“Traditions and Trajectories of Love: The Sixth International Conference on Popular Romance”

“Traditions and Trajectories of Love: The Sixth International Conference on Popular Romance” will take place from June 23-25, 2016, on the University of Utah campus at the Officer’s Club at Fort Douglas. 33 scholars from 11 countries will speak at the three-day conference on topics as diverse as Lesbian Romance, TV’s The Bachelor, Nora Roberts, Steampunk Romance, Cinderella, and Sheikh Romance.

There will be a free public showing of the exciting new documentary, Love Between the Covers, which explores the complexity of the multi-billion dollar romance industry. Laurie Kahn, the documentary’s filmmaker, will be at the showing, to take place at the Marmalade branch of the Salt Lake City Library (280 West, 500 North) at 6:30 p.m. on Thursday, June 23. 

There will be two exciting keynote speakers:

Jayashree Kamble, from City University of New York and the author of Making Meaning in Popular Romance Fiction, will speak on Friday, June 24, at 3:15 p.m. The title of her talk is “What Popular Romance Novels’ Heroes and Heroines Tell Us about Postmodernity.”

Amira Jarmakani, from San Diego State University and the author of Imperialist Love Story, will speak on Saturday, June 25, at 3:15 p.m. The title of her talk is “Radioactive Love: Mapping Desire from Agrabah to Abbottabad.”

For the full conference schedule, see iaspr.org. IASPR is the International Association for the Study of Popular Romance, the scholarly organization behind the conference.

For more information, contact Prof. Margaret Toscano, the chair of the conference (margaret.toscano@utah.edu).   

Sponsored by the Tanner Humanities Center, the Dept. of World Languages and Cultures, the Dept. of English, the Dept. of History, the Middle East Center, and Gender Studies, admission is free for students and faculty with university ID.