Please email all paper and panel proposals to
digitalgames.pcaaca@gmail.com.

The combined Digital Games areas of the Popular Culture Association and the American Culture Association invite proposals for papers and panels on digital games (video games, computer games, arcade games, etc.) and digital game studies for the Popular Culture Association/American Culture Association National Conference to be held March 19-22, 2008, at the San Francisco Marriott, San Francisco

The organizers seek proposals covering all aspects of digital gaming, gaming culture and game studies, within or across disciplinary conversations, and all theoretical and methodological approaches are welcome.

Questions and concerns can be addressed to one of the area chairs listed below.

PCA

Tony Avruch, American Culture Studies Program, Bowling Green State University
avruch.pca@gmail.com

Katie Whitlock, Theatre Department, California State University, Chico
klwhitlock@csuchico.edu

ACA

Gerald Voorhees, Department of Communication Studies, University of Iowa gerald-voorhees@uiowa.edu

Joshua Call, Department of English, University of Nebraska – Lincoln
jcall2@bigred.unl.edu

The organizers seek proposals covering all aspects of digital gaming, gaming culture and game studies, within or across disciplinary conversations, and all theoretical and methodological approaches are welcome.

Possible topics include but are not limited to:

- representation or performance of race, class, gender and sexuality in games
- gaming culture, game specific cultures, and multicultural and cross-cultural issues
- game development, design, authorship and other industry issues
- game advertising, reviews, packaging, promotion, integrated marketing and other commercial concerns
- political and legal entailments such as regulation, censorship, intellectual property
- ludology, textual criticism, media ecology, narratology, etc as paradigms for games studies
- player generated content in MUDs and MMORPGs, Mods, maps and machinima
- game genres, platforms, consoles, console wars and connections to other media
- serious games for education, business, healthcare, (military) training, etc
- space and place in games, play spaces, virtual/physical communities, mobile gaming and localization
- digital literacy, discourse practices, social norms and norming, the politics of play
- public discourse/controversy over violence, militarism, sex, criminality, racism, etc in games

So that there will be ample time for discussion, each individual paper presentation should be designed to last approximately fifteen minutes (there will be four presentations per session with time for Q&A). Complete panel submissions make take the form of debates, dialogs, roundtable discussions, thematic panels, (or other format,) and be designed to last approximately eighty minutes. Technology for use during presentations may be limited. More information about the conference can be found at http://www.pcaaca.org/

Please also note that presenters will be required to join either the Popular Culture Association or the American Culture Association prior to attending the conference, as well as pay a registration fee for the conference.

For individual paper submissions, your 250-word (maximum) abstract/proposal must be received by November 9, 2007. At the top of your proposal, please include the title of the paper/panel, your name (and the name of any co-presenters), affiliation, mailing address, and e-mail address. This information will be used in the program and to mail your conference materials.

For complete panel submissions, please submit a 250-word panel abstract, as well as 100-word abstracts for each individual presentation. Be sure to include the proposed title of the panel, the organizer’s name, affiliation, mailing address, and email, and include this information for all panelists. Panel submissions must be received by November 9, 2007.