The Popular Arts Conference (PAC) invites submissions for our 19th Annual meeting in Atlanta, Georgia, September 3-7, 2026. Use the links above to register and submit your proposal.
PAC is an annual academic conference for the studies of the popular arts, including science/speculative fiction and fantasy literature, film, and other media; comic books and graphic novels; anime and manga; tabletop and video gaming; etc., presented to a mixed audience of scholars and fans. The mission of PAC is to promote scholarship on popular culture and to encourage engagement between scholars and fans in order to deepen our understanding of the popular arts. PAC presentations are peer reviewed, based on scholarly research.
Please submit a proposal that engages in substantial scholarly examinations of comic books/graphic novels, anime, manga, science/speculative fiction, fantasy, fandoms, or other parts of popular culture.
See more at our Call for Proposals.
PAC Organizing Committee
- Daniel Amrhein (Independent Scholar)
- Courtney Bliss (Marion Technical College)
- Matthew J. Brown (Southern Illinois University Carbondale) – Founder
- Jillian Marie Browning (University of Alabama, Birmingham)
- Johnathan Flowers (California State University, Northridge)
- Erin Gordon (Art Institute of Chicago)
- John Harris (Georgia Southern University)
- Kari Neely (Middle Tennessee State University)
- Richard Scott Nokes (Troy University) – Program Chair