CALL FOR PAPERS:
WILL ROGERS AND AMERICAN HUMOR 
AT THE 2009 SOUTHWEST/TEXAS POPULAR CULTURE ASSOCIATION MEETING 
Hyatt Regency, Albuquerque, New Mexico * 25-28 February 2009
Deadline: December 1, 2008

You are invited to present a paper on American Humor and Will Rogers at the 2009 meeting of the PCA/ACA in Albuquerque in February. There is plenty of time to develop a topic, and as area chair, I would be delighted to work with all prospective authors. 
 
A limited number of stipends of $500 each are available from Will Rogers Heritage, Inc., for authors who research and present papers on Will Rogers. 
 
Please feel free to contact me. I have been immersed in the material for years and welcome researchers' inquiries and requests. The Will Rogers Memorial Museum holds the world's largest collection of Will Rogers archives, artifacts, and art. Also available in most school libraries are two massive published collections of his writings and papers. The Writings of Will Rogers (OSU Press)went to 21 volumes. The Papers of Will Rogers (OU Press) is now complete at 5 volumes. All 26 volumes are indexed in detail to assist researchers. Four of the most popular volumes of his syndicated newspaper writings, Rogers' Daily Telegrams, are available online in searchable format at www.willrogers.com. 
 
Submit your 100-200-word abstract/proposal by 1 December 2008. You may forward it to me by email at [log in to unmask] 
 
Chair: 
Steven K. Gragert, Director, Will Rogers Memorial Museums 
918 343 8118 (office) * 918 343 8118 (fax) * 405 612 1965 (mobile) 
P.O. Box 157, Claremore, OK 74017-0157 
[log in to unmask] 

Suggested Topics (others invited): 
National Politics: Prohibition; progressivism; media and politics; the presidency: Wilson, Harding, Coolidge, Hoover, FDR; Congress and national policy; the Supreme Court; evolution and the Scopes Trial; the Great Depression; the NRA and its controversies; the New Deal 
 
International Politics: the disarmament movement; isolationism; the Soviet Union and its promise; Third World conflicts and culture clashes; treaties; World War I; the World Court; international interventions 
 
Radio and Film: the silent era and Will Rogers; John Ford and Will Rogers (four films); the Old South in Will Rogers; Rogers on the movie industry and individual stars; censorship and the Hays Office; national radio broadcasts and their influence 
 
Humor: the Cherokee trickster tradition; the Southwestern humor tradition; Mark Twain and Will Rogers; Will Rogers and topical humorists through John Stewart and Stephen Colbert 
 
Philanthropy: the dole; charity styles (modern and/or Native American) 

 

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