I recently had the privilege of attending and presenting at the 2023 Northeast Popular Culture Association (NEPCA). I was among many peers who have dedicated their time to studying popular culture. This was one of the first conferences I have attended and presented at, and it was an incredible, inspiring experience.

NEPCA is a branch of the Popular Culture Association, whose mission is: "to promote the study of popular culture throughout the world through the establishment and promotion of conferences, publications, and discussion." As a mythologist and scholar interested in the intersections of popular culture, storytelling, and mythology, I felt right at home. NEPCA holds its conference virtually, allowing presenters and attendees from all over the US and internationally to attend. I finished the weekend feeling rejuvenated and inspired by my fellows' research and conversations. The topics ranged widely, covering an array of ideas in popular culture, from fandom as resistance, Disney studies and Monsters.

"Literature and Popular Culture 1: Adapting Epics with Pop Culture", featured several scholars who presented how old epics like Gilgamesh, Dante's Inferno, the Kalevala, and the Green Knight continue to influence stories today. Each scholar discussed how these epics speak to the present and are not just about or limited to the past. The stories grapple with questions we still ask, such as "What does it mean to live a meaningful life?" "What does it mean to have limitations?"

 I attended the section dedicated to papers discussing various feminist readings of the Barbie Movie called "Genders, Sex, and Sexualities 2: "I'm a man with no power, does that make me a woman?": Popular Feminism, Fragile Masculinity, and Intersectionality in Barbie (2023)." Each paper viewed the film from a different angle. One examined how Barbie dilutes the patriarchy, while another asked if the film was a critique of patriarchy or feminism. Dacia Pajé looked at Barbie through the lens of fragile masculinity in their paper "Post-Feminist Masculinity, and the Anti-Men Audience Backlash." The following riveting dissection considered artifice, satire, corporate feminism, and exceptionalism.

In the section titled "Genders, Sex, and Sexualities 3: Those "Other" Bodies: Gender-Based Mutation, Transformation, and Torture in Horror" scholars Kathryn Healey, Mallory Trainor, and Jacqueline Morrill discussed different aspects of 'body horror' in the horror genre and how it challenges identity. Many body horror films deal with characters merging with the other and questioning what it means to be human and if there are qualities that are integral for humanity.

I was a part of "Monsters and the Monstrous 4: Villainous Science II " section, which featured three scholars talking about post-humanism in storytelling. Tungabhandra Banerjee discussed the Chinese science fiction novel Little Mushroom, asking, "What would happen if another sentience emerged on the planet?" Little Mushroom deals with concepts of the in-between human and post-human, in this case, a clone. Humanism entails a commitment to searching for truth and morality through human means in support of humans. But are these values socially taught or inherited, and how does that change if there were clones or a post-human species? Banerjee argued that Little Mushroom challenges the binary narrative that human = good and non-human = bad. Scholar Mansi Plaha discussed Octavia Butler's book Fledgling and the Vampires. The book calls attention to society's existing hierarchies by framing the post-human as black. Racist tendencies become monstrous creations, and the story uses vampires to negotiate a space for co-existence for black American writers to reclaim their heritage.

I presented "Responsibility and Fear: An Examination of AI and Co-Existence." It examined how our fear of the artificial, whether robot, a sentient computer, reanimated course or any other form of AI is not a new fear or relationship. Stories of AI fill our mythology, alchemy, science and fiction. For example, there is the Greek myth about the Giant Bronze guardian of Crete, Talos. Then there are stories about homunculi grown in alchemical vials. Additionally, there are treatises and descriptions of actual automatons built in Ancient Alexandria, Medieval Europe, and Middle East. I posited that AI challenges human exceptionalism and pondered if we fear the artificial because it could mimic us too perfectly, rendering us no longer special or in our capacity for violence and control. However, I ask, "How does remembering that these conversations and fears are not new change our relationship with the artificial?" Does this help us move into a world not based on fear but in shared responsibility and curiosity? 

Attending NEPCA was a joy, and I left feeling rejuvenated and inspired. The community of scholars in attendance was informative and excellent. Conventions like NEPCA, where scholars are encouraged to explore, connect and question are vital to thriving academic community. I look forward to reading the published papers that emerge from the conference and attending in the future.