We are pleased to announce the launch of the British Popular Culture(s) Network, with an inaugural annual conference taking place at Falmouth University, between 5-7th June 2025.
Britain has a vibrant heritage and history of popular culture, and a long tradition of cultural thinkers who have been active in both shaping and defining British popular culture.
The conference aims to renew this collaborative practice by inviting participation from those involved in all aspects of cultural scenes, practices and critical appreciation to nurture a vibrant third sector and generate new thinking.
The following registration options are available:
- Fully affiliated: £150
- Independent Researcher: £25
- Hourly paid/zero contract staff: Free
- PGR student: Free
- Falmouth University staff: Free
- Non presenting delegates: Free
Conference details
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. Britain has a vibrant heritage and history of popular culture, and a long tradition of cultural thinkers who have linked spheres of popular culture together but also approached them as separate entities. Fundamental to a vibrant, diverse, and sustainable popular culture is active creative participation and critical thinking to change, contest, and renew. This conference continues this spirit, accepting contributions from those involved in all aspects of critical appreciation, cultural scenes and practices, and utilising various methodologies and multi/trans disciplinary frameworks. The aim of the conference is to create a space for participants to come together to share, discuss, and foster ideas and practices which challenge assumptions, focus research and generate new thinking.
British popular culture continues to experience extraordinary ideological and political provocations, whilst facing commercial and socio-economic pressures. These pressures and challenges have been amplified by the impact of the Covid pandemic and fourteen years of a hostile Conservative government. The conference takes as its premise that popular culture is an evolving, dynamic social and creative process involving the self, community, and wider social structures which circulate and navigate capitalism. At this pivotal moment the conference and network will build a community of connections across academia and the cultural industries, creating a third sector to support and sustain future work and collaborations through conferences, events, and research, amongst other activities.
Taking place in Falmouth, Cornwall, a site of importance at the intersection of popular cultures and education, the conference will work in partnership with the local creative industry to highlight and discuss challenges facing regional creative and cultural economies. A hope of the event is that the highlighting of the richness, uniqueness, solidarity and precarity of regional popular cultures and how they entwine with wider discourses across the British Isles will be taken up in different locales for future iterations of the conference.
1st British Popular Culture(s) Conference, 2025
- June 5-6 Falmouth University, Penryn
- June 7 - The Cornish Bank, Falmouth
During the first two days, the conference will be held at our Penryn Campus.
On the final day, the conference will be held at the Cornish Bank in Falmouth.
Please find address details of both locations below
Address: Penryn Campus, Treliever Road, Penryn TR10 9FE
Address: The Cornish Bank, 34 Church St, Falmouth TR11 3EF