PopMeC is arecently foundedacademic collective interested in investigating the articulation of the numerousand heterogeneousrepresentations which have been constructing images of the US. Ourresearchdelves into how the US—their history, society, and diverse cultures—have been represented in popular media and cultural creations. Thanks to thepervasiveness of popular culturein everyday life, its products embodya fundamental driving force inforging the collective imaginaryof both national and foreign publics. The timely construction, consolidation, and intrinsic political potential of popular representations—myths, symbols, images, and signs—has undeniably facilitatedthe shapingofidentities, discourses,and communities. The diversity and peculiarities of the American society can thereforebe traced through the analysis of popular culture and multimodal cultural expressions,conveyed by means such as film, comics and graphic novels, TV and web series, videogames, books, and whatnot.Our chosen channel to directly share research is the academic blog popmec.hypotheses.org, part of our PopMeC research project based @ Instituto Franklin–UAH (Alcalá de Henares), the leading Spanish institution in North American Studies.

PopMeC aims at providing a collaborative, engaging, and fairenvironment for any interested scholar, promoting the sharing of knowledge, experience, and ideas across disciplines and thematic fields. We’re also working to fostera stimulatingspace for earlycareer researchers and postgraduate students in North American studies, thus we’ll warmly welcome their proposals.The conferencewill approach popular media and cultureproducts—as well as their publics and reception—from an intersectional, multidisciplinary standpoint and a diverse range of perspectives. We’re looking for engaging, fresh, interesting papers acknowledging and exploring a variety ofimages and narratives, their configurations and aims, as well as examining the intersectional connections between identities, politics, and history,traceable in and across cultural products.

We welcome proposals for 20 min individual papers or panels constituted of three papers, on topics including (but not limited to):

• the representation of specific ethnic / religious / gender / etc. groups in the US popular media and culture (including mainstream, alternative, and self-representations)
• the articulation of American national ethos, myths, symbolsandheroes
• public history and the representation of US history for the non-specialized public
• the reception of popular culture productsand their publics
• comparative studies of contrasting / similar representations
• the US society as represented through humor, caricature,and satire
• deconstruction of national storytelling and stereotyped narratives

Please, sendyour proposal by April 5, 2020 to popmec.call@gmail.com attaching yourabstract (200-250 words), inclusive ofa short bio (100-120words), name, affiliation, and email contact in a single file. All proposals (unless differently specified by the author) will be considered for both presentation in the conference and publication on the academic blog. Feel free to check our author guidelines pageand to contact us for further information. The languages of the conference willbe English and Spanish. Nonetheless, we strongly recom-mend limitingthe use of Spanish coherently with your chosen topic.

Registration fee:

• Full 45€ for waged scholars
• Reduced 15€ for unwaged scholars (e.g. postgraduate students, independent researchers)
  [Coffee breaks and light lunch will be provided]

Key dates:

• April 5 deadline for proposals
• April 14notificationof acceptationand opening of registration
  [We plan on doing a first round of evaluations by March 8 so that if your proposalneeds a little retouching, we let you know and you can still resubmit it!]

Further details on keynote speakers, venueand registration will be provided shortly.

Organizing committee@ Instituto Franklin–UAH:

• Daniel Bustillo
• Carlos Herrero
• Anna Marta Marini
• Joaquín Saravia