Call for Papers

Popular Culture Association

 Atlanta  April 8-11, 2026

Disasters and Apocalyptic Culture

Submission Deadline: November 30, 2025

 

Scope of the paper topics accepted under this area:

Disasters and Apocalyptic Culture offers a forum for these questions and critical approaches surrounding the culture of disasters, catastrophes, accidents, and apocalypses in global art, literature, media, film, and popular culture. Disasters and Apocalyptic Culture addresses broader disciplinary topics and innovative intersections of humanities, musicology, social science, literature, film, visual art, psychology, game studies, material culture, media studies, ecology, and information technology.

 

Interested individuals are asked to submit an abstract of no more than 250 words (including presentation title) and complete contact information to https://pcaaca.org/conference . Submissions will only be accepted through the PCA website. Individuals must be current,  paid members to submit to the conference.

 

General Topics

• Helene 

• Genocide as disaster

• California Wildfires 

• Coronavirus Pandemic

• Katrina

• Disaster Fiction

• Rhetorical framing and disasters

• War as Disaster

• Eco Criticism, Eco Culture

• Teaching ecocriticism and disasters

• Natural Disasters

• Global Warming/Climate Change

• Politics and disasters

• Disaster capitalism

• Disasters and under-represented populations

• War Ecology

• Slow Violence

• Hyperobjects

• Depictions of disaster recovery

• Native Cultures and Eco-policies

• Apocalyptic TV and Film

• Zombie and Apocalyptic imaginaries

• Social Media and disasters

• Economics and disasters

• Doomsday preppers

• Time and temporalities of disasters

• Representations and narration of disaster

• Disasters and personal narratives

• Disaster aesthetics

• Disaster metaphors, concepts and symbolic forms

• Ethics and politics of disasters

• Disaster literature and art

• Notions of national identity through disaster representation

• Portrayal of suffering in news, digital culture, literature, and TV

• Celebrity humanitarianism and disaster engagement

• Distinctions between man-made and natural disasters

• Public, private, and nonprofit responses to disaster

 

 

Questions may be addressed to either area chair:

 

Robert Ficociello

Holy Family University Philadelphia, PA

disasterculture@yahoo.com

 

Robert Bell

University of North Carolina Asheville Asheville, NC

disasterculture@yahoo.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