The 2019 Edmonton Comics and Entertainment Expo will be held on September 20-22, 2019 at the Edmonton Expo Centre. The Expo’s academic track is a unique opportunity to engage the public with scientific research and scholarly work in a culturally and academically accessible way. The academic track talks are 45 minutes long (30 minutes for the presentation plus 15 minutes for Q&A) and are dedicated to cutting edge research and the linkages between it and pop-culture.

A non-exhaustive list of possible topics includes:

• Epidemiological outbreaks in sci-fi and real life
• Exobiology and non-carbon based life forms
• Aspects of Space exploration (engineering and mining, astronomy, kinesiology, etc.)
• Technology and new media’s representation in pop-culture
• Reflections of socio-political issues in pop-culture contents
• History of pop-culture contents and products
• Fan communities and fan practices
• Pop-culture creators and their work
• and many more.

The academic track has four sub-streams. Please review these carefully and consider applying for the one most fitting your topic:

Cutting-Edge Research Talk – talk that is directly linked to your academic work to date and a specific genre, pop-culture content, or phenomenon. Past examples include: the representation of revenge in Hollywood films and real-life, the brain functions of competitive scrabble players, the gender assignment of Molluscs and Hutts (from the Star Wars Universe), Feminist thought and witchcraft, and the likes of it.

The Social Lab – conducting research that has to do with pop-culture or with the Expo’s patrons? Need participants for your research? The Edmonton Comics and Entertainment Expo also accept requests to reserve space for research purposes with the convention’s patrons (subject to the researchers obtaining ethical approval by their university’s board of ethics and an internal Expo review process). Past examples for research conducted at the expo include Surveying gamers about their news sources, media reception studies, fan-culture focus groups, gamification experiments, ESL acquisition research, etc. Requests for sessions of between 45 minutes to 2 hours can be submitted using the same web-form. Successful applicants will be contacted with further information by the coordinators as early as possible to set up the required logistics in advance.

Scholarly Talk – talks that are related to your discipline but not directly to your research. Past examples include Professional wrestling as a media product, Comic-books circulation studies, Zombie genre content and the human condition, philosophy of authenticity and alien food, global warming in sci-fi novels, and so on.

Undergrads track – Do you have a student who’s not a professional scholar (yet), but had a great term paper about pop culture that got an A+? Help them Start their public speaking career here and let them know of the Expo’s academic track. In the past undergraduate students discussed gaming ethics, Gender issues in TV dramas, Retconning, and continuity in comic book narratives, classic drama and its modern adaptations and more.

To submit your proposals, please go to
https://www.edmontonexpo.com/en/apply/panel-submission.html

AND

Send an up to 500 words abstract to o.berenstein@ucalgary.ca

Submission deadline: August 10, 2019

Accepted presenters will receive a free day pass to the convention for the day of their talk valued.

Please contact Ofer Berenstein (o.berenstein@ucalgary.ca), the academic track coordinator, with any question you might have.

Ofer Berenstein, Ph.D.
Academic Track Liaison
The Edmonton Comic and Entertainment Expo