Popular Culture Association/American Culture Association (PCA/ACA) (Web)– National Conference

Venue: 2012 Boston, Massachusetts
Time: April 11- 14 2012
Deadline: December 15 2011

Julie Tharp and Susan MacCallum-Whitcomb write in This Giving Birth: „Ever since a pregnant Demi Moore exploded the beauty myth by posing nude for a magazine cover and Madonna cast off her boy-toy image to sing the praises of maternity, popular culture has also begun to embrace dear old mom.“ At the same time, Modern Family, Mr. Mom, Thomas Beatie, the At-Home Dads Convention, and Superdad: a Memoir of Rebellion, Drugs and Fatherhood are just a few examples testifying to how popular culture has been embracing dad.

Liz Podnieks is looking for papers for multiple panels for the new PCA Area Motherhood/Fatherhood which showcases (from humanities and social sciences perspectives) any aspect of motherhood and or fatherhood in popular culture.

Possible topics to consider include, but are not limited to, the following:

• TV shows, including talk shows, family dramas, sitcoms, and animation
• print and electronic journalism and gossip rags; magazines
• celebrity culture
• electronic sites/technologies like blogs, Facebook, Twitter
• advertising and marketing
• visual art including photography, scrapbooking, mixed media
• film; performance; music
• graphic fiction/memoir
• best-selling literatures including mommy lit, momoirs, and dadlit
• pregnancy manuals and „expert“ parenting guides/literature
• fashion
• politics
• reproductive technologies
• law and policy; maternal and paternal activism/organizations

For information on the PCA/ACA, please see: http://pcaaca.org/
Abstracts (200-250 words) will be accepted on a continuing basis up to December 15, 2011. Abstracts must be submitted online at: http://ncp.pcaaca.org/.

Please send any inquiries to the Area Chair:
Liz Podnieks, Associate Professor
Department of English and Graduate Studies in Communication and Culture
Ryerson University, Toronto
lpodniek@ryerson.ca