CFP: Zombie Culture (SPCACA, 2015)

Call for Papers/Presentations: Zombie Culture

Southwest Popular Culture and American Culture Association 2015

http://southwestpca.org/

http://conference2015.southwestpca.org

Make plans to join the Southwest PCA/ACA for our 36th annual conference, February 11-14th

2015, at the Hyatt Regency Hotel and Conference Center in beautiful Albuquerque, New Mexico

Hyatt Regency Albuquerque

330 Tijeras NW

Albuquerque, New Mexico, USA 87102

Tel: +1 505 842 1234 or 888-421-1442

The area chair for Zombie Culture seeks papers and presentations on any aspect of the zombie in popular culture and history. It seems as though the world has gone “zombie crazy.” There are zombie walks, games on college campuses like “Humans Vs. Zombies,” zombie children’s books, zombie poetry, fiction, video games, zombie ammunition and guns, and zombie running contests. Almost anything can be “zombified” and society and fans all over the world are literally

“eating it up.” The zombie has come to represent the chaotic world we live in, and courses continue to pop up on college and university campuses all over the world. This is due in large part to the success of films like Night of the Living Dead, Zombie Flesh Eaters (Zombi 2), Dawn of the Dead, 28 Days Later, Shaun of the Dead, and most recently Warm Bodies, World War Z, and the television program The Walking Dead.

Any aspect of Zombie Culture will be given consideration. What is distinctively American (if anything) in the zombie in film, literature, and popular culture in general? How does the zombie influence American Culture in a way that resonates in our transmedia world?

Some topics to consider:

• Directors: George Romero, Lucio Fulci, Umberto Lenzi, Todd Sheets, Danny Boyle, Sam Rami, Peter Jackson, Amando de Ossorio…
• Specific zombie films: White Zombie, King of the Zombies, Dawn of the Dead, Tombs of the Blind Dead, Dead Alive, Evil Dead, Zombies on Broadway, World War Z…..
• Specific books/zombie literature: Zombie Bake Off, World War Z, Book of All Flesh, Case of CharlesDexter Ward…
• Zombie writers’ fiction and non-fiction: Stephen Graham Jones, H.P. Lovecraft, RobertKirkman, Steve Niles, Max Brooks, Matt Mogk, Jovanka Vuckovic, Stephen King…..
• The Walking Dead
• Zombie comics (any aspect: history, cultural impact, storytelling…)
• Zombies since 9/11
• Zombie children’s books
• Zombie running
• Fast vs. slow zombies
• Zombie gore
• Teaching the zombie (zombie pedagogy)
• Zombie cos-play
• Zombie brains-food
• Zombie video games
• Zombie ants
• Can a real zombie outbreak happen?
• The voodoo zombie-the historical roots of the zombie
• The Euro-zombie
• Nazi–zombies
• Viking zombies
• Marvel zombies
• What exactly is a zombie?
• Humans vs. zombies
• Zombies across the world (Ro-langs…)
• Zombies’ roots in cinema
• Are mummies/Frankenstein’s monster zombies?
• What does the rise in the zombie’s popularity tell us about society?

These are just a few of the topics that could be discussed.

Please submit your paper title and 100- to 300-word abstract by November 1, 2014, through our

database, which can be accessed at:

http://conference2015.southwestpca.org

Please note there are monetary awards for the best graduate student papers in a variety of

categories.

See http://southwestpca.org/conference/graduate-student-awards

The organization also has a new open access peer reviewed journal that encourages you to

submit your work.

See: Dialogue: The Interdisciplinary Journal of Popular Culture and Pedagogy

http://journaldialogue.org/

Area Chair: Rob Weiner

Humanities Librarian, Texas Tech University Library

rweiner5@sbcglobal.net

http://southwestpca.org/