Friday, September 27, 2013

Bringing the Hollywood Heavies to PCAS 2013

Next week I'll be in Savannah, GA, for the 2013 meeting of the Popular Culture Association in the South (PCAS). It's a great time to see friends and hear papers about literature, film, and television as well as anything else that falls under the very broad umbrella of popular culture.

This year my paper is "Heavy: The Life and Films of Laird Cregar." Some friends and I have put together a whole panel on Hollywood heavies, which is going to be great because of the ways in which the topics intersect. Our panel is "Born to Be Bad: Classic Hollywood Villains." Jeff Thompson will be talking about "Leave Her to Heaven: A Film Noir with a Difference," Jonathan Lampley will discuss "Those Icy Eyes: Vincent Price in Shock and Dragonwyck," and Geoff Weiss will present "Lee Van Cleef: Badder than Eastwood."

I always learn something new about classic film when I get together with these guys, so I am really looking forward to hearing what they have to say. Many of my other cinephile and pop culture buddies are also PCAS regulars, and I'm especially happy that some of my former graduate students are once again attending the conference. Seeing them reminds me that that those years of teaching at UAH were not spent in vain.

I'll post my Laird Cregar essay here on the blog once I get back from the conference. I'm also hoping to persuade the other panelists to contribute their papers as guest posts - we'll see how that goes! If you happen to be a classic film scholar/blogger, I should mention that PCAS is very friendly toward non-academics and also welcomes graduate and even undergraduate students. Next year's meeting is already scheduled for New Orleans, so visit the PCAS website if you're interested in attending.

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