The Browne Popular Culture Library at Bowling Green
State University, in association with the Department of Popular
Culture, will be hosting “Researching the Romance”, a conference for
scholars, authors,
and readers of popular romance fiction. Our Guest of Honor will be
award-winning author Beverly Jenkins. The conference will take place
April 13-14, 2018 at the Jerome Library on the BGSU campus as well as at the Wood County District Public Library in Bowling
Green, Ohio.
From the website of Bowling Green State University:
Introduction:
In 1997, the Browne Popular Culture Library at Bowling Green State
University held one of the first academically oriented conferences on
the genre of popular romance fiction. Titled “Re-Reading the Romance,”
the event included authors and academics from around the country
sharing their experiences and love for the genre. A follow up
conference titled “Romance in the new Millennium” was held in 2000,
featuring even more thoughtful looks at romance.
In the years since the last conference at BGSU, the romance industry
has grown to more than $1 billion per year in sales, and the study of
popular romance has grown by leaps and bounds along with it. And we
think it’s high time we reconvene in Northwest Ohio to talk about it.
So on April 13th & 14th, 2018, the Browne Popular Culture Library
at Bowling Green State University will host a conference entitled
“Researching the Romance.”
The conference will be held in two locations over the course of the
weekend. Most of the sessions will be held in the Jerome Library on the
campus of Bowling Green State University, while Saturday afternoon’s
events will be held at the Wood County District Public Library in
downtown Bowling Green.
More about the Conference
Our Guest of Honor for the conference will be 2017 RWA Nora Roberts
Lifetime Achievement Award Recipient Beverly Jenkins. Ms. Jenkins has
published more than 30 novels, and is well-known for the level of
detailed research she puts into each of her books, making her the
perfect guest for this conference.
Our Friday lunchtime keynote speaker will be
Dr. Kate Brown, Assistant Professor of Political Science at Huntington University in Huntington, Indiana. Dr. Brown is a 2017 recipient of the
Romance Writers of America Academic Research Grant
for her work, which explores how English common law and
constitutionalism give fundamental structure and substance to the
historical romance genre.
Dr. Eric Selinger, Professor of English at DePaul University and Executive Editor of the
Journal for Popular Romance Studies,
will be in conversation with Beverly Jenkins on Friday afternoon. Dr.
Selinger has a long history of research in romance fiction, and has
frequently taught courses using Ms. Jenkins’ work.
Call for papers:
We are seeking presentations by graduate students and academics
interested in the study of popular romance studies, as well as authors
writing in the genre. Proposals for individual presentations or entire
panels will be considered. The scope of this conference is deliberately
broad, with the intention of highlighting the interdisciplinary nature
and many different avenues of research possible within popular romance
studies. Possible paper topics might include but are not limited to:
- Textual analysis of individual books
- In-depth analysis of particular authors’ work
- Digital humanities approaches to popular romance research
- The development of certain subgenres within popular romance
- The rise of romance self-publishing in the age of e-books
- Authors’ approaches to research on time periods, subgenres, etc
- The growth in popularity of LGBTQ romance
- Roadblocks to researching romance, for academics and authors alike
- Romance novel covers across the decades
- How authors build an audience in an era of subgenre specialization
- Reception and fan communities for romance novels, subgenres, or authors
Presentation abstracts (max 250 words) should be submitted by Dec. 1, 2017
via the submission page of this site.
Notification of paper acceptance will be made by Dec 15, 2017.
Please contact Steve Ammidown (
sammido@bgsu.edu) or Dr. Kristen Rudisill (
rudisik@bgsu.edu) with questions.
