This is the June MAPACA newsletter. Our next annual conference is November 7-9 in Atlantic City, NJ.
In This Newsletter, We Have:
- 2024 Divine Impact Award Recipient
- Our Call for Papers for the 2024 Annual Conference
- A reminder that the June 30th deadline for abstracts is approaching!
- Registration for the Summer Virtual Symposium
2024 Divine Impact Award Recipient - Samuel R. Delany
This year we are excited to present the Divine Impact Award (DIA) to Samuel R. Delany, award-winning sci-fi author, queer scholar, literary critic, and a foundational figure in Afrofuturism. The DIA recognizes outstanding creative or scholarly achievement in the production, performance, or scholarly consideration of popular and/or American culture that exhibits exceptional contribution, longevity, originality, and impact. Past years’ recipients are director John Waters, radio host Terry Gross, music promoter Randy Ellis, chef Jose Garces, attorney and author Rabia Chaudry, artist Matthew Buchholz and radio host Angelo Cataldi.
In 2016, Samuel R. Delany was inducted into the New York State Writers Hall of Fame. He is the author of Babel-17, The Einstein Intersection, Nova, Dhalgren, Dark Reflections, Atlantis: Three Tales, the Return to Nevèrÿon series, an autobiography, The Motion of Light in Water, and the paired essays Times Square Red / Times Square Blue. Dark Reflections won the Stonewall Book Award for 2008, and in 2015 he won the Nicolas Guillén Award for Philosophical Literature, in 1993 the Bill Whitehead Award, in 1997 the Kessler Award for LGBTQ Studies, and in 2021 the Anisfield-Wolf Award and the Sir Arthur Clarke Award. As well, he has won Nebula Awards from the Science Fiction Writers of America, and two Hugo Awards from the World Science Fiction Convention. Filmmaker, novelist, critic, in 2013, he was made a Grand Master of Science Fiction, following in the steps of Asimov, Heinlein, and Le Guin. As e-books, paperbacks, or audiobooks, his works are available through his website at: https://samueldelany.com.
Come celebrate at the conference in November!
2024 Call for Papers
Mid-Atlantic Popular & American Culture Association (MAPACA)
2024 Annual Conference November 7-9, 2024
Atlantic City, NJ Tropicana Casino and Resort, Atlantic City
Call for proposals:
Proposals are welcome on all aspects of popular and American culture for inclusion in the 2024 Mid-Atlantic Popular & American Culture Association (MAPACA) conference in Atlantic City, NJ. Single papers, panels, roundtables, and alternative formats are welcome.
Proposals should take the form of 300-word abstracts, and may only be submitted to one appropriate area. For a list of areas and area chair contact information, visit mapaca.net/areas. General questions can be directed to mapaca@mapaca.net. The deadline for submission is June 30, 2024.
MAPACA’s participants are comprised of college and university faculty, independent scholars and artists, and graduate and undergraduate students. MAPACA is an inclusive professional organization dedicated to the study of popular and American culture in all their multidisciplinary manifestations. It is a regional division of the Popular Culture and American Culture Association, which, in the words of Popular Culture Association founder Ray Browne, is a “multi-disciplinary association interested in new approaches to the expressions, mass media and all other phenomena of everyday life.”
For more information, visit mapaca.net.
Registration for the Summer Virtual Symposium
Thank you to all who sent in proposals for the Summer Virtual Symposium to be held on Sunday, August 4, 2024. Registration for accepted papers is open now and will close on July 1. To register, or for more information, please visit the Summer Virtual Symposium site at summer.mapaca.net.
Mid-Atlantic Popular & American Culture Association (MAPACA)
P.O. Box 1358
Lansdowne, PA 19050
To donate, please visit https://mapaca.net/donation