A Message from Annalisa Castaldo
2008-2009 President of MAPACA
On behalf of the board and members, I welcome you to the Mid-Atlantic
Popular/American Culture Association. Within this organization you will
find an array of scholarship that crosses boundaries and disciplines in
sometimes dizzying but always enlightening ways.
I and the other board members truly believe that MAPACA offers a special
experience to both the new and the experienced scholar. The annual
conference is a place where fresh conversations take place within an
interdisciplinary framework, and where you can stretch yourself and explore
new fields and interests. Where else can you attend panels on food, horror
films, erotica and pedagogy, and round out your day with a tour of a
cemetery?
The board is also working to make MAPACA and the especially the conference
an even richer site of useful information. We have been offering a panel on
job hunting for graduate students for several years, and we are planning to
expand and add several other panels specifically designed to help emerging
scholars gain experience in job hunting, teaching and publishing. We are
also planning to expand our online presence in the near future. And as
always, we are hard at work organizing an amazing conference for Boston
next November.
MAPACA is about making connections—undergraduates presenting with
established scholars, people venturing into new fields of research, new and
experienced faculty sharing ideas—and I hope this year increases those
connections and helps all of us form new bonds. We welcome any suggestions
for improving the organization (website, publications, conference), and I
ask all members to email me if they have ideas they want to share. MAPACA
grows stronger the more people contribute energy, time and ideas!
I look forward to serving as your president and to seeing you in Boston in
November.
Sincerely,
Annalisa Castaldo
Director of Women's Studies
Associate Professor of English
Widener University
Chester, PA 19013
acastaldo@mail.widener.edu
