PAC: SYMPOSIUM @ UAB 2024

Popular Arts Conference: 2 Day Symposium at the
University of Alabama, Birmingham – April 12-13, 2024
Location: Building 501(50112th St South) University of Alabama, Birmingham

RSVP on EventBrite (encouraged but not required for attendance!)

Friday, April 12

Time: 4:00 – 7:00 PM
Title: Art Lab Gallery Exhibition Reception
Description: Art exhibition in Art Lab that celebrates fan art, fan works, original character design, comics, and more!

Time: 4:30 – 4:45 PM
Title:  Popular Arts Conference Welcome Address
Presenter: Jillian Marie Browning  – Assistant Professor of Photography at University of Alabama, Birmingham

Time: 4:45  – 5:00 PM
Title: Star Trek: A Journey of Progress and Representation
Description: Exploring Star Trek’s progressive journey from its groundbreaking moments to its portrayal of LGBTQ+ characters, including Seven of Nine’s evolution into a symbol of strength and representation. Delve into the franchise’s impact on fan engagement, especially among women and the LGBTQ+ community, through the birth of fanfiction. Examine the highs and lows of Star Trek’s progressive ideals and their implications for the future of the franchise and its engagement with the queer audience.
Presenter: Suzanne Noble – UAB BFA Art Studio 

Time: 5:00 – 5:15 PM
Title: Mother: Twitter Fan Culture and the Parasocial Relationship
Description: Elaborating on the research gathered to create the piece “Mother” this presentation delves into the intricate dynamics of toxic Twitter fan culture, examining its impact on fostering parasocial relationships. Exploring the blurred boundaries between fandom devotion and harmful behavior, shedding light on the complexities of online interactions and their repercussions on mental health.
Presenter: Brandon Beasley – UAB BFA Photography 

Time: 5:15 – 6:15 PM
Title: A Deweyan perspective on Comics as Aesthetic Media
Description:  In this presentation, Dr Flowers will examine the role of comics and popular arts through a philosophical lens.
In his book, Art as Experience, philosopher John Dewey points out that the forms of art that have the most relevance to the contemporary public are not the great works contained in museums, but the pulp novel, the sensational movie, and the comic strip. Dewey’s observation is intended to point out to readers that these works are relevant to the public because they deal directly with the “vital activities” with which the public is engaged.
To this end, this talk will position the autobiographical, and semi-autobiographical graphic novel as engaging in a unique communication of experience through Dewey’s aesthetics, which can enable readers to understand the experience of individuals across social worlds.
This talk will conclude with the argument that  comic art can and should play a vital role in the communication of experience, through the unique ways that comics bring together the best of two forms of art to communicate experience. 
Presenter: Jonathan Flowers, PhD – Assistant Professor of Philosophy at California State University, Northridge
Moderator: Jillian Marie Browning -– Assistant Professor of Photography at University of Alabama, Birmingham

Saturday, April 13

Time: 9:00 AM – 7:00 PM, ongoing
Title: Art Lab Gallery Exhibition

Time: 10:00 – 10:30 AM
Title: Akira Toriyama’s enduring influence on anime/manga
Description: This talk will provide a retrospective on Akira Toriyama’s enduring effect on Anime, Manga, and video games. In doing so, this talk will demonstrate how Toriyama’s influence reshaped the aesthetic and narrative conventions of Anime and Manga and cemented tropes we take as essential to the medium.
Presenter: Jonathan Flowers, PhD –  Assistant Professor of Philosophy at California State University, Northridge

Time: 10:30 – 11:00 AM
Title: Wolverine’s Patriarchal Model of Hypermasculinity
Description: An exploration of the seemingly paradoxical aspects of Wolverine’s patriarchal model of masculinity. This analysis will investigate how depictions of Wolverine reinforce and glorify toxic masculine tropes like hypermasculinity and heroic male suffering, as well as how those tropes contribute to social mores that uphold kyriarchy.
Presenter:  Daniel Amrhein, Independent Scholar

Time:  11:00 – 11:30 AM
Title: Why Hair Matters: Negotiating the Politics of Black Hair in Pop Culture
Description: Through an examination of black characters like Misty Knight, Storm, and Black Lighting this presentation will dissect the representation of black hair within the realm of superheroes in comic books, film, and television series. Analyzing the depiction of black hair from both a sociological and historical perspective; focusing on the significance and symbolism of hairstyles of that time period. Moving chronologically through the decades, we will discuss the illustrative changes to their hair and the impact it has on the character with regard to the way they are perceived. 
Presenter: Jillian Marie Browning – UAB Assistant Professor, Photography

Time: 11:30 AM – 12:00 PM
Title:  BBC’s Merlin and Connecting through Costume 
Description: In this presentation, Lara White connects a medieval text with modern day through the use of clothing in character development. She examines descriptions of clothing in Chretien de Troyes “Erec and Enjde” and the costuming in BBC’s Merlin to reveal the complex role that clothing plays in Enide and Guinevere’s ascension to nobility.
Presenter: Laura White – Auburn University

[BREAK 12:00 – 1:00 PM]

Time: 1:00 PM – 2:00 PM
Title:   DIY Zines and Comics: Risograph Introduction + Demonstration
Description: In this presentation, Barrett will detail his research practice using a Risograph and will demonstrate its unique process. Participants will have an opportunity to try out the RISO and make their own art! Barrett’s practice explores Designer as Author and Designed Fiction as they relate to roadside culture and rural spaces. (Participation is free! Come learn a new technique!)
Presenter: Doug Barrett – UAB Associate Professor of Graphic Design 

Time:  2:00 PM  – 2:30 PM
Title: Thanks, I Did it Myself: Stepping Into the World of Self-Publishing 
Description: Navigating the world of indie and self-published comics can be very daunting when one is just  beginning and can feel as if you are jumping straight into unknown waters. In my proposed  presentation, I will be talking about the advantages and drawbacks of going indie, how to get  started, my upcoming Southern Gothic Fantasy indie comic, and my experiences in the world of  comics from making webcomics and zines to creating a limited comic series for NASA.
Presenter:  Ella Waddell – UAB BFA Graphic Design Alumni 

Time: 2:30 PM – 3:00 PM
Title: Queer Pirates and Historical Paintings
Description: A study of the subversive potential of fan-art within the Our Flag Means Death fandom in which fan-artists recreate historical paintings using characters from the show. This presentation posits that these transformative works act to both queer the canon of art history and subvert the hegemonic cis-hetero male gaze associated with traditional painting.
Presenter: Erin Gordon – Associate Director, Loans and Exhibitions at The Art Institute of Chicago

Time: 3:00 PM  – 3:30 PM
Title: Queer Portraiture and American Kitsch: from The Wizard of Oz to the Fantastic Four  
Description: Andrew Norris, Assistant Professor from Virginia State University, will explore how his love of  comic books and films serve as influences for his large scale oil paintings. Norris’ work is  primarily informed by his lived experience as a queer Appalachian, specifically the isolation he  felt growing up in East Tennessee and the escapism he found in pop-culture and fantasy worlds.  Norris often references imagery from The Wizard of Oz to evoke this isolation, as well as a way  to explore the journey of leaving Appalachia
Presenter: Andrew Norris –  Assistant Professor, Painting, Virginia State University

Time: 3:30 PM – 4:00PM
Title: From Medieval Manuscripts to Comic Books
Description: An exploration of the ways in which medieval manuscript practices found their way into comic books, and examination of how contemporary comic book artists telling medieval stories use manuscript representation to connect to a longer artistic tradition.
Presenter:  Dr Scott Nokes, PhD – Associate Professor of English, Troy University

[15 MIN BREAK]

Time: 4:15 – 5:00 PM
Title:  Black Panther: Wakanda Forever: The Gloom, the Doom, and the Reworking of Loss
Description: An analysis of Black Panther: Wakanda Forever and how it provides a look at the grief and loss process from the perspective of a community that has experienced a major loss together.
Presenter: Jillian Marie Browning –  UAB Assistant Professor, Photography, and Tasha Cherry, PhD, LMHC (The Healing Body Method)

Time: 5:00 – 5:30 PM
Title: “On the Hell Planet”: Approaches to the Unspeakable in Graphic Novels
Description: A discussion of how various comics handle difficult subject matter, such as violence and trauma, using Persepolis and Maus primary lenses.
Presenter: Anamaria Santiago –  Instructor, UAB Department of English

Time:  5:30 PM – 6:30 PM
Title: The Mad Scientist and Public Anxieties about Pure Science
Description: I explore variations of the mad scientist trope in pop culture, arguing that it reflects our fears and anxieties about the perils of “pure” science, i.e., science for science’s sake, value-free science, or science pursued without consideration of the larger social implications and consequences. 
Presenter: Matthew J. Brown, PhD – Professor, Director of Center for Dewey Studies at Southern Illinois University Carbondale

Time:  6:30 – 6:45 PM
Title:  Popular Arts Conference Closing Address
Presenter: Jillian Marie Browning  – Assistant Professor of Photography at University of Alabama, Birmingham

This symposium is supported by the Alabama Humanities Alliance grant.

The Popular Arts Conference (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, manga, graphic novels, anime, gaming, etc. PAC presentations are peer reviewed, based in scholarly research.

The mission of PAC is to promote scholarship on popular culture and to encourage the engagement between scholars and fans in order to deepen our understanding of comics and the other popular arts.

Currently, the conference takes place annually in Atlanta, GA at DragonCon, which is billed as “the largest multi-media, popular culture convention focusing on science fiction and fantasy, gaming, comics, literature, art, music, and film in the universe!”

PAC is formerly known as the Comics and Popular Arts Conference or CPAC. We have changed our name to better represent the breadth of our work as well as to avoid confusion with groups and events with similar names or acronyms. While comics scholarship continues to be an exciting part of each year’s conference, we believe that this change better represents the diverse range of scholarly topics and approaches for which our Conference is known.

PAC is also supported by the Center for Dewey Studies at Southern Illinois University.

PAC Organizing Committee