POPULAR CULTURE ASSOCIATION 

2026 NATIONAL CONFERENCE 

RHETORIC, COMPOSITION AND POPULAR CULTURE AREA  

CALL FOR PROPOSALS: PAPERS OR PANELS  

For information on the Popular Culture Association as well as complete and current conference  details, see https://pcaaca.org  

Abstracts of papers and/or panel proposals dealing with any topics at the intersections of  rhetoric, composition, and popular culture are welcome for the 2026 PCA National Conference.  The mission of PCA is to promote the study of popular culture through the establishment and  promotion of conferences, publications, and discussion.  

Recent past sessions for the Rhetoric, Composition and Popular Culture Area have included  papers or panels titled:  

• Guilt By Design: Media's Rhetorical Construction of Guilt in the Casey Anthony Trial

• Using South Park to Teach Dialectical Rhetoric in the First Year Composition Classroom

• Mystery at Chaco Canyon and the Rhetoric of Forgetting

• The Un-Made Man: Rhetorics of Humiliation and Shame in Competitive Game Shows

• On Female Empowerment and Kairos in Game of Thrones

• Leonardo DiCaprio Saves the World: Using Celebrity in the Composition Classroom to Teach Climate Changes

• Fragments and Fanfiction: Building Democratic Learning Communities in First-Year Writing Classrooms

• Cancel Culture and the Redefining of Popularity as Disruptive Rhetorical Action

• Rhetoric for the Modern Audience: Comedy as a Vehicle for Social Change in Bo Burnham’s Inside

• Dangerous Rhetorics of Romance in “Paradise”: Masculinity, Femininity, and Dating on New Reality Television

• Strange Ethos: How the Smart but Strange Ethos of Fictional Scientists Engenders Mistrust

• Mind Crafted: Teaching Storytelling in 3D with Multimodal Composition and Virtual Reality

Submissions must include:  

• a title  

• an abstract of no more than 350 words  

• a short 50-word bio about yourself  

Submissions missing any of the above elements will be returned. Please review your name,  affiliation, title and abstract for correct spelling and grammar.  

If you wish to propose a full panel with multiple papers and presenters: each presenter must  submit their individual paper to the online system, with a note in the abstract that it is part of a  panel, and listing the names of all co-panelists. Then, the organizer should email the area chair  stating intent to present on a panel, with names of all panelists included.  

If you wish to propose a roundtable, screening, or other presentation, email the area chair directly  before submitting to the database.  

All presenters must be members of the PCA/ACA and must register for the conference.  

Questions? Please contact: kjhorto1@asu.edu  

Kathryn Horton, MA  

Area Chair for Rhetoric, Composition and Popular Culture at the PCA/ACA