Welcome to the Punk Culture 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 constellation of art, artists, and cultures collectively known as punk rock has long positioned itself in opposition to what it views as problematic ‘mainstream’ positions, politics, and aesthetics. Be these issues of race, gender, sexuality, economics and class, environment, police and other repressive state apparatuses, punks have long provided a legion of examples of critiques and attempts at positive change. How successful this positioning has been is, of course, up for debate. But at a time when political discussion and available options leave so much to be desired, and pressing social issues seem most desperate, perhaps we can look to punk for both its success and failures in order to learn ways we might move forward.

 

As with most so-called ‘sub’ and ‘counter’ cultures, punk rock is most often understood by scholars as either another available social safety valve or a legitimate form of resistance. But must it be one or the other of these? What is it about punk that continues to be relevant (or not)? What movements, and in what capacities, have punks been participating in for political, social, and/or cultural change? Can one’s chosen lifestyle or cultural scene itself be a form of resistance to mainstream norms? How might participants and adherents to the culture differ from scholars in interpretation and/or experience? What lessons learned in punk rock (e.g. anti-racists struggle against neo-Nazis in the scene, Pussy Riot's public anti-Putin performances) might be applied to larger social struggles now? How has it happened that members of extreme groups across the political spectrum from Antifa to the Proud Boys claim punk roots? Does punk offer any solutions, recommendations, or vehicles for change? Must aesthetic resistance necessarily connect directly to material change in order to be considered effective?

 

Papers exploring these and other pressing questions regarding the past, present, and possible futures of punk cultures are encouraged. Please submit abstracts through the PCA website.

 

If you have inquiries, please contact the area chair:

Andrew Wood

andrew.wood31@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