Deadline for submissions: June 29, 2017
Full name/name of organization: MAPACA / Mid-Atlantic Popular & American Culture Association, War Studies Area
Contact email: redmanx999@gmail.com
2017 Conference of Mid-Atlantic Popular / American Culture Association (MAP/ACA)

MAPACA War Studies Area

Thursday, November 8 — Saturday, November 11, 2017
Sonesta Philadelphia Downtown
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

Proposals due to http://www.mapaca.net by June 29, 2017

War has been one of the few constants in human history, waged by nations, tribes, and other factions for numerous reasons—some valid and noble, some questionable. This area will feature papers that explore the ways that wars—declared and undeclared, just and unjust, sacred and profane, fictional and “real”—have impacted the social, economic, technological, ideological, and other aspects of culture.
Special Panel for the 2017 Conference

War Games: Exploring How and Why We Play At War

This panel will feature papers on how and why Americans are fascinated with war-themed “gaming,” considered broadly: from board games, strategy games, role-playing games and paintball / Airsoft to first-person shooter videogames Call of Duty and Overwatch. We invite papers from diverse perspectives to examine “war games” and their complex cultural implications.
The War Studies Area also welcomes general proposals including, but not limited to, the following topics for the 2017 conference:

War on television
War in prose fiction, poetry, or drama
Documentaries and war
Technology and war
War and gender
Aspects of journalistic coverage of war
The “War on Terror” and popular culture
War and popular music
Cultural productions of protest / anti-war movements
War and race
War and ethnicity
War in minority discourses
Marxist approaches to war
War and psychoanalysis
Trauma and war
Language and war
Oral histories of war experiences (both “combat” and “home front”)
War in science fiction or fantasy
Queer approaches to war
Visual art and war (including historical approaches)
War in video or role-playing games
Blogging / Social Networking / New Media and war
War as metaphor
War and museums
War memorials

Please submit 300 word proposals online at http://www.mapaca.net and select “War Studies” as the Area for consideration.

Proposals must be received by June 29, 2017 to be considered for the conference.

Information on the Mid-Atlantic Popular and American Culture Association (MAP/ACA) is available at http://www.mapaca.net; information on the 2017 Conference of the Mid-Atlantic Popular / American Culture Association is available at http://www.mapaca.net/conference.