The Far West Popular Culture Association’s 33rd annual conference will be held remotely on February 20, 2021, from 8 a.m. to 7 p.m. Pacific Standard Time. If you are interested in presenting a paper or organizing a panel, please take a look at the Call for Papers.
Each year, the conference offers a platform for sharing ideas that help us rethink how what we read, hear, watch, play, and create can tell us more about ourselves and each other.
What can you present at the conference? Most presenters develop a traditional academic paper, whose results they summarize in a 15-minute talk. If you have a completed paper at the time of the conference, it will be published as part of the proceedings. We do not claim exclusive copyright on works published in the proceedings, so you are free to submit it to a journal as well. Some present their own creative work, ranging from creative non-fiction to poetry. Others participate in roundtable panels discussing an aspect of popular culture.
First held in 1988 in Las Vegas, the annual conference was the brainchild of Felicia Campbell, who helped to pioneer the study of popular culture. Until her passing in 2020, Campbell served as the executive director of the FWPCA and driving force behind the conference. She tasked her UNLV colleague David G. Schwartz with taking on the responsibility of executive director, and he strives to carry on in her spirit.
Conference registration will open in December. All-day registration for the conference, which includes annual dues to the Far West Popular Culture Association, is $35. To submit a paper or panel idea, please see the Call for Papers.
For more information, please contact Dave Schwartz at popularculture@unlv.edu.