Welcome to the Adaptations and Retellings 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

Adaptations and Retellings 2026

Adaptations and retellings, much like nostalgia, are deeply tied to the past. They confront the challenges of integrating past elements into the present and often engage with each other in this process.

Adaptation studies, initially focused on novel-to-film adaptations, now covers a broad range of art forms and media, including opera, video games, board games, theme park attractions, documentaries, TV series, social media, music, plays, dance, fanfiction, comics, mythology/folklore, sociopolitical issues, food, and clothing. This field also explores intertextuality, intermediality, influence, and audience engagement. If you have an idea for something you aren’t sure will fit or is too niche, please feel free to email either co-chair to ask!

Recent novels that adapt Classical figures, such as Natalie Haynes’s A Thousand Ships and Stone Blind, or Madeline Miller’s Song of Achilles and Circe demonstrate how the Classical tradition remains relevant by incorporating new perspectives and contexts. Many of these retellings focus on Classical women, highlighting their significance in contemporary narratives. These newer adaptations raise questions about addressing problematic legacies of Classical texts and what authors and readers might gain from re-engaging with Classical mythology. Audiences play a crucial role in shaping the significance of nostalgia in adaptations, influencing both the creation and reception of these works.

Stories retold can also alter the intent of original source materials, such as the recent focus on Hades and Persephone depicted as a loving, consensual couple, and painting Demeter as the overbearing parent (like Lore Olympus by Rachel Smythe or Neon Gods by Katee Roberts). Questions arise about how we have rationalized these discrepancies and deviances from a millenia old story and provide excellent fodder for speculation through the lens of adaptation studies.

Recent works we hope to see presentations about include: The Last of Us, Fallout,   Mean Girls, It Ends With Us, Bridgerton, Dungeons & Dragons, Super Mario Bros, SIX, Claire North's The Songs of Penelope trilogy, Jennifer Saint's Ariadne and Hera, Ali Smith Girl Meets Boy, Frankisstein: A Love Story by Jeanette Winterson, Kaikeyi by Vaishnavi Patel, The Witch's Heart by Genevieve Gornichec, Gods of Jade & Shadow by Silvia Moreno Garcia

We encourage papers, presentations, and panels that cover any of the following:

• The creation of artwork that responds to source material of any kind (transmedially or not), including ekphrasis and mimesis
• Adaptation as a creative process
• Multimodality and announced relationships to other texts/artworks
• (Interdisciplinary) collaboration and co-creation
• Influence, allusion, intertextuality, parody
• Technological adaptations
• Resisting nostalgia through adaptation
• Remakes and re-adaptations as nostalgic texts
• Nostalgic multiplicities (prequels, sequels, spinoffs, etc.)
• Historical and biographical narratives as adaptations

Example Titles:

“Depicting Diana: Treatments of the People’s Princess in The Crown and Spencer”

“Emma’s Men: Examining Masculinity in Adaptations of Emma”

“Austenland: The Modern Janeite’s Fantasy Come to Film”

“‘Our Hearts Are Paralysed’: The Subject of Romantic Love, Happily Ever After, and Fidelity to Jane Austen in Two Adaptations of Sanditon”

Re-visioning Jane Austen’s World: Netflix’s Persuasion and Kimberly Sullivan’s Dark Blue Waves

“Revisioning the Young Romantics: Percy and Mary Shelley and Lord Byron in Biography and Film”

All presenters must join the Popular Culture Association as members as well as pay a registration fee to attend the conference. These are separate fees that have been restructured to a tiered system taking into account that PCA members range from undergraduates to retirees, with salaries ranging from part-time, minimum wage to retiree pensions and social security.

Academics, independent scholars, graduate students, and undergraduate students are invited to submit.  For individual presentations, please submit a title and 150-200 word abstracts.Submissions will only be accepted through the PCA website.

For panels or themed session proposals, each presenter should enter their own proposal to the PCA website, but one presenter should contact either co-chair with the title of the panel and the names of the presenters. We are seeking 15-20 minute presentations.

Please address any questions or concerns to either co-chair:

Annie Bierman, McKendree University, anastasia.bierman@gmail.com

Jayme Novara, St.Charles Community College, jaynovara@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