The Popular Culture Association and American Culture Associations have issued a series of calls for papers including the following:

Call for Papers: Science Fiction and Fantasy

Area: The Works of Joss Whedon National PCA/ACA & Southwest/Texas Popular Culture and American Culture Associations Joint Conference, April 20-23, 2011, San Antonio, TX

Proposal submission deadline: December 15, 2010

Conference hotel: Marriott Rivercenter San Antonio, 101 Bowie Street, San Antonio, Texas 78205 USA
Phone: 1-210-223-1000

Special Call For Papers: The Works of Joss Whedon, SW/TX PCA/ACA (12/15/10; 4/20-23/11)

Join us at the 2011 Southwest/Texas Popular Culture/American Culture Association 32nd Annual Conference to be held in conjunction with the National PCA/ACA conference!

This is a special CFP on the works of Joss Whedon, including: Dollhouse, Dr. Horrible’s Sing-along Blog, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Angel, Firefly, Serenity, comics (Buffy season 8, Astonishing X-Men, Runaways, Spike, Angel, Fray, Sugarshock), and Cabin in the Woods.

We especially encourage presentations on:
• Cabin in the Woods
• Dollhouse
• Dr. Horrible’s Sing-along Blog
• Genre transformations: Buffy and Angel’s continuations and transformations into comics (Buffy season 8/Angel: After the Fall) or Firefly’s transformation into Serenity, etc.
• Whedon’s work on Astonishing X-Men, Runaways, Fray, and/or Tales of the Vampires/Tales of the Slayers
• The construction of place and space
• The intersections of memory, identity, and consciousness
• Socioeconomic class
• Sexuality & gender performance
• Race & ethnicity
• Teaching Joss Whedon’s work
• The influence and styles of writers from the “Whedon school of television writing,” such as Jane Espenson, David Greenwalt, Tim Minear, Marti Noxon, etc. All Whedonverse topics will be considered. Please be sure to check out the essays published in Slayage: the Online Journal of Buffy Studies as well as the multiple publications on Whedon’s work prior to submitting. Familiarity with the field is expected.

Deadline for proposal submissions: December 15, 2010. Earlier proposals are welcomed and will be responded to with all due haste. The registration deadline is December 15, 2010. All participants must register by that date or will not be permitted to present or appear in the program.

Please send (preferably electronic) queries, 250 word paper proposals, and 500 word panel proposals to both Alyson Buckman (ç) AND Tamy Burnett (tamy.burnett@gmail.com). Include full contact info (name, institutional affiliation if any, snail mail address, phone and fax numbers, and e-mail) for all participants, working titles for proposals, as well as current curriculum vitae. Snail mail contact info (if preferred):

Alyson Buckman, PhD
Department of Humanities and Religious Studies
6000 J St.
California State University, Sacramento
Sacramento, CA 95819-6083
916-278-5335

Tamy Burnett
Department of English
202 Andrews Hall
University of Nebraska-Lincoln
Lincoln, NE 68588-0333
402-310-4972

For more details on the conference, please visit the Southwest/Texas Popular Culture/American Culture Association or the Science Fiction and Fantasy Area Facebook page.

Whedonverse proposals should be submitted solely to the addresses above (abuckman@saclink.csus.edu and tamy.burnett@gmail.com). Other Science Fiction and Fantasy proposals should go to Ximena Gallardo (ximena_gallardo_c@yahoo.com). Register early for discounted cost and to reserve space at the conference hotel as discounted rooms fill quickly.