CALL FOR PAPERS: 

Call for Papers: Vehicle Culture

PCA/ACA (2020 National Conference, April 15-18/ Philadelphia, PA) Popular Culture Association/American Culture Association

Humanity has always been on the move, and humans have always been attached to their means of transportation.  There is virtually no part of life that has not been shaped by the contemporary vehicles, public or private, by which people have gotten around.  Where we live and work and how and with whom we spend our leisure time would not be the same without our vehicles.  Our landscape has been reshaped and our built environment configured to accommodate them.   Poetry, literature, music, film, television, photography, and other arts have featured them.  Sometimes they have been celebrated and sometimes reviled, but we have never been indifferent to their importance.  Our vehicles have made—or are believed to have made—powerful statements about race, gender, ethnicity, wealth, politics, social class, and personality.  Vehicle culture—about planes, trains, automobiles, and whatever else has moved us—concerns how all of this has been, and is, happening.

The Popular Culture Association/American Culture Association invites abstracts for papers and panel proposals that explore the diverse intersections between vehicles, vehicular transportation, and culture. PCA/ACA is committed to serious academic scholarship while also encouraging the exploration of new subjects or new approaches to more familiar ones.  The national conference is an exciting gathering of a diverse group of scholars that is always a fascinating source of interesting ideas.