History of PCA and the Popular Culture Movement

Popular Culture Association Annual Conference, Boston, Wednesday-Saturday, June 2-5, 2021

The History of PCA Area is concerned with the history of the study of popular culture and American culture and especially the history of the institutions, entities, and activities associated with Ray Browne, Pat Browne, and the Bowling Green State University tradition of culture studies.  The Area seeks to encourage historical research and commentary on the Popular Culture Association, the American Culture Association, regional and international popular-culture organizations, areas within PCA and ACA and within the regional and international organizations, journals published by PCA-ACA and affiliated organizations, the Bowling Green State University Popular Press and its successors and publications, the annual PCA-ACA conference, conferences of regional and international affiliated organizations, other relevant conferences and organizations, BGSU degree programs and academic units involved with culture studies, the Ray and Pat Browne Popular Culture Library, the BGSU Music Library and Sound Recordings Archives, and the PCA-ACA Endowment.  The Area also welcomes biographical research on people who contributed to the development of culture studies or to the development of institutions, entities, or activities associated with the Bowling Green tradition.  Submissions might also focus on important books or other individual works in the development of culture studies, or on the historical development of particular ideas, schools of thought, or research traditions in culture studies.

Individual abstracts and complete panels of three to five people will be considered.  Please submit abstracts (150-250 words), papers, or proposals through the PCA website at pcaaca.org.  Please include name, affiliation, postal address, and e-mail address for every author or contributor, along with a title for each paper or presentation.  For panel submissions, please provide the same contributor information plus a title of the panel and a 50-word summary of the panel’s focus.

The deadline for submissions is Sunday, November 16, 2020.  Submissions will only be accepted through the PCA website.  Presenters at the conference must be current, paid-up members of (the national) PCA.  The conference registration fee is separate from the membership fee.  This Area does not accept presentations by undergraduate students.

Please state any special scheduling requests, but note that PCA may not be able to grant such requests and will do so only for compelling reasons.

Please send any inquiries to Gary Burns (Area Chair) (Professor Emeritus of Communication, Northern Illinois University), 215 Prospect St., DeKalb IL 60115, 815-758-0358, gburns@niu.edu.