To mark the conclusion of the Swarming SDCC project, we are organizing a symposium on industry–audience interactions at media-oriented live events. Please see the CFP below.
Call for Participation
The Convention Cultures Workshop:
Media Industries and Audiences at Fan Conventions and Beyond
St. Michael’s College, University of Toronto
February 13–14, 2026
Comic cons and related fan conventions initially began as gatherings of subcultural enthusiasts. But over the last twenty-five years, they have become not only increasingly important to the media industries but also a prominent feature of mainstream cultural experience—if there’s a form or genre of media you like, chances are there’s a convention for that. More recently, the sector has experienced significant change and disruption: North American–style conventions have opened in international markets, often alongside local traditions of fan events; numerous sectors in the media and cultural industries well beyond comics have adopted and adapted the con format; and the pandemic, Writers a guild and SAG–AFTRA strikes, and uncertainty around tariffs and immigration enforcement have each presented challenges for organizers and attendees alike.
In addition to popular and journalistic writing about cons, a growing body of academic literature, much of it focused on the San Diego Comic-Con, has emerged at the intersection of fandom studies and media industries studies. From this perspective, fan conventions and similar live events are ephemeral but highly consequential sites where relationships between and among media-industry actors and audiences are continually re-negotiated. Organized by the Swarming SDCC Collective (Benjamin Woo, Felan Parker, Erin Hanna, Shawna Kidman, Melanie E.S. Kohnen, and Suzanne Scott), the Convention Cultures Workshop seeks to expand critical conversations about the live events sector beyond our own work on San Diego Comic-Con. On the one hand, we want to promote dialogue about live events with other streams in media, communication and cultural studies, including but not limited to cosplay studies, creator and influencer studies, critical event studies, critical marketing studies, fan tourism and theme park studies, film festival and exhibition studies, platform studies, and political economy of communication. On the other hand, we want to explore points of similarity and difference between “comic cons” narrowly defined and other types of media-oriented events (including, but not limited to, consumer expos like the Consumer Electronics Show, industry conventions like the Game Developers conference, industry-led promotional events like Netflix’s Tudum, and celebrity-oriented reality TV cons like RuPaul’s DragCon).
Please submit brief abstracts (300–500 words) and short biographical statements (max. 250 words) to conventioncultures@proton.me by Monday, September 8. We aim to confirm acceptance by mid-October.
Papers will be organized into panels with a discussant. In order to facilitate engagement during the workshop, accepted participants will be required to submit drafts of their papers, to be circulated to their fellow panelists and the discussant in advance of the event, by Friday, January 16.
We look forward to welcoming participants to this in-person workshop in Toronto. However, we recognize that international travel may present unique challenges for some of our participants right now and can accommodate a small number of requests for remote participation in cases of urgent need. If you would like to request an accommodation to participate remotely, please indicate this with your submission.
Swarming SDCC is a Social Science and Humanities Research Council–supported research project. We expect to be able to offer some financial support towards travel costs for students and precariously employed participants.
Accepted papers will also be considered for inclusion in an in-development edited collection.