Welcome to the Biographies community! We’re so happy you’re here and we want you take full advantage of the opportunities our new platform provides. Please read over the code of conduct so we can continue to ensure a safe and supportive space for all. Thank you for your dedication to the Popular Culture Association!

Call For Papers

The Biographies Area of the Popular Culture Association (PCA)  is soliciting papers for the 2026 conference that examine the connections between biography and popular culture. Papers and full panel presentations regarding any aspect of popular culture and biography are encouraged.

Potential topics might include:

– Biography and entertainment, art, music, theater
– Biography and film
– Biography and criminal justice
– Television programs about biography
– Biography and urban legends
– Biography and folklore
– Biography and literature
– Scholarly Biography
– Controversial Biography
– Psychoanalysis and Biography
– Historical Biography
– Political Biography
– Autobiography

Sessions are scheduled in 1½ hour slots, typically with four papers or speakers per standard session.  Presentations should not exceed 20 minutes. 

Below are some recent titles of presentations in the Biographies Area panels:

·      Sex, Drugs, and Rock-n-Roll: Celebrity Biography through the Lens of Autopsy

·      Will Rogers: American Folk Hero or Elitist Fraud

·      Manufacturing “Soupy Sales:” Biographical Insights in the Emergence of a Comic Entertainer

If interested in submitting for the conference, please submit the title and abstract of your presentation through the PCA website.  

Please direct any queries to the Biographies Area Chair:

Susie Skarl
Associate Professor/Urban Affairs Librarian
UNLV Libraries
Las Vegas, NV 89154
702-895-2141
susie.skarl@unlv.edu OR  susieskarl@gmail.com

Important Dates to Remember:

• Database opens for Submissions - Sept. 1, 2025
• Early Bird Registration Begins - Sept. 1, 2025
• Deadline for Paper Proposals - Nov. 30, 2025
• Travel Grant Applications Due - Dec. 15, 2025
• Early Bird Registration Ends for Presenters - Dec. 31, 2025
• Regular Registration Begins for Presenters - Jan. 1, 2026 
• Travel Grant Decisions / Notifications - Jan. 31, 2026
• Regular Registration Ends for Presenters - Jan. 31, 2026
• Late Registration Starts for Presenters - Feb. 1, 2026
• Preliminary Program draft available - Feb. 6, 2026

Those Presenters Not Registered by Feb. 15 Will be Dropped from the Program

CONFERENCE IN ATLANTA, GA - April 8-11, 2026