[Commlist] British Popular Culture(s) Conference

*A gentle reminder before we head to the holidays that the deadline for 
abstracts is 9^th  January 2026. *
*
*
The British Popular Culture(s) Network is pleased to announce its next 
conference taking place, 9-11th July 2026, Falmouth, Cornwall, UK.
_https://www.falmouth.ac.uk/research/projects/british-popular-cultures-network 
<https://www.falmouth.ac.uk/research/projects/british-popular-cultures-network>_
Following the success of this year’s inaugural conference, we want to 
continue fostering the breadth of scope in topics and speakers by 
creating an inclusive space for participants to come together to share, 
discuss, and develop ideas and practices which challenge assumptions, 
focus research and generate new thinking. The conference is open to 
researchers, academics, PhD students, practitioners, artists, 
curators, archivists and activists working in and across all areas of 
British popular culture and cognate disciplines and utilising various 
methodologies and multi/trans disciplinary frameworks.
There will again be a public-facing day hosted by The Cornish Bank, a 
grassroots music venue and community arts space in Falmouth. Confirmed 
participants are Cornish filmmaker BAFTA Award winning, Mark Jenkin 
director of /Bait /(2019), /Enys Men/ (2022) and forthcoming /Rose of 
Nevada/ (2025), and Welsh-Cornish musician and Welsh music prize winner, 
Gwenno, whose output includes, Cornish language album /Tresor/ (2022) 
and /Y Dydd Olaf/ (2014) and /Le Kov/ (2018).
We have been approached by Intellect Publishing with regards to a 
‘Handbook on British Popular Culture(s)’ and we will be inviting 
selected papers delivered at this year’s and the 2026 conference to be 
included in the handbook.
*Confirmed speakers for 2026: *
We are happy to announce Jez Collins, founder and director of the 
Birmingham Music Archive C.I.C, Professor Abigail Gardner, University of 
Gloucestershire and Professor Oli Mould, Royal Holloway University of 
London, will be joining the conference this year.
Jez Collins is the founder and director of the Birmingham Music Archive 
C.I.C., a creative and cultural arts organisation that 
captures, documents and celebrates the music history, heritage and 
culture of Birmingham and its communities through a range of diverse and 
engaging projects. He is also founder of Atticus Creative & Cultural 
Consultancy, a cultural and creative consultancy that help develops 
cultural, creative, community and place-making strategies for those 
working in the built environment sector. In addition, Jez is a 
co-Director of Un-Convention C.I.C., a global grassroots music network 
that helps build sustainable music infrastructures and a widely 
published academic and public speaker. Jez sits on the Board for Soul 
City Arts and Digbeth Improvement District and he is a member of 
Bearwood Promoters in the Black Country, a group of voluntary music 
lovers who programme live music on a Victorian Bandstand.
Abigail Gardner is Professor in Cultural Studies at the University of 
Gloucestershire’s School of Creative Arts. She researches popular music, 
gender, and ageing, and her latest book moved into /Sound Studies. 
Listening, Belonging and Memory /(Bloomsbury, 2023). She is currently 
researching for P/J Harvey: Place, Memory and the Magic of Dorset 
/(Cambridge University Press). Other publications include A/geing and 
Contemporary Female Musicians /(2019), /PJ Harvey and Music Video 
Performance/ (2015) and, with Ros Jennings, /Aging and Popular Music in 
Europe /(2019) and /Rock On: Women, Ageing and Popular Music /(2012). 
She is leading a joint UKRI (UK Research and Innovation) funded project 
called Sound, Environment and Ageing: Bringing the Outside into Care 
Homes <https://sageproject.co.uk/> and has Erasmus + European projects 
with the most recent being a music and memory project called. She was 
editor in chief of the /International Association of Popular Music 
Journa/l 2022 - 2025.
Oli Mould is a professor of human geography at Royal Holloway, 
University of London. He is the author of four books including /Against 
Creativity /(2018), /Seven Ethics Against Capitalism/ (2021) and the 
forthcoming /Postcapitalist Cities/ (2026). His research focuses on 
radical politics, urban life, mutual aid and activism.

More events to be confirmed.
We invite individual abstracts for papers, performances, spoken word 
pieces, and short films (no longer than 20 minutes in length), as well 
as themed panels (no longer than 60 minutes in length). We also welcome 
ideas for further creative content such as exhibitions and workshops 
that can be integrated into the event through conversations with the 
conference team.
Possible areas of interest to include, but not limited to: 
  
Advertising 
Architecture 
Art 
Board Games and Pastimes 
Comedy 
Comics 
Costume 
Dance 
Design 
Fashion 
Film 
Illustration 
Journalism 
Literature 
Media 
Music 
Performance 
Poetry 
Pubs 
Sport 
Television 
Video Games 
Festivals and Events 
Politics and popular culture 
Cultural policy 
Popular culture and democracy 
Popular culture and social justice 
Popular culture and environmental crisis 
Popular Culture and inequality 
Pedagogies of Popular Culture 
Popular Culture and the REF 
Popular Culture in/and Education 
Gender, class, sexuality, race 
Alternative scenes and practices, DIY culture. 
Popular culture industries 
Emerging modes 
Regional, local, and national cultural and creative economies 
National popular culture in a global context 
Space, place, tourism 
Consumerism 
Capitalism, Co-option and Commodification 
Colonial and postcolonialism 
Precarity and Sustainability 
Activism 
Celebrity 
Celebrity Activism and Dissent 
Archives, curation, programming 
Cultural thinkers 
Digitalisation and digital technologies 
AI and technological impacts 
The Popularisation of Folk Cultures 
Please submit an abstract no longer than 300 words, five keywords and a 
short bio (including contact details) 
to, (_britishpopularculture /at/ falmouth.ac.uk) 
<mailto:(britishpopularculture /at/ falmouth.ac.uk)>_ by *January 9th 2026* . All 
enquiries to be directed to the British Popular Culture email address.



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