Communication and Marketing junior Katlyn “Kat” Davis, McPherson, KS, presented her paper, “The Disney Model: How the House of Mouse Shapes Gender Roles,” in the Gender Studies division of the national conference for the Popular Culture Association/American Culture Association (PCA/ACA) in San Diego on Thursday, April 13. She was sponsored by the Communication Studies department, and she was mentored and chaperoned to the event by David Silverman, Ph.D.
Dr. Silverman also presented his upcoming book chapter, entitled “(Re-)Visionist History in Sergio Leone’s (De-)Mythologized Old West: The Civil War, Vietnam, and ‘The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly,’ ” at the conference. Dr. Silverman is completing his sixth year as chair of the conference’s Animation Division and has presented at the conference over the past eight years.
Olga Silverman ’13 presented her sixth paper at the PCA/ACA conference. This year, she presented her paper entitled “Is Elliot Alderson the New Hamlet? Shakespearean Motives in ‘Mr. Robot, Season One.’ ” Last year’s paper on Mary Poppins, which she co-authored with her husband, was published in Douglas Brodes’ “It’s the Disney Version! Popular Cinema and Literary Classics” (2016, Rowman and Littlefield). Mrs. Silverman is currently in her fourth year as an ELA instructor at Solomon High School.
The individuals who comprise the PCA/ACA are a group of scholars and enthusiasts who study popular culture. The PCA/ACA offers a venue to come together and share ideas and interests about the field or about a particular subject within the field. The PCA/ACA has well over 5,000 academic oral presentations given internationally, two top-tier journals (The Journal of American Culture and Journal of Popular Culture), and more than 3,000 members.
