This is the late August MAPACA newsletter. Our next conference is November 10-13, 2021 and will be held online.
In This Newsletter, We Have:
Sunday August 22 is the Deadline for Early Registration
The CFP for Our Crash Course
Virtual Conference Rooms: Pellucidar!
Join Us for a Special Roundtable on Academic Publishing, featuring The University Press of Kentucky
Sunday, August 22 is the Last Day for Early Registration!
Sunday, August 22 is the LAST DAY for early registration for this year’s conference. Regular registration begins August 23, and rates will go up a bit! Make sure you lock in the lowest rate of the year by visiting mapaca.net today!
Call for Proposals for our High-Density Popular Culture Crash Course
MAPACA seeks proposals for a special session at the 2021 annual conference.
Please note:
You ARE ALLOWED to present at the Crash Course even if a) you are already presenting at #MAPACA21 or b) you are not already presenting at #MAPACA21. As long as you register for the conference and your proposal is accepted, you are welcome!
Panel Overview
This high-density session will feature several 5-minute micro-presentations about current popular culture topics in a “crash course” about new and interesting phenomena.
Since many attendees often spend the majority of their conference time attending presentations related to only one or a few areas, this special session will offer a chance to learn about a diverse range of topics meant to inform popular culture scholars beyond their specific research interests.
Proposals will be selected based on merit and diversity of topics.
Topics
An ideal topic will be: current, significant, interesting, and the sort of thing people talk about before class/at parties/on social media. For instance:
Luxury fast food branding
90’s nostalgia
Home fitness goes streaming (Peloton, the Mirror, etc.)
Virtual film festivals
Insert your great idea here
How to Submit
Email a brief biography and a 75-word proposal that includes a presentation title, explanation of the topic, and identification of significance for contemporary popular culture research. (Please include this information in the body of your email, not as an attachment.) Email Dr. Tom Grochowski: tgrochowski@sjcny.edu Deadline: September 7, 2021
Virtual Conference Rooms: Pellucidar!
Welcome to Pellucidar!
For the 2021 MAPACA Conference, our virtual rooms will bear the names of famous sci-fi and fantasy worlds from authors who have made a firm imprint on American and popular culture. Up until the conference, we will be focusing on each world, the author, and their world’s impact.
Pellucidar (pronounced pel-loose-eh-dar) was the name of the inner earth, accidentally discovered by surface dwellers David Innes and Abner Perry when they lost control of their digging machine. This world, with a never setting sun, has evolved on a different path than the surface of earth. With no nighttime, the people have no concept of time. With no stars, they have no compass. Large beasts still roam, and humans are not the dominant species. That crown is held by the Mahars, pterodactyl-like creatures who communicate telepathically, enslave humans, and even eat them via ritualized ceremonies. How will our surface-dwelling tourists survive this world?
The world of Pellucidar was first featured in 1914 via pulp serializations by Edgar Rice Burroughs, more commonly known for his Tarzan novels. His first novel on Pellucidar was At Earth’s Core (1922), and he followed it up with five more novels during his lifetime. In Tarzan at Earth’s Core (1929), Burroughs created a crossover for his literary universe that has been mimicked to perfection in comic and cinematic universes today.
Although the hollow earth concept had been explored previously, Burroughs gave it prominence through his novels. His concepts have been imitated and explored through other novels, television, and film. The most recent example came in Godzilla vs. Kong(Warner Bros., 2021) where the film takes us to the center of the earth where Kong must battle pterodactyl-like creatures.
Join us at MAPACA 2021 and see what other worlds we have in store.
Special Panel: Academic Publishing Q&A, featuring The University Press of Kentucky
Please join us for our special roundtable Q&A about academic publishing. Do you have questions about how to write a great book proposal? Do you want to know more about how long it takes for your publication to go to press? Come ask academic publishing professionals from several publishers, including The University Press of Kentucky! This special panel will be open to all registered participants at this year’s conference.
For more information about the panel, please see https://mapaca.net/conference/2021/academic-publishing-discussion-and-q.
For more information about The University Press of Kentucky, please see https://www.kentuckypress.com/.
Mid-Atlantic Popular & American Culture Association (MAPACA)
PO Box 1358, Lansdowne, PA 19050