Quirky, tuneful, evocative, and not just a little bit scary, Hess’s over-the-top presentation reminded us both of the appeal of Sturm und Drang and of why post-postmodernists blame the Romantics for everything they do not like. |
Collapsing traditional gender presentation while edging ever closer to the id, Poisson’s contention that the turn away from the slasher film was presaged by the peak of make-up-caked rockers strikes us as unlikely. But the searing guitar-riffs were righteous, indeed. |
Snopes wins points for both ambition and willing suspension of disbelief: by turns cheesy and deep, his presentation spanned the ramifications of Robert E. Lee to Lee Majors. We endured. |
Ridingwolfe brings the eye of a biologist to the animation cells and illustrations of anthropomorphic animals throughout history. Why we think they must be “like us” stands to narratological reason, but it also follows Darwinian trails. |
Ever wonder how a bow tie, vest, or hat makes a cartoon animal “fully dressed”? Klein has answers and is unafraid to put the “cat” back in “catwalk.” |
We’re not sure how Jones got the x-ray views showing cartoon animals’ skeletons, but his physiological analyses suggest explanations beyond the panel. |
We’re used to data analysis acting somewhere behind the screens that run our lives, but Syss provides numerous statistics to do the opposite: trace them back to the fundamental story of life itself. The devil may be in the details, but there’s a God in the bar graph. |
Ludwig van Beetlejuice, High Romanticism and the Re-Evaluation of the Goth, a Burtonian Set Design 
The Silence of the Glams: the Rise of Psychological Horror and the Fall of Spandex Rock, a Manifesto in Grunge 
Fall-Guy’kner: Yoknapatawpha County as Mid-’80s Adventure Show, a Screenplay 
A Walk in the Pork: Bipedalism in “The Three Little Pigs,” an Evolution in Folk Imagery
Folk Tails: the Sartorial Considerations of Depictions of Anthropomorphic Animals, a Fashion Show 
Cat/Walk: Sylvester, Garfield, Puss in Boots, and the Locomotive Possibilities of the Pop Culture Feline, a study in Physiognomy 
So-Shall Media: Sharing, Liking, and Commentary, Data Tracking as Coming-Into-Being, an Origin Story Conclusions
Despite this year’s unexpected successes, the conference committee is still seeking a long-term funding solution, including, but not limited to, crowd-sourcing, bake-sales, and blockchain. Expect an RFP to arrive in your email inbox soon.
If current trends are any indication, energy demands for future conferences will continue to rise, and cleanup costs/emergency response will remain a concern. Prognostication is pernicious, but the data are clear: innovation is messy and expensive, and critically theoretical innovation is no exception.
So while we look forward to next year’s conference, we are now sending out the requests for workshops on the intersection of literary criticism and nuclear waste disposal.