A Conference … But It’s Midwest(ern) Emo
Join us for the first emo studies April 10th - 11th at Washington University’s School of Music, featuring keynotes from author Dan Ozzi (Sellout, 2021; Fahrenheit-182, 2025) and scholar and drummer of American Football, Steve Lamos
If you are not presenting at EmoCon but plan to attend, either virtually or in-person, please fill out the appropriate form so we can email you details about the conference!
Emo Con Schedule
Friday, April 10th (all times U.S. CST)
Steve Lamos Keynote
“Writing With Emo Nostalgia: Navigating Pasts, Presents, and Futures” -
Music Classroom Building 102
This talk explores how researchers, teachers, and students can “write with” the unfolding embodied experience of nostalgic music, especially emo music, as a means to navigate past experience, present feeling, and future challenge. It combines insights from musicology (e.g., Robinson; Brett) with insights from rhetoric and composition (e.g., Adams; Ceraso) to analyze two case studies of such writing: first, a personal example exploring how writing with a live drumming performance can generate a particular kind of presence and mindfulness; second, an example from a student writer highlighting how writing with a studio recording can help to navigate both past trauma and present-day healing. Finally, the talk explores the potential benefits of writing with emo in a world critical of the value of a college education in general and of education in humanistic endeavors in particular.
Bio: Steve Lamos is an Associate Professor in the Program for Writing and Rhetoric and English Department at the University of Colorado-Boulder. His publications include the book Interest and Opportunities: Race, Racism, and University Writing Instruction in the Post-Civil Rights Era (Pitt UP), winner of a 2013 “Special Commendation” from the Conference on College Composition and Communication; the essay “Toward Job Security for Teaching-Track Composition Faculty: Recognizing and Rewarding Affective-Labor-in-Space,” winner of the 2016 Richard C. Ohmann prize from College English; and work in College Composition and Communication, College English, Journal of Basic Writing, Writing Program Administration, Composition Studies, The CEA Critic, and elsewhere. Lamos’ current book project is tentatively titled Resonant Rhythms: Drumming, Writing, and Professing a Literate Life. It explores intersections between his academic work and his work as the drummer and trumpet player for the indie / emo band American Football.
American Football has been lauded as a particularly influential “Midwest Emo” artist by Rolling Stone, Spin, New Music Express, The Guardian, Alternative Press, Pitchfork, NPR, and many others.
Saturday, April 11th (all times U.S. CST)
Opening Remarks - 10:30AM-10:45AM
Music Classroom Building 102
Session 1- 11AM-12:30PM
Panel 1 - Emo and Place - Music Classroom Building 102
Chair: Varun Chandrasekhar
Global Aspirations and Local Persistence: Czech Emo and PostHardcore Scenes during the late 1990s and early 2000 - Ondřej Daniel - (11AM-11:30AM)
What’s Midwest about Midwest Emo? - Marc Blanc - (11:30AM-12PM)
Headin’ East on the Freeway: Dis/continuities in Rilo Kiley’s Encounter with Omaha’s Booming Music Scene - Michele Yamamoto (12PM-12:30PM)
Panel 2 - Emo Ethnographies and Pedagogies - Music Classroom Building 103
Chair: Philip White
Using Emo to Explore Masculinity in the Classroom: Approaches and Lessons Learned - Ian Zapcic (11AM-11:30AM)
Fabulous Killjoys: Queerness and Mental Health - Apollo Johnson (11:30AM-12:00PM)
“This sounds like something my Dad listens to!” Exploring Cultural Transmission of Emo Music - Philip White (12PM-12:30PM)
Panel 3 - Emo and Gatekeeping - Tietjens 4
Chair: Janessa Williams
“A Little Chicken Noodle Soup for the Emo Soul": When We Were Young, Nostalgia, and Emo Authenticity -Charlotte Hanrahan (11AM-11:30AM)
“Everything is Emo: Intimacy, Inclusivity, and (Re)Definition in Hayley Williams’ Podcast - Jenessa Williams and Francesca Sobande (11:30AM-12PM)
Dissection of The 21st Century “Poser”: A Comparative Analysis of Aesthetic Identity and Subcultural Identity in Contemporary, Digital-age Emo - Sarita A. Deleon-Garza (12PM-12:30PM)
Panel 4 - Musical Analyses of Emo -Blewett Hall Conference Room
Chair: Lauren Shepherd
Teaching the Church Modes through Original Math-Rock / Midwest Emo Inspired Compositions - Evan LeBouef (11AM-11:30AM)
Texture, Energetics, and the Bait-and-Switch Prechorus in Pop-Punk - Lilly Korkontzelos (11:30AM-12:00PM)
Alternate Guitar Tunings in Fretboard Space - Tyler Howie and Matt Chiu (12PM-12:30PM)
Lunch 12:30PM-1:30PM
(please note, lunch will only be provided for presenters/volunteers)
Session 2 - 1:30PM-3PM
Panel 5 - Emo and the Communal “I” - Music Classroom Building 102
Chair: Alex Valin
“There’s No ‘I’ in Team: Agency and Individualism over Three Decades of Emo Music.” - Zac Djamoos (1:30PM-2PM)
Aesthetically Emo(tional): Analyzing the Lyrical Aesthetics of Emotional Hardcore - Edward Stewart (2PM-2:30PM)
“The Foundations of Decay: My Chemical Romance, 9/11, and Screaming on the Radio” - Alex Valin (2:30PM-3PM)
Panel 6 - Emo and Queerness - Music Classroom Building 103
Chair: I.F. Gonzales
Welcome to the Black (Woman) Parade: Exploring Queer Black (1:30PM-2PM) - Victoria Smith
Everything I Learned About Gender, I Learned From My Chemical Romance: Illegibility, Opacity, and Trans/Queer Worldmaking Through the Permacrisis - I.F. Gonzales (2PM-2:30PM)
“I am the girl that I thought I outgrew”: Constructing Midwest Emo (trans)Womanhood through the works of Modern Baseball and Slaughter Beach, Dog - Luna Maldonado-Vélez (2:30PM-3PM)
Panel 7 - Emo and Hip-Hop - Tietjens 4
Chair: Varun Chandrasekhar
Rico Nasty Screams Against Hip-Hop/Emo Masculinities - Kabelo Chirwa (1:30PM-2PM)
“Emo” and the Symbolic Exclusion of Rap - John DeBouter (2PM-2:30PM)
“CAN I STILL GET INTO HEAVEN IF I KILL MYSELF”: La Dispute and Emo’s Suburban Whiteness- Varun Chandrasekhar (2:30PM-3PM)
Panel 8 - Musical-Theoretical Approaches to Emo and Genre - Blewett Hall Conference Room
Chair: Stephen Hudson
Once, Twice—Unfortunately it was Thrice: Metrical Dissonance and Musical Narrative in the Music of Thrice - Harry Ward (1:30PM-2PM)
Emo, Core, and the Not-So-Cool Metalcore: Recontextualized Timbral Invariance and Schizophrenic Formal Structures in "Schizophrenia Legacy” - Avinoam Foonberg (2PM-2:30PM)
Defining Emo Vocality: The Marginal Case of “Emo” Metal - Stephen Hudson (2:30PM-3PM)
Session 3 - 3:30PM-5PM
Panel 9- The Black Parade - Music Classroom Building 102
Chair: Patrick Mitchell
Sterile Affect: The Hospital as a Site of Authority, Expression, and Subversion in The Black Parade - Heather Glenny (3:30PM-4PM)
Concepts of Sweet Revenge: My Chemical Romance and the power of worldbuilding - Lauren Posklensky (4PM-4:30PM)
I’m Not Okay-fabe: The Complex Position of Audience in My Chemical Romance’s ‘Long Live’ Tour - Sam Hark (4:30PM-5PM)
Panel 10 - Emo and Visual Cultures - Music Classroom Building 103
Chair: Francecsa Sorbande
Catastrophe: Car Crashes, Oceans, and the Aesthetics of Emo Subculture - Kristen Martinez (3:30PM-4PM)
Latex, Whips, and Minivans: How Be Your Own Pet’s Mommy (2023) Confronts Youth through Punk’s History of BDSM Aesthetics - Abigail Ryan and Jerika Hayes (4PM-4:30PM)
Girl Genes: Androgyny, Feminine Performance, and the Problem of Authenticity in Third Wave Emo - Ella Martini (4:30PM-5PM)
Panel 11- Emo and the Archive - Tietjens 4
Chair: Marc Blanc
You Can't Miss What You Forget: Practical Challenges in Archiving Emo and Preserving Cultural Memory - Alexandra Plante (3:30PM-4PM)
Preservation, Discovery, and Production: Perspectives on Emo and DIY Music from an Academic Librarian in the 21st century - Keno Catabay and Kristi Ford (4PM-4:30PM)
Some Double-Dipped Meaning: The Evolution of the Words “Meme” and “Emo” (2000s–2020s) - Amanda Brennan (4:30PM-5PM)
Panel 12 - Emo and Deterritorialization - Blewett Hall Conference Room
Chair: Tyler Howie
The Logic of Time in Emo Music - w perillat (3:30PM-4PM)
Our Home as Our Cage: How The Hotelier Responds to the Loss of a Concrete Home - James Milstead (4PM-4:30PM)
Queering Emo Time with Say Anything - Peter Trigg (4:30PM-5PM)
Dinner Break (not provided) - 5PM-7PM
Dan Ozzi Keynote- 7PM-8PM - Platypus
Emo Sells Out: The Key Moments That Pushed the Genre from the Basements to the Mainstream
Over the last three decades, emo has swelled from an underground subgenre of music to a worldwide cultural phenomenon, and an extremely profitable one at that. What was once a scrappy offshoot of the late 90s hardcore scene is now a multi-million-dollar business, with DJ nights, package cruises, and nostalgia festivals organized by Live Nation that rival the size of Coachella. Even the term “emo” has become marketable to a certain demographic. As music fans, we tend to romanticize this growth as organic and assume that the strength of the music alone was enough to fuel this rise in popularity. In reality, however, there were watershed moments that helped emo rise from the basements into a saleable enterprise. By examining the key artists, releases, and events that moved the genre forward into mainstream territory, we can better understand how our modern understanding of emo was shaped. While by no means comprehensive, this talk will focus on a few of the important releases from the mid-90s and early 2000s that were influential in developing the emo genre. Some were significant in their stylistic contributions and pioneered the genre’s sonic identity, while others helped push the genre to greater commercial heights with Gold and Platinum status.
Bio: Dan Ozzi is the author of the bestselling book SELLOUT: The Major Label Feeding Frenzy That Swept Punk, Emo, and Hardcore (1994-2007), published in 2021 by Dey Street Books at HarperCollins.
He has co-authored two books: the #1 New York Times bestseller FAHRENHEIT-182: A Memoir (Dey Street Books, 2025) with blink-182's Mark Hoppus, and TRANNY: Confessions of Punk Rock’s Most Infamous Anarchist Sellout (Hachette, 2016) with Against Me!’s Laura Jane Grace.
For over five years, he served as a staff writer and editor at VICE’s music site, Noisey, and has contributed to Billboard, SPIN, The Fader, The Guardian, The AV Club, and others. He has also been a host on SiriusXM.
Concert - 8PM-11PM - Platypus
Keynote Speakers
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Dan Ozzi
Los Angeles-based writer and author.
He is the author of the bestselling book SELLOUT: The Major Label Feeding Frenzy That Swept Punk, Emo, and Hardcore (1994-2007), published in 2021 by Dey Street Books at HarperCollins.
He has co-authored two books: the #1 New York Times bestseller FAHRENHEIT-182: A Memoir (Dey Street Books, 2025) with blink-182's Mark Hoppus, and TRANNY: Confessions of Punk Rock’s Most Infamous Anarchist Sellout (Hachette, 2016) with Against Me!’s Laura Jane Grace.
For over five years, he served as a staff writer and editor at VICE’s music site, Noisey, and has contributed to Billboard, SPIN, The Fader, The Guardian, The AV Club, and others. He has also been a host on SiriusXM.
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Steve Lamos
Associate Professor at the University of Colorado-Boulder
Steve Lamos is Associate Professor in the Program for Writing and Rhetoric and the English Department. His work focuses on issues of race and racism within U.S. college-level writing instruction, particularly in the context of “basic writing” programs; on issues of teaching-track labor in contemporary U.S. writing programs; and on novel forms of literate becoming at the intersection of the sonic and the alphabetic.
Lamos’ published work includes the book Interests and Opportunities: Race, Racism, and University Writing Instruction in the Post-Civil Rights Era (Pitt UP, 2011), winner of a 2013 “Special Commendation” from the Conference on College Composition and Communication Outstanding Book Award committee; the essay “Toward Job Security for Teaching-Track Composition Faculty: Recognizing and Rewarding Affective-Labor-in-Space,” which won the 2016 Richard C. Ohmann prize for outstanding essay in College English; and a range of pieces in College Composition and Communication, College English, Journal of Basic Writing, Writing Program Administration, Composition Studies, and several edited collections.
Lamos’ current book project is tentatively titled Resonant Rhythms: Drumming, Writing, and Professing a Literate Life. It explores intersections between his academic work and his work as the drummer and trumpet player for the indie / emo band American Football. American Football is routinely included among the most influential emo artists of all time by Rolling Stone, Spin, NME, Kerrang!, Vulture, Stereogum, The Guardian, Alternative Press, Pitchfork, NPR, Brooklyn Vegan, and many others.
Contact Us
Email proposal submissions and questions to emocon2026@gmail.com