Call for Papers
Proposals for papers and panels are now being accepted for the 39th annual SWPACA conference. One of the nation’s largest interdisciplinary academic conferences, SWPACA offers nearly 70 subject areas, each typically featuring multiple panels. For a full list of subject areas, area descriptions, and Area Chairs, please visit http://southwestpca.org/conference/call-for-papers/

Kurt Depner, Area Chair, Pedagogy & Popular Culture
Southwest Popular / American Culture Association (SWPACA)

39th Annual Conference, February 7-10, 2018
Hyatt Regency Hotel & Conference Center
Albuquerque, New Mexico
http://www.southwestpca.org
Proposal submission deadline: October 22, 2017

The Pedagogy and Popular Culture area requests proposals for paper presentations and panels on any topic involving successful or innovative approaches for teaching literature, media studies, film, cultural studies, history, television, rhetoric and composition, technical writing, technology, etc. We also welcome proposals that identify and discuss the existence or implication of specific pedagogical problems or issues, whether or not these advance any new methodologies. Proposals regarding using popular culture in the classroom are particularly encouraged.

Teachers from any type of school or curriculum are encouraged to submit proposals. Graduate students with teaching experience are particularly welcome. We also welcome innovative practices from independent scholars and secondary educators.

While we encourage and welcome all topics involving pedagogy and/or curriculum development, some suggestions for possible papers or panels are listed below:

Combining unusual disciplines in Writing Across the Curriculum courses
Utilizing new media technologies or Web 2.0 tools
Multimodal learning
Discussing the benefits and challenges of online teaching; best practice presentations are gleefully welcome!
Integrating popular television, films, novels, graphic novels, or music for meaningful classroom lesson planning
Teaching games and game theory
Utilizing social networking tools in the classroom
Using Wikis or Blogs in the classroom
Teaching with podcasts and videocasts
Editing family letters and/or journals in student projects
Promoting active learning by co-opting structures typically associated with webpages
Integrating service learning with traditional curricula
Constructing student projects as museum exhibits
Challenging standard pedagogical assumptions

All proposals must be submitted through the conference’s database at http://conference2018.southwestpca.org/

For details on using the submission database and on the application process in general, please see the Proposal Submission FAQs and Tips page at
http://southwestpca.org/conference/faqs-and-tips/proposal-submission-faqs-and-tips/

Individual proposals for 15 minute papers must include an abstract of approximately 200-500 words. Including a brief bio in the body of the proposal form is encouraged, but not required.

For information on how to submit a proposal for a roundtable or a multi-paper panel, please view the above FAQs and Tips page.

The deadline for submissions is October 22, 2017.
SWPACA offers monetary awards for the best graduate student papers in a variety of categories. Submissions of accepted, full papers are due December 1. For more information, visit http://southwestpca.org/conference/graduate-student-awards/

Registration and travel information for the conference is available at http://southwestpca.org/conference/registration/

In addition, please check out the organization’s peer-reviewed, scholarly journal, Dialogue: The Interdisciplinary Journal of Popular Culture and Pedagogy, at http://journaldialogue.org
If you have any questions about the Pedagogy & Popular Culture area, please contact me at:
Kurt Depner, Area Chair
kudepner@nmsu.edu OR
kdepner@dacc.nmsu.edu OR
thru Google Hangouts (mukor@msn.com)

We look forward to receiving your submissions.