Every year the American Library Association “celebrates” Banned Book Week, which takes place this year on September 21-27. Its focus is on the right of citizens to have the freedom to read whatever they want, away from the prying eye of the censor. Even in the so-called age of the “anything goes” Internet world, it seems the censors would still like to ban books from the libraries, classrooms, and other institutions. The 2014 Banned Book week focusses on Graphic Novels and Comics, and in 2013 two graphic novels were on the top ten list: Captain Underpants by Dave Pilkey and Bone by Jeff Smith.  I can kind of understand Captain Underpants, with its scatological humor strewn throughout all the volumes, but Bone?  That anyone would find this text offensive I can’t comprehend at all. It is just a good story and quite innocuous.

You know, for many years comics have received a bad rap.  Since the 1940s, educators, librarians, parents, and the curators of moral decency have argued that comics turn one’s brain into little more than goo and have no redeeming value. The 1954 publication of psychiatrist Fredric Wertham’s Seduction of the Innocent argued that comics were the cause of Juvenile Delinquency. Congressional hearings were held, the Comics Code Authority was created, and the industry was nearly crippled. See David Hajdu’s Ten Cent Plague and Amy Nyberg’s Seal of Approval for more detail on what actually happen during this period. Suffice it to say that comics have had a long history of being banned. Carol Tilley has recently found that much of Wertham’s research was falsified; Dr. Tilley’s groundbreaking work “Seducing the Innocent Fredric Wertham and falsifications that helped condemn comics” can be found in a recent issue of Alter Ego. All of this is to say, pick up a banned graphic novel and read it or ANY banned book. Open your mind and don’t let the censors tell you what to read. Oh, and while you’re at it, don’t forget to submit an abstract to our conference (http://southwestpca.org/conference/call-for-papers/).

Robert G. Weiner
Popular Culture Librarian Texas Tech University
Southwest PCA Area Chair: Graphic Novels and Comics
More about Banned Book week here
http://www.bannedbooksweek.org/
http://cbldf.org/resources/banned-books-week-101/

The Southwest Popular/American Culture Association (SWPACA) is pleased to announce the creation of The Michael K. Schoenecke SWPACA Leadership Institute, which will debut at the SWPACA conference, February 11-14, 2015 in Albuquerque, New Mexico. The Institute is named in honor of Southwest PCA co-founder Michael Schoenecke, who, with Peter C. Rollins, established the Southwest/Texas PCA/ACA (now SWPACA) in 1979. Since that time, generations of scholars have shared and celebrated popular culture studies at the organization’s annual meeting for over 35 years.

The Michael K. Schoenecke Leadership Institute will serve as an opportunity for individuals interested in learning about the history of the popular/American culture movement as well as the history of the SWPACA organization, its leadership, and the role the organization plays in promoting the study of popular and American culture. The Institute will further provide venues for individuals interested in serving the organization in a leadership capacity.

We extend a cordial invitation for you to join us in Albuquerque, New Mexico, February 11 – 14, 2015 as we celebrate Michael K. Schoenecke’s contributions to the field of popular and American culture and as we welcome a new generation of scholars to the Southwest PCA. Further information regarding the Institute curriculum, schedule, and application process will be forthcoming at our website and through our social media outlets.

Regards,

Lynnea Chapman King, PhD
Executive Director
Southwest Popular/American Culture Association
E: lchapmanking@southwestpca.org

Tamy Burnett , PhD
Treasurer
Southwest Popular/American Culture Association
E: tburnett@southwestpca.org

Additional Information:

http://southwestpca.org/leadership-institute/

Until then,

Lynnea, Ken, Kelli, Tamy, and Chris
Southwest PCA Executive Team

We are pleased to announce that we now have a Flickr account to share photos from the conference! Take a moment to head over to http://www.flickr.com/photos/southwestpca/ to view our photos.

We will post photos from the conference, the keynotes and others!

As of now, we have two sets:

Keynote by Dr. Spencer Herrera and New Mexico Poet Laureate Levi Romero; this set contains photos from Thursday’s Keynote

Rollins Award and Graduate Awards; this set contains photos of our Rollins Keynote speaker, Alisa Perren, as well as award announcers and all of our graduate  award winners.

We hope you like the photos. Keep your eye on the Flickr page as we grow our photographic presence and keep a record of our meetings!

The SWPACA Executive Team and the Peter C. Rollins Book Award judging panel are pleased to announce that the Rollins Book Award has been expanded to recognize outstanding scholarship in multiple areas of popular and American culture.

Traditionally, the Rollins Book Award has recognized manuscript-length work in the area of Film/Television Studies. The Rollins Award will continue to do so, with the annual recipient in that category being invited to present the Keynote address at the SWPACA Awards Reception the following year. In addition, the Rollins Book Award committee will recognize one to three volumes/year in the category of general popular culture and a “rolling” category identified each year based on trends in popular and/or American cultural studies.

For 2013, the Peter C. Rollins book award winners are:

• Film/Television and History: Alisa Perren, Indie, Inc.: Miramax and the Transformation of Hollywood in the 1990s (U of Texas P, 2012)
• Popular Culture: Julie Anne Taddeo and Cynthia J. Miller, Steaming into a Victorian Future: A Steampunk Anthology (Scarecrow P, 2012)
• Sequential Art/Comics and Animation Studies: Matthew J. Smith and Randy Duncan, Critical Approaches to Comics: Theories and Methods (Routledge, 2011)

Each year the Rollins Award Committee welcomes submissions of book-length work (single/multiple author or edited collection) published within the previous two calendar years. Books published in 2012 or 2013 may be submitted for consideration.

For full submission guidelines, please see visit the Rollins Keynote Speaker Page.