The 2025 Midwest Popular Culture Association/American Culture Association conference was held at the University of Iowa from October 3-5, 2025.
SJMC served as the local host and several faculty, graduate students, and alumni presented research on topics ranging from political podcasts to sports documentaries to fandom to popular music to immersive games to algorithms in society and popular culture.
Friday, October 3
- David Dowling and Md. Sazzad Hossain, “From Talk to Takedown: The Role of Podcasts in the Far-Right Assault on European Democracy”
- Sang Jung Kim and Brett Johnson, “When Law Goes Pop: Examining Lawfluencers on YouTube During the First 100 Days of Trump's Second Term”
- Alexander Tawiah, “Social Media Campaign Strategies: A Case Study of Political Issue Framing by 2024 Presidential Candidates in Ghana”
- Abubakar Ibrahim, “Singing Power: Music as Political Critique in Nigeria, 1999-2024”
- Venise Berry, Roundtable: The Black Superwoman & Mental Health: Power & Pain
- Travis Vogan, “The Sports Docudrama in the Age of Authorized Sports Documentaries”
Saturday, October 4
- Jennifer Sterling, “Hometown Hawkeyes: Remediating Midwest Sporting Cultures”
- David Lomoywara, “Broadcasting Change: Local Radio, Local Culture, and Health Communication in West Pokot, Kenya”
- Katy Biddle (PhD alum), “Examining Parasocial Relationships and Breakups on Instagram: How Bachelor Nation Reacts to Political Posts”
Sunday, October 5
- Sophia Restiffe Favoretto, “Uncovering ‘Americanness’ in The Sims: A Cross-Cultural Audience Approach”
- Wenxiang Zeng, “In the Name of Care and Empowerment: Playing Female-Oriented Video Games as Postfeminism Practices Within the Chinese Speaking Community”
- Brian Ekdale, “Netflix’s Adolescence and the Moral Panic of Online Youth Radicalization”
- Sarah Witmer, “The Future Foretold: Algorithms, Alternative Spirituality, and the Rise of Digital Divination”
- Rafaela Berger Pereira and Francisco Paulo Jamil Marques, "Gender Bias in the Coverage of Women Politicians in Brazilian News Media”
- Sujatha Sosale and Mir Ashfaquzzaman (PhD alum), “Stand-up Comedy and Historical Memory: Re-telling Colonialism on YouTube”
- Kyle Moody (PhD alum), “Fallout and the Modern Transmedia Franchise, or How Online Communities Help Make the Wasteland”
- James Carviou (PhD alum), “TikTok TV Fandom: The Evolution of Televisual Community Engagement”