The Mass Culture Workshop is pleased to welcome submissions for the 2025 Spring quarter. See our Call for Papers below:
We are seeking proposals from individuals at the graduate level and beyond to present pre-circulated work related to the study of mass culture. Past presentations have included work on cinema, television, AI, radio, games, photography, podcasts, video, fashion, advertising, social media, and other technologies of mass culture. We welcome a range of methodological approaches which take up aesthetic, historical, and political questions. Submissions should be works-in-progress, so that presenters may gain critical feedback from diverse community perspectives. Presenters will be asked to provide a brief statement alongside their work, outlining their goals and where they feel they could use the most improvement.
Meetings will take place on Fridays from 11:00-12:30 in Cobb 311, unless otherwise specified.
If you are interested in presenting at Mass Culture in winter, please promptly fill out the Google form, which ask for the following information:
- Brief bio (name, pronouns, department affiliation)
- Tentative title of work
- Project format (article, dissertation chapter, conference paper, video essay) and length (approx. 20 pages written; 10+ min videographic)
- Brief description of content/argument
- Preferred date of presentation (at least 2 dates)
Please submit proposals to the workshop coordinators, Nat Modlin (ncmodlin@uchicago.edu) and Arcadio Oranday (oranday@uchicago.edu). Priority will be given to in-person presentations, however, we remain open to accommodating a limited number of Zoom presentations as needed. Coordinators will work with presenters to arrange suitable respondents.
In addition, Mass Culture is open to collaborations with other workshops, and we welcome suggestions for visiting artists or scholars who might be willing to participate.
To stay in touch with the Mass Culture Workshop, please subscribe to the mailing list through this link or e-mail the coordinators. For further information, especially to get a sense of the thematic range and disciplinary diversity encouraged by the workshop, visit the workshop’s blog and archive.
Best,
Nat Modlin & Arcadio Oranday
Mass Culture Workshop Coordinators