale-focused panel – especially panels focused on one particular myth/tale – are encouraged.

Paper topics might include (but are certainly not limited to):

• Where Fairy Tales and Myth Overlap
• Non-Western Myths and Fairy Tales
• Revised Fairy Tales
• Fairy Tales in/as “Children’s Literature”
• Disney
• Urban Fairy Tales
• Ethnic Myths and Fairy Tales
• Gendered Readings of Myths and Fairy Tales
• Postcolonial Myths and Fairy Tales
• Myths and Fairy Tales in Advertising Culture
• Reading Myths and Fairy Tales in the Popular Culture of Past Centuries
• Performing Myths and Fairy Tales: Drama and/or Ritual
• Genres of Myths and/or Fairy Tales: Film, Television, Poetry, Novels, Music, Comic Books, Picture Books, Short Stories, or Graphic Novels

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We are now accepting proposals for presentations and panels regarding American poetry and poetics criticism at our 2021 conference. There are no limits in regard to historical period, topic, or theme, and we welcome panel proposals, especially those that include panelists from multiple institutions.

Poet-critics who may wish to participate in the readings panels should contact Christopher Carmona, Area Chair of Creative Writing [Poetry, Fiction], via the SWPACA website.
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We invite proposals for individual or panel presentations that relate to the teaching, practice, and/or analysis of how rhetoric and technical communications/technical writing influence or are influenced by culture.

We look forward to a variety of ideas and emphases, though papers of similar orientations will be grouped together in sessions whenever possible. Papers may focus on ways in which popular and American culture inform the pedagogical, theoretical, and practical work of rhetoric and technical communication.

Sample emphases (these are not limitations, just ideas): Rhetoric and Civic Humanism, Poetics and Rhetoric in Everyday Life, Technical Writing for Non-Techies, Rhetorical Analysis in Political Campaigns, Rhetorical Analyses across Cultures and Disciplines, Technical Writing and Real Life.

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