The annual conference of the Popular Culture Association (PCA) brings together scholars whose research involves a very wide range of topics across many different subject areas – “adolescence”, “animation”, “fan culture & theory”, “science fiction and fantasy”, “visual culture”, and literally dozens more. The 2019 Annual Conference will be held in Washington, DC, from April 17 to April 20, and, as in many previous years, Japanese animation and comics are covered in a number of presentations, including in two dedicated sessions. Taken together, these talks can be seen as a very good survey of the current state of English-language anime and manga studies – the topics that scholars are interested in exploring, the approaches they are taking, and the specific titles they are interested in.
PCA National Conference
April 17-20, 2019
Marriott Wardman Park Hotel
Washington, DC
Thursday, April 18:
9-45 a.m. – 11:30 a.m.
Animation VI: Commercialism, Consumerism, and Fan Aspects of Animation
– Anime Fandom in Convergence Culture: Gratifications of Anime Fan Production
Erika Junhui Yi
Mythology in Contemporary Culture I: The Epic Present: Contemporary Revisionings of Homeric Myth
– From Mythological Figures to Anime’s Characters: Girls and Women in Ulysses 31 (Jean Chalopin and Nina Wolmark, 1982)
Caroline Eades (University of Maryland, College Park)
11:30 a.m. – 1:00 p.m.
Fan Culture & Theory Negotiating (Fandom) Identity
– Transnational FANac: Examining fan practices among anime and manga fans outside of Japan
June Madeley (University of New Brunswick)
3:00 p.m. – 4:30 p.m
Cultural Adaptation II: Shakespeare & Austen
– Anime’s Idea of Theater: Romeo X Juliet
Savannah Lynn Jensen
Friday, April 19
9:45 a.m. – 11:15 a.m.
Ideographs, Podcasts, Anime, and Kid Vid: Shaping Popular Understanding of American Law and Culture
– Persona and the Poké Ball: Challenging anthropocentric rights in the media mix of Pokémon Black and White
Dale Mitchell
11:30 a.m. – 1:00 p.m.
Mythology in Contemporary Culture V: Persephone Then and Now
– Abduction through Anime: The Changing Faces of Demeter, Persephone and Hades
Maureen Margaret Farrell (Johnson & Wales University)
1:15 p.m. – 2:45 p.m.
Asian Popular Culture II – Manga: Japan
Session chair: Wendy Goldberg (The University of Mississippi)
– Communicating Joy and Sorrow through Sounds: Giongo, Gitaigo, Sound, and Memory in Sweetness and Lightning
Kay Krystal Clopton (The Ohio State University)
– Manga and Religious Violence in Japan’s Heisei Period (1989-2019)
Marc Yamada (Brigham Young University)
– Reclaiming Sakura: Examining Tropes, Gender Stereotypes, and the Progression of Female Narratives in Popular Shonen Anime/Manga
Amy Lynn Williamson
– Mushi-Shi and Body Horror
Wendy Goldberg
Saturday, April 20
8:10 a.m. – 9:30 a.m.
Asian Popular Culture VI – Anime: Japan
Session chair: Wendy Goldberg
– Out of Time: An Examination of Time Travel in Stein’s Gate, The Girl Who Leapt Through Time, and Mirai of the Future
Angela M. Drummond-Mathews
– Anime’s Media Mix in First Gundam: Different Narratives in Television, Film, Novels, and Comics
William Ashbaugh (SUNY Oneonta)
– Pedagogy as Drama: A Burkean Reading of Anime in the Classroom
Brent Allison (University of North Georgia)