Welcome to the Vehicle 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

 

Humanity has always been on the move, and humans have always been attached to their means of transportation.  There is virtually no part of life that has not been shaped by the contemporary vehicles, public or private, by which people have gotten around.  Where we live and work and how and with whom we spend our leisure time would not be the same without our vehicles.  Our landscape has been reshaped and our built environment configured to accommodate them.   Poetry, literature, music, film, television, photography, Internet sites, and other arts have featured them. They often stand at the forefront of significant technological change and have always been the source of competition, professional and amateur, real and virtual. Sometimes they have been celebrated and sometimes reviled, but we have never been indifferent to their importance.  Our vehicles have made—or are believed to have made—powerful statements about race, gender, ethnicity, wealth, politics, social class, and personality.  Vehicle culture—about ships, boats, planes, trains, automobiles, motorcycles, and whatever else has moved us—concerns how all of this has been, and is, happening.

 

We invite abstracts for papers and panel proposals that explore the diverse intersections between vehicles, vehicular transportation, and culture.  We are committed to serious academic scholarship while also encouraging the exploration of new subjects or new approaches to more familiar ones.  

 

Examples:

·       Social Perspectives of Vehicle Culture

·       Vehicle History and Business

·       Vehicle Culture across Industry

·       Vehicles and Their Humans

·       The Once and Future Automobile

 

Example Titles

·       A little dragon conquering the world: How the Korean automobile and gaming industry influence the global market

·       Demystifying the Fork-Tailed Devil: The Origins of 1950s Fins

·       Hands Off the Wheel: The Coming Case for Banning Human-Driven Vehicles

·       Pink Power: The Barbie Car and Female Automobility

·       You’ve Come a Long Way, Baby:  How the Winchesters’ 1967 Impala Escapes Supernatural’s Treatment of Female Characters

·       Vehicle Dwellers-Homeless or Liberated Anti-Materialists: History and Trends

·       Contemporary Women Artists on Flight: Embracing Feminism in Aerospace

 

Submission requirements:

We accept abstracts (maximum 250 words) submitted through the PCA website.

 

Finally, even if you’re not a car ‘nut’ or ‘gearhead’ encourage scholars who are to
submit. Your new area chair is trying to make this group as welcoming and diverse as
possible!

 

For questions, please contact the area chair:

Chris Swindell, Professor of Journalism
Marshall University
Huntington, West Virginia
304 541 0002

swindell@marshall.edu

 

 

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