PCA/ACA

Fat Studies

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Accepts undergraduate submissions

 

Fat Studies is an interdisciplinary, cross-disciplinary field of study that confronts and critiques cultural constraints against notions of “fatness” and “the fat body”; explores fat bodies as they live in, are shaped by, and remake the world; and creates paradigms for the development of fat acceptance or celebration within mass culture. Fat Studies uses body size as the starting point for a wide-ranging theorization and explication of how societies and cultures, past and present, have conceptualized all bodies and the political/cultural meanings ascribed to every body. Fat Studies reminds us that all bodies are inscribed with the fears and hopes of the particular culture they reside in, and these emotions often are mislabeled as objective “facts” of health and biology. More importantly, perhaps, Fat Studies insists on the recognition that fat identity can be as fundamental and world-shaping as other identity constructs analyzed within the academy and represented in media.  

 

Please join other Fat Studies scholars for the PCA/ACA National Conference. Presenters must become members of the Popular Culture Association. Find more information on the conference and organization at https://pcaaca.org/conference.

 

 Please do not email your abstract to the Fat Studies Area Chair; you must submit your presentation via the PCA/ACA website. You can find instructions here: http://pcaaca.org. For individual papers, please submit a title and 100-word abstract. For themed paper sessions, each presenter must enter their own presentation, and the session chair should contact Lesleigh Owen ([email protected]) to assemble them into a panel. Please also contact Lesleigh for help in submitting roundtable discussions.

 

Fat Studies is amenable to papers and performances from academics, researchers, intellectuals, activists, and artists, in any field of study, and at any stage in their career.

 

All submissions are welcome, but please ensure your proposal fits within the academic and political scopes of Fat Studies. Please also be mindful that Fat Studies is a political project and not merely an umbrella term for all discussions of larger bodies. Additionally, submitters should rethink using words like “obesity” and “overweight” in their presentations unless they are used ironically, within quotes, or accompanied by a political analysis.

 

If you have any questions, please feel free to contact the PCA/ACA Fat Studies Chair, Lesleigh Owen ([email protected]).

 

 

2023 Conference Dates and Deadlines

15 Aug-22                                            2022 Conference Information Available on Website
15 Sept-22 Submissions Open 
07 Oct-22 Early Bird Registration Begins
20 Dec-22 Deadline for Paper Proposals
02 Jan-23 Early Bird Registration Ends
03 Jan-23 Regular Registration Begins
13 Jan-23 Preliminary Schedule Available
01 Feb-23 Regular Registration Ends for Presenters; Those Presenters Not Registered by the Date Will be Dropped From the Program; Late Registration Continues for Nonpresenters
17 Mar-23 Late Registration Ends for Nonpresenters
 5-8 April-23

conference in San ANTONIO, TX
 

All presenters must be current, paid members of the PCA and registered for the conference. Non-presenters who attend the full conference must also pay membership fees.

To attend the National Conference, members must pay the membership fee and the registration fee. Membership fees are non-refundable and non-transferable.

 

Submit a Paper Proposal for the 2023 PCA Conference: 

Submissions for paper proposals are now open. The submission deadline is December 20, 2022. Please be sure you read and understand all instructions, policies, and procedures before you submit your proposal. 

 

SUBMIT

 

 

 

Area chairs

Lesleigh Owen