Mystery and Detective Fiction Area, Popular Culture Association (Popular Culture Association 2025 National Conference )
New Orleans, LA
Organization: PCA/ACA
Event: Popular Culture Association 2025 National Conference
The Mystery & Detective Fiction Area of the Popular Culture Association invites proposals for the 2025 annual conference April 16-19, 2025 in New Orleans, Louisiana.
We seek proposals from researchers, academics, graduate students, and independent scholars for scholarly discussions on all aspects and periods of mystery and detective fiction. Interdisciplinary approaches are strongly encouraged, including cultural studies, visual arts, media studies, audience reception and fan studies.
A wide range of topics and approaches on mystery and detective fiction writers and works ranging from classic to contemporary are welcome but we ask that proposals extend existing scholarship in new directions and avoid plot summary or review. Proposals should have a clear and focused argument that can be developed adequately in a 15-minute presentation.
Proposals on the following topics are suggested for the 2025 conference:
? Literary or textual analysis of specific authors and/or time periods, including storytelling styles, stock characters, and tropes relevant to the genre
? Regional mystery and detective fiction set in or around New Orleans, Louisiana and the Gulf coast
? Subgenres (e.g., hardboiled detective fiction, eco-detective fiction, neo-noir etc.)
**We are hoping to have a panel devoted to cozy mystery and detective fiction, so please think about submitting if you are a fan**
? Generic hybridity and the repurposing and relocation of crime fiction within other genres (e.g., horror, sci-fi, romance, dystopia, Westerns)
? Authors from or texts featuring characters identifying with marginalized or historically excluded communities, (e.g., Black, Latinx, Asian, Indigenous/Native American, LGBTQ+) and the literary, social or political impacts within the genre
? Transnational and global crime fiction, and the ways in which mystery and detective fiction is produced, received or reimagined across national boundaries
? Adaptation and transmedial analysis of mystery and detective fiction in film, television, theatre, computer games, etc.
? Fan and mystery community culture (e.g., conferences, associations, forums, bookstores, author events, fandoms)
Special Topics
Fictional Truths and Truthful Fictions
Co-hosted by the Mystery & Detective Fiction and True Crime Areas, this special session will feature papers analyzing the mutual influence and generic exchange between true crime and crime fiction texts (e.g., televisual or literary adaptations of real-life crimes or the use of mystery archetypes and tropes in true crime texts).
Please indicate in your proposal if you would like your paper to be considered for this panel. Papers that are not accepted for this special session will still be considered for regular panels.
The Body in the Library: Special Collections Research Round Table
This roundtable session will feature researchers, librarians and archivists discussing strategies and best practices for conducting research about mystery and detective fiction authors in libraries, digital repositories, private collections, archives and other special collections.
Killing it in the Classroom: Teaching Mystery and Detective Fiction Round Table
This roundtable session will feature a variety of veteran teaching faculty discussing their experiences developing and delivering crime fiction courses at the college, university and postgraduate levels. The session will include examples of course outlines, sample evaluations and reading lists.
Submission Process
Please submit your 100- to 250-word abstract outlining both your object(s) of analysis and your primary argument through the PCA conference’s submission portal.
If you are a first-time presenter in our division, please identify yourself with a note after your abstract. First-time presenters in Mystery & Detective Fiction are eligible for the Earl Bargainnier Award.
To propose a panel, please submit individual presentations, then email both area co-chairs with a request to be considered as a panel. The PCA/ACA requires a minimum of four papers per panel. In your email, name all participants and briefly explain the thematic link between your papers.
To participate in a roundtable, please email both area co-chairs to indicate which roundtable session you would like to be considered for and briefly explain how your professional expertise or experiences would align with the roundtable’s focus and topic.
About Us
The Mystery & Detective Fiction Area of PCA/ACA is dedicated to recognizing and promoting the scholarly study of all aspects of mystery and detective fiction. The M&D Fiction area offers an inclusive community for new and returning scholars.
Please send all inquiries to the area co-chairs:
Claire Meldrum, Conestoga College cmeldrum@conestogac.on.ca
Marla Harris mhcrocombe@gmail.com
Marla Harris