REH at the PCA/ACA National Conference in Chicago Essay

Seems like Chicago is the place to be in April.

In addition to the Windy City Pulp and Paper Convention, the Popular Culture Association/American Culture Association is holding its national conference April 16th through 19th at the Marriott Chicago Downtown Magnificent Mile Hotel. For those of you not familiar with PCA/ACA, here is their mission statement:

The mission of the Popular Culture Association/American Culture Association is to promote the study of popular culture throughout the world through the establishment and promotion of conferences, publications, and discussion. Aiding the PCA/ACA in this goal is the PCA/ACA Endowment which offers support for scholars and scholarship.The PCA/ACA actively tries to identify and recruit new areas of scholarly exploration and to be open to new and innovative ideas. PCA/ACA is both inter-disciplinary and multi-disciplinary.

Finally, the PCA/ACA believes all scholars should be treated with dignity and respect.

You can find the complete details pertaining to the conference here.  Below is a list of topics of interest to Howard and fantasy fans, courtesy of Jeffrey Shanks:

Pulp Studies I: Weird Tales: The Unique MagazineWeird Modernism: Literary Modernism in the First Decade of Weird Tales – Jonas Prida (College of St. Joseph)The Occult Truth of History: Lovecraft, Howard, Smith, and the Headless Sublime – Jason Carney (Case Western Reserve University)“What Subtle Torment the Black God’s Kiss Had Wrought Upon Him”: Gender Performance as Strategic Advantage in American Sword and Sorcery – Nicole Emmelahinz (Case Western Reserve University)Pulp Studies II: History, Horror, and the Heroic Fantasy of Robert E. HowardCthulos/Kathulhu: Intertextuality in the Pulp Fiction of H.P. Lovecraft and Robert E.

Howard – Nicole Rehnberg (California State University, Fullerton)Through a Glass Too Darkly: Conan Revealed as “The Bright Barbarian” – Frank Coffman (Rock Valley College)Night Falls on Asgard: Robert E. Howard’s Weltgeschichte – Rusty Burke (Independent Scholar)Pulp Studies III: Imperial Pulp – Nationialism and Colonialism in Pulp FictionFrom Jungle Lords to Planetary Pioneers: Ideologies and Anxieties of Colonialism in the Pulps – Jeffrey Shanks (National Park Service)“Thou, Africa!”: An Analysis of Robert E. Howard’s Conflicting Views on Race in His Unpublished Poetry – Barbara Barrett (Independent Scholar)“Too bad it’s in the Soviet Zone now”: Divided Germany and Pro-American Discourses in James McGovern’s Romance Novel Fraulein (1956) – Elisa Edwards (Karl-Franzens-Universitat Graz, Austria)Pulp Studies IV: Weird Menaces and Hard-Boiled HeroesErle Stanley Gardner’s Pulp Legacy – Jeffrey Marks (Independent Scholar)Pulpy Rhetoric: The Modern Sophism of Black Mask – Rachel Tanner (University of Oregon)Spicy Horror: Sex and Magical Reversal in Weird Menace Pulp Fictions – Meta Regis (Stella Maris College)Pulp Studies V: Pulp Pedagogy – Pulp Fiction in EducationTeaching the Pulps: A Heuristic for Rhetorical Reading of Popular Fiction – Justin Everett (University of the Sciences)Orange Pulp: Collecting & Interpreting Pulp Magazines at Syracuse University – Sean Quimby (Syracuse University)The Cosmic Angle of Regarding: Mathematics and the Fiction of H.

P. Lovecraft – Daniel Look (St. Lawrence University)

As you can see, the various areas of study cover a lot of ground and include presentations by guest bloggers and TGR contributors Barbara Barrett, Rusty Burke, Frank Coffman and Jeffrey Shanks. If you can make it, you’d be helping show support for the topics and presenters. That support would be a big part of bringing Robert E.

Howard studies to the forefront of academia.