PCA/ACA Conference 2007

Organizer: Popular Culture Association & American Culture Association
Location: Copley Marriott, Boston, MA
Date: April 4 - 7, 2007

Panels attended:

030 Film Adaptation II: Pop Cultural/Film Adaptation, April 4, 2:30-4:00pm
-Wes Anderson vs. JD Salinger in Film Adaptation
-The Coen Brothers
-The Da Vinci Code: Novel into Film: New Popular Gospel
-Twenty Pages Left and Can't Wait: The Young Adult Novel as Adaptation

087 Conspiracy Theories & Claims for the Paranormal I: Representations of the Paranormal & the Pseudoscience, April 5, 8:00-9:30am
-The Trappings of Science: CSI and Ghost Hunters
-Stranger than Fiction: Photographic Representations of Haunted Houses
-An Anarchist's Miracle: The Anti-Empirical Aesthetics of Conspiracies and the Paranormal

214 Professional Placement II: Thou Shalt NOT - Tips on Successful Presentations, April 5, 12:30-2:00pm
-Presentations & Panel discussion

324 Film & History IV: USA - Contemporary Perspectives, April 5, 6:30-8:00pm
-ABC's Path to 9/11 and the American Monomyth
-Cellular Phones and the New Narrative Immediacy

443 Libraries, Archives, & Popular Culture Research I: Popular Images of Libraries & Librarians, April 6, 10:00-11:30pm
-Hipster Librarians: The Changing Portrayal of Librarians in Popular Culture
-Hidden & Forbidden: Fear and Trembling in the Archives
-Demise and Salvation in a Culture of Fear: An Analysis of the Role of the Library in the Motion Picture Se7en

489 Libraries, Archives, & Popular Culture Research II: Wikipedia & YouTube, April 6, 12:30-2:00pm
-Reference Librarians and Wikipedia
-Wikipedia: The Collective Wisdom of Individual Ignorance
-Is YouTube an Archive, Library, Both, Or None of the Above? (my presentation)
-Internet Memes, YouTube, and Guerilla Library Video

620 Journalism & Media Culture I, April 6, 6:30-8:00pm
-Deconstructing "Post-9/11" Television Drama: The Evolution of Meaning (K's presentation)
-Breaking News: A Comparison of the Television Coverage of the Kennedy Assassination and 9/11 Terrorist Attacks
-Scandal, Then and Now: 18th-Century Britain and 21st-Century America
-Beyond Infotainment: From South Park to Citizenship in the Age of Pop Politics

635 Medieval Popular Culture IV: Special Session: Sword Fighting, April 6, 8:15-9:45pm
-"More Pursuit than study...": Fencing Masters and The Princess Bride
-Viking-Age Combat: Contrasting Hollywood with Historical Techniques

678 Libraries, Archives, & Popular Culture Research III: Community & Aesthetics, April 7, 8:00-9:30am
-The Mysterious Books: Books as Objects of Obsessions & Passion @ Your Library
-The Archivist and Connoisseurship
-The Library as "Third Place" in Academe: Fulfilling a Need for Community in the Digital Age
-Archiving the Collection: The Aesthetics of Space and Public Cultural Collections in the Photography of Candida Hoefer

690 The World Wars in Popular Culture IV: Iconic Images of World War II Revisited, April 7, 10:00-11:30am
-Negroes' Number-One Hero: Doris Miller and Pearl Harbor in American Cultural Memory
-Wonder Women Fetishes and Fantasies: The Image of the Patriotic Female during World War II
-Post-Vietnam Influence on Re-Telling the Experiences of the "Good War"
-On the Front Li(n)es: The World War II Disney Propaganda Cartoons from a Post-9/11 Perspective

699 Eros, Pornography, & Popular Culture II, April 7, 10:00-11:30am
-Gestures, Forms, and Shadows of Sex: Pornography as Myth
-The Rhetoric of Self in Porn Queen Narratives
-Porn Star(ter): Sex, Sympathy, and Success in Jenna Jameson's E! True Hollywood Story
-Do You Wish to Direct Me?: Lynda Benglis' Video Art

738 Ecology & Culture III, April 7, 12:30-2:00pm
-Radiation as a Cultural Talisman in Cold War Popular Culture
-Giving Voice to the Voiceless: A Journalist Writes Environmental Novels
-The PushMePullYou Effect: Attraction and Fear of Wild Animals in U.S. Culture
-Saving the Boys: Ernest Thompson Seton's Wild Animal Stories

756 Science Fiction & Fantasy XXV: Doctor Who III: Just Who IS This Guy, Anyway? Part II, April 7, 12:30-2:00pm
-Changing Tracks Without Derailing: The Difficulties Associated with Regenerating the Doctor
-Bringing the Doctor into the Human Race: Doctor Who's Ambiguous Hero

Comments:
All in all, it was a great conference. We had a fantastic time. Good ol' nerdy fun. This was the first academic conference I've ever been to and my first presentation. From what we heard from everyone, the ACA/PCA conference is the most fun, laid-back academic conference. Many of the others tend to be a bit dry, stuffy and challenging (if you're presenting). And this one is so huge with so many different subject areas and panels. Both of us had successful presentations and a really good experience so we will definitely submit papers for next years conference which takes place in San Francisco. Plus, there's a Paper Sales table at the Book Exhibit Room where they sell copies of some of the papers presented for a $1 a piece. Any presenter who feels compelled, can donate 25 copies to the table. The proceeds go towards the Endowment fund to help people travel to the conference. The last time I checked, there were only 4 copies left of the 25 I donated, so that's cool.