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Emo Con: The Sophomore Album
Call for Papers
At Washington University in St. Louis, MO—April 16 – 17, 2027
Since first appearing as a stylistic outgrowth of the D.C. hardcore scene, emo has made palpable impacts on popular culture and the modern music industry. Between nostalgic mass-marketed festivals such as When We Were Young and Warped Tour selling out massive venues, Olivia Rodrigo and Taylor Swift proudly flaunting their emo bonafides, and the genre’s fourth and fifth waves keeping its DIY traditions afloat, emo has (perhaps retroactively) become the defining sound of rock music in the 2000s. On the internet and throughout DIY scenes across the country and globe, fans continue to evaluate and reevaluate a body of music that has come to define generations of fans. In this vein, interest in “emo studies” has shown significant growth. This scholarship challenges us to think about how emo fans and artists navigate complex performances of identity, affectivity, and conformity against the backdrop of 40 years of social change. Furthermore, emo comments on, challenges, and conforms to a number of social, cultural, and musical discourses that require a detailed engagement with theoretical frameworks, emo cultures, and the music itself.
After the success of the first Emo Con, we are proud to announce, “Emo Con: The Sophomore Album” in an ongoing effort to expand this body of literature and maintain this network of scholars interested in emo studies. We invite scholars of all fields and disciplines to submit proposals of up to 500 words that contend with any aspect of emo music, emo cultures, as well as emo-adjacent genres such as screamo, post-hardcore, pop-punk, etc.,. Non-academics are encouraged to apply. While there will be options for virtual spectatorship, we expect all presentations to be in person. Proposals are due on January 15th. Proposals should be sent to emostudiesorganization@gmail.com. Those who submit abstracts will be notified of the decision on February 1st. The conference will be hosted by Washington University in Saint Louis on April 16-17th, 2027. Please follow @emostudiesorganization on Instagram or emostudiesorganization.com for more conference updates.
In addition to the academic talks, this conference will feature a keynote from critic director, producer, and author Jessica Hopper. Hopper’s influential essay “Emo: Where the Girls Aren’t” (2003) served as an early prognosis of the scene’s misogynistic predispositions and has served as a foundational piece of emo literature. She is the author of The First Collection of Criticism By A Living Female Rock Critic (2015), Night Moves (2018), and the forthcoming No God But Herself: How Women Changed Music in 1975 (2027). Hoper was formerly the Editorial Director at MTV News, Senior Editor at Pitchfork, and the founding music editor at Rookie. Her essays have appeared in Best Music Writing for 2004, 2005, 2007, 2010, and 2011.
