Call for Papers

French and Italian Annual Symposium

The University of Texas at Austin

November 12-13, 2026

Theme: Interdisciplinary Perspectives on Pop and Popular Culture

The Department of French and Italian at the University of Texas at Austin invites submissions

for our annual symposium, to be held on November 12-13th, 2026. This year’s theme, 

Interdisciplinary Perspectives on Pop and Popular Culture, seeks to explore the dynamics of mass culture, folk culture, and other notions of widespread cultural practices and/or experiences across various fields of study.

 We approach pop culture and popular culture not as fixed or opposing categories, but as historically contingent and politically charged constructs—whose distinction has been both instrumentalized by institutional power and long marginalized within academic inquiry, despite their centrality to everyday cultural expression.

 From the perspective of Pierre Bourdieu’s theorizing of taste and lifestyles through the lens of distinction, familiarity with “high” culture constitutes a signifier of social status, whereas popular culture stands, in opposition, as the less legitimate, more immediately available, culture for the masses. For Antonio Gramsci, popular culture is conceived of as a site of counter-hegemonic struggle allowing for the formation of alternative viewpoints which challenge the dominant ideology upheld by organic intellectuals may be articulated. In the new millennium and within Media Studies, Henry Jenkins proposes the idea of participatory culture wherein the masses engage with, reinterpret, and expand from bottom up the content of commercially-produced, top-down pop culture. Here, popular and pop cultures overlap, intersect, and are situated primarily as a site of interaction rather than distinction. Building on these frameworks—as well as on the contributions of thinkers such as Benedict Anderson, Umberto Eco, and Jean Baudrillard—this call invites contributions that critically engage with the production, circulation, and reception of pop and popular cultures across different historical and cultural contexts. We are particularly interested in how these forms intersect with structures of power, identity, and community formation.

Possible questions include, but are not limited to: How can we conceptualize pop/popular culture in relation to shifting configurations of power? Who produces these cultural forms, and for whom? What forms of agency, resistance, or negotiation do they enable? How have definitions and understandings of pop/popular culture evolved across time, media, and cultural frameworks?

For our second symposium, we welcome papers or interventions from a variety of

methodological and theoretical perspectives. As we hope to promote transdisciplinary

conversations, we especially encourage contributions that engage with multiple disciplines or

resist disciplinary convention.

We welcome papers that engage with this theme from a variety of disciplinary angles, including but not limited to:

Popular Culture Studies

Folk Culture and Vernacular Traditions

Mass Media and Cultural Industries

Film, Television, and Media Studies

Comparative Literature and Cultural Analysis

Visual Arts, Art History, and Creative Practices

Sociology and Cultural Sociology

Sociolinguistics and Language Practices

Anthropological Perspectives

Ethnomusicology and Sound Studies

Food Studies and Culinary Cultures

Religious Studies

History

Feminist, Gender, and Queer Studies

Black Studies and Critical Race Studies

Postcolonial and Decolonial Studies

Environmental Humanities

Digital Humanities

Social Movements, Activism, and Public Culture

Pedagogy and Educational Practices

Submissions may come from any discipline and any time period. Presentations and abstracts

must be submitted in English. We especially encourage papers that draw upon French and Italian

studies related to these themes. The symposium also welcomes creative presentations,

including short film screenings, end-of-the-day performance presentations, and discussions

involving community activists and educators.

Submission Guidelines:

- Abstract length: 250–500 words

- Languages: Abstracts may be submitted in English, and presentations must be in English

- Deadline for submission: June 20th, 2026

- Notification of acceptance: On a rolling basis

- Presentation format: 15–20 minute presentations, followed by discussion

Please submit your abstract along with a short bio (100 words) to utfritas@gmail.com by June 20th, 2026

For any inquiries, please contact utfritas@gmail.com

We look forward to your submissions and to an engaging symposium!