Hi all: This may be of interest to some on the list. Cheers, Judd _____ Call for Papers Game Studies, Culture, Play & Practice Area Southwest Popular / American Culture Association (SWPACA) 48th Annual Conference, February 17-20, 2027 Marriott Albuquerque Albuquerque, New Mexico https://swpaca.org Submissions open: September 1, 2026 Proposal submission deadline: October 31, 2026 Proposals are now being accepted for the 48th annual SWPACA conference. One of the nation’s largest interdisciplinary academic conferences, SWPACA offers nearly 70 subject areas. For a full list of subject areas, area descriptions, and Area Chairs, please visit https://swpaca.org/subject-areas/ The Game Studies, Culture, Play & Practice Area invites papers, panels, and other proposals on games (digital and otherwise) and their study and development. Proposals are welcome from any and all scholars (including graduate students, independent scholars, and tenured, tenure-track, and emeritus faculty) and practitioners (developers, artists, archivists, and so forth). Unusual formats, technologies, and the like are encouraged. Possible topics include (but are in no way limited to): Advertising (both in-game and out) Archiving and artifactual preservation ARGs Artificial Intelligence Design and development Educational games and their pedagogies E-Sports and competitive gaming Fan studies Foreign language games and culture Game art/game-based art (including game sound) Game development education Game engines and entertainment Game genres/types Game streaming Games and health Gender and sexual identity Haptics and interface studies Hardware/platforms Histories of games Industry studies International/non-US game studies Localization Mobile gaming MOGs, MMOGs, and other forms of online/networked gaming Performance Pornographic games Religion and games Representations of race and class Representations of space and place The rhetoric of games and game systems Serious games Table-top games and gaming Technological, aesthetic, economic, and ideological convergence Theories of play Transmedia and games The Game Studies, Culture, Play & Practice Area is international in scope and emphasizes diversity, an openness to innovative approaches and presentations, and the energetic practice of post-conference collaboration and publication. The Area was established in 2005 as a division of the Computer Culture Area, and became a standalone area in 2010. In addition to organizing conference panels, roundtables, and workshops, the Game Studies, Culture, Play & Practice Area offers formal and informal mentoring, organizes outings, and hosts evening social events. - Chair: Judd Ruggill (jruggill@arizona.edu <jruggill@email.arizona.edu>) - Research Coordinator: Jennifer deWinter (jdewinter@illinoistech.edu) - Social Media Coordinator: Michael Anthony DeAnda (mdeanda@depaul.edu) - Special Events Coordinator: Carly Kocurek (ckocurek@illinoistech.edu) - Graduate Student Mentor: Chris Hanson (cphanson@syr.edu) All proposals must be submitted through the SWPACA Conference Portal at https://swpaca.org/app For details on using the submission database and on the application process in general (including submitting proposals for roundtables and preformed panels), please see the FAQS & Resources tab on https://swpaca.org/ Individual proposals for 15-minute presentations must include an abstract of approximately 250 words and a brief bio. For information on how to submit a proposal for a roundtable or a multi-paper panel, please view the above FAQs and Resources tab. The deadline for submissions is October 31, 2026. SWPACA offers monetary awards for the best graduate student papers in a variety of categories. Submissions of accepted, full papers are due January 1, 2026. More details are here: https://swpaca.org/graduate-student-paper-awards/. SWPACA also offers travel fellowships for undergraduate and graduate students as well as contingent faculty: https://swpaca.org/travel-awards-students-faculty/. Registration and travel information for the conference is available at https://swpaca.org/albuquerque-conference/ In addition, please check out the organization’s peer-reviewed, scholarly journal, Dialogue: The Interdisciplinary Journal of Popular Culture and Pedagogy, at https://digitalcommons.unl.edu/dialogue/ If you have any questions about the Game Studies, Culture, Play & Practice Area, please contact jruggill@arizona.edu. If you have general questions about the conference, please contact support@swpaca.org, and a member of the executive team will get back to you. This will be a fully in-person conference. If you’re looking for an online option to present your work, keep an eye out for details about the 2027 SWPACA Summer Salon, a completely virtual conference to take place in June 2027.