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While encompassing the study of US American cultures broadly intended, the conference aims at examining the evolution of their contemporary manifestations and possible futures. As the sociocultural and geopolitical landscapes in the United States are in rapid transformation, they give rise to new forms of expression, resistance and identity formation, characterizing how different. We seek to foster debate and critical analysis in relation to the popular culture imaginaries of possible futures and hope, as well as cultural expressions that represent a distorted and polarized present.

"In an era when trusting medical advice is highly politicized, framed too often as the antithesis of engaged critique, Imagining Health recovers a tradition of literary realism that advanced health equity by holding progressive optimism accountable. Halpern makes a significant contribution to multiple fields, especially American literary realism, the history of medicine, disability studies, and bioethics." - Don James McLaughlin, University of Tulsa

"[Hawley's] engaging intellectual and social scientific tour de force helps the reader grasp how the new generation of conservatives and classical liberals is building on the foundations laid by previous generations." —Law & Liberty "[Hawley] builds a scrupulous case. This has the power to change minds." —Publishers Weekly

"This book is an exhilarating tour de force that revolutionizes how we understand the road novel. Truly comparative in its world-literary scope, Tucker-Abramson's readings of form are electrifying, illuminating both the genre's intractable problems and its revelatory capacities." —Sharae Deckard, University College Dublin

"This acid-tongued, profoundly sad and hilarious, tragic-gonzo adventure trip through a seductively deranged country feels out the grim landscape of the great American derailing of the 2020s. It invents, with a growing number of other shining books, a passionate pragmatic genre to approach a soft revolution devoted to well-being, creativity, equity, sustainability, and solidarity."—Kathleen Stewart, author of A Space on the Side of the Road: Cultural Poetics in an "Other" America

The MeCCSA Postgraduate Network is pleased to invite postgraduate researchers and creative practitioners to submit proposals for the 2026 MeCCSA PGN Conference, hosted by the Department of Film, Theatre & Television at the University of Reading.