Midwest Popular Culture Association
Special Issues
The Popular Culture Studies Journal welcomes guest editors to organize a special issue of articles on a specific theme to be published in a regular issue of the journal. Previous special issues have included work focusing on monsters and monstrosities, professional wrestling, Wonder Woman, and autoethnography. We publish journal issues in April and October, and special issues are welcome for either publication.
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Submission Process
If you are interested in editing such a special issue, please contact Editor Michael J. Blouin at pcsj@mpcaaca.org. In your initial email, indicate a) the topic of the special issue, b) if you currently have contributors interested in participating in the special issue, and c) your initial idea for when the special issue would be ready for publication. After reviewing this initial email, the Editor will bring your idea to the journal’s Editorial Board to consider the idea. Should the Editor and Editorial Board agree that the special issue is a good fit for the journal, then the Editor will coordinate with you the special issue’s schedule.
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Special issue editors are responsible for coordinating with contributors to ensure the articles have been peer-reviewed, proofread, and finalized before sending the articles to the Editor for formatting. Because of this supervision, we require editors to have experience with academic writing and research articles to ensure the special issue has original contributions to the field of popular culture studies. Special issue editors can request help with any step of this process and can coordinate with the Reviews Editor for reviews specific to the special issue’s topic. Any questions about this process should be directed to pcsj@mpcaaca.org.
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Special Issue Ideas
The following topics were generated during a brainstorming session at the MPCA/ACA annual conference. All topics are currently available for anyone to claim as the editor of the special issue. If you are interested in one of these topics, please email the Editor using the guidelines listed above for demonstrating interest.
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Representations of Academia
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Matt Groening’s Storyworlds
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Health and Disabilities
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Problematic Popular Culture
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Limited Television Series
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Rural Communities
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Historical Time Periods (Your Choice)
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Educational Television
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PBS
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Summer Camp
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Politics and Sports
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Science
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Podcasting and Streaming
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Memes
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Archives
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Audio Popular Culture
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K-pop
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Food
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Parody and Satire
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Aging Femininity
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Farscape
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YA Literature
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Religion
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True Crimes
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Communicating Popular Culture
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Popular Culture Spaces
Upcoming Special Issues:
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October 2025: Media, Religion, and Crisis (Call for Papers)
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April 2026: Dance and Popular Culture