112th Annual Conference

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Our 2014 PAMLA Conference will be held at the beautiful, brand-new Riverside Convention Center (3637 5th St, Riverside, CA 92501), in Riverside, California. The closest airport to Riverside, California, for those of you flying in, is the Ontario, CA International Airport (ONT--sometimes referred to as the LA/Ontario International Airport) (see travel info).  Our Accommodations page has information about conference hotels and special rates.

There is free parking for PAMLA conference attendees in the Riverside Convention Center parking lot behind the convention center.  The entrance to the parking lot is at the intersection of 3rd Street and Main.

Downtown Riverside is a hidden gem of Southern California, less than a half hour drive from the Ontario, CA International Airport, an hour’s drive from LA and about 90 minutes from San Diego. With its historic Mission Inn and many fine restaurants, boutiques, and museums, its almost-always lovely fall weather, and its proximity to so much of Southern California’s natural beauty and cultural sites, Riverside is a truly lovely and relaxing site for our conference. For ideas about what to explore, see Places to Eat, Things to Do in Riverside, and Things to Do in Southern California.

We are planning some very special events for Halloween and the entire conference, including our special conference theme, “Familiar Spirits.” See Keynotes & Special Events. As part of this theme, in addition to many regular standing sessions not focused on the theme, we invite you to propose papers on magic, conjuring, spirits, hauntings, Spiritualism, and manifestations as well as presentations that treat the familiar, familial, and the commonplace in relation to the paranormal, strange, and uncanny. We anticipate rich and vibrant discussions that defamiliarize the known and draw near the mysterious.

The deadline to propose a paper (or two—although our PAMLA rules only allow you to present one paper at the conference, you may propose more than one, and then decline an offer should you be accepted more than once) was Thursday, May 15, at midnight. A number of sessions are extending their deadlines to Saturday, May 31, at midnight (at the end of May 31, going into the morning of June 1). There are more than 100 approved sessions you can propose a paper to.

Questions about special session topics may be sent to heidis@uic.edu. Questions about conference planning and logistics may be sent to svonkin@netzero.net.