Welcome to the Religion and 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 Religion and Culture area of the PCA hosts presentations that explore the intersections of religion and popular culture and/or religion in “American” culture. “Religion” here is broadly defined to include official, vernacular, explicit and implicit forms, sacred texts and spaces, practices and performances, identities, materials and more.

The area is open to scholarship on any religious tradition or historical era.

We look forward to informed discussion of Religion and Popular culture from a variety of perspectives, including presentations that enable participants to think enthusiastically and critically about our topic and what we mean by the categories we employ.

For example, we seek presentations that investigate:

·       Religion as it relates with current events and pressing issues (e.g. racial, gender, and other social justice issues, Covid-19 and other challenges to public and private health, local and planetary environmental challenges, etc.)

·       Particular ways “religion” inhabits or informs products of popular or American culture (e.g., literature, film, television, social media, news, comedy, music, fashion, issues, trends, politics, activism, social policy, and so forth)

·       How particular religions and/or religious people reject, appropriate and otherwise interact with popular or American culture and its products

·       How aspects of popular or American culture reject, appropriate and otherwise interact with religion and its products

You are invited to propose individual papers, a full panel, or a roundtable discussion. Presentations may include “reports from the field.” Your abstract should be between 300 and 500 words and carefully proofread. Please keep in mind your abstract will be in the online program. Submissions will only be accepted through the PCA website. Individuals must be current, paid members to submit a proposal to the conference.

Please contact the area chair if you have any questions, want to sound out ideas, or propose an alternative presentation format. We look forward to your contributions to the field.

Pamela Detrixhe

Department of Religion

Central Michigan University

Mapaca4pam@gmail.com

Religion and Popular and/or American Culture PCA/MAPACA Facebook Page .

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