CFP: Animals & Culture Area - NEPCA Virtual Fall Conference 2025

The 2025 Northeast Popular Culture Association (NEPCA) will host its annual conference this fall as a virtual conference from Thursday, October 9th, to Saturday, October 11th, 2025. Virtual sessions will take place via Zoom throughout the day on Thursday, Friday, and Saturday. Registration will open in mid-July.

NEPCA prides itself on holding conferences that emphasize sharing ideas in a non-competitive and supportive environment. We welcome proposals from graduate students, independent scholars, disciplinary professionals, junior faculty, and senior scholars. NEPCA conferences offer intimate and nurturing sessions in which new ideas and works-in-progress can be aired, as well as completed projects.

This area explores the complex and multifaceted intersections between animals, animal representations, society and popular culture. Animal symbolism has appeared in human culture since the earliest cave paintings, and features significantly throughout popular culture. In many cases, humans are more likely to interact with visual and material animals than actual animals their living counterparts. These mediated representations have been found to influence, not always positively, how living animals are perceived and treated. Interdisciplinary approaches are encouraged, and possible topics could include (but are not limited to):

· Animals as companions to humans

· Therapy animals

· Animals in literature, art and other media

· Wildlife genre and documentary

· Symbols and caricatures

· Celebrity animals and animal performers, including presentation on Facebook pages and YouTube channels

· Commodification of animals

· Animals in advertising, branding, and commercial franchises

· News coverage of animals and animal issues

· Animal photography

· Animal memorialization

If you would like to submit a paper for the “Animals & Culture” area, please see the relevant info below. Thank you!

The call will be open until July 15 by 5 pm. (EDT).

You can submit your proposal here.

Please direct questions about this call or any aspect of the "Animals and Culture" area of NEPCA's conference to the Area chair for Animals and Culture, Kimberly Poppiti at kpoppiti@sjny.edu