Friday, April 25, 2014

CFP The Irish Journal of Gothic and Horror Studies for 2014

Submissions

The submission deadlines for the next issue of The Irish Journal of Gothic and Horror Studies are as follows:

Articles: 1 March 2014
Reviews: 16 May 2014

We are now seeking submissions of articles and reviews that deal with any aspect of Gothic and horror studies, including (but not limited to) literature, film, television and new media.

We will consider articles between 5000-7000 words. Commencing with Issue #13, articles should follow the MHRA style sheet. Reviews should be no more than 1000 words with full publication/release/transmission dates and details of the subject discussed. Please note, reviews of contemporary and classic horror films should focus on those that have been released or revived theatrically or on DVD within the last year.

Articles and reviews can be submitted for consideration to Dr. Dara Downey and Dr. Jenny McDonnell at
irishjournalgothichorror@gmail.com

Issue #13 will be published in Summer 2014.

Monday, April 21, 2014

CFP Fear and Anxiety in American Culture (Spec. Issue of JAC) (12/31/15)

THE JOURNAL OF AMERICA CULTURE
Call for Papers: Special Issues

Submissions are currently being sought for the following special issues:

Theme Issue: Fear and Anxiety in American Culture - Deadline December 31, 2015

American fears, whether real or imagined, have never been the sole province of horror novels or movies. For generations, Americans have consistently demonstrated deep-seated fears in multiple areas of life ranging from politics, religion, economics, race, gender, literature, and the arts. Consider, for example, the changing face of monsters in American culture, whether they are identified as witches in Puritan New England or those with differing political and ideological positions in the present day. Sometimes, Americans even turn their fears into popular crusades against political platforms, popular literature and film, and causes or individuals deemed to be overly powerful or controversial. Scholars have long demonstrated that understanding the nature and purpose of fear or anxiety often requires careful study within a range of approaches, including those stemming from cultural studies, history, literature, psychology, anthropology, gender studies, and many others. In this theme issue of The Journal of American Culture, we want to examine the current state of scholarly inquiry into the place of fear and anxiety within American culture by considering questions such as: What are Americans afraid of generally? What are we afraid of right now? How are our thoughts, actions, and politics, shaped by the things we fear most? How have our fears changed over the centuries?

We welcome submissions for this theme issue from a wide variety of critical approaches and topics including, but not limited to, literature, film, history, sociology, economics, cultural studies, anthropology, monster theory, psychology, posthumanism, gender studies, and horror studies. We are especially interested in interdisciplinary work that highlights problems of fear across various media or disciplines.

Submissions, generally 15-25 pages in length, are to be original scholarly manuscripts formatted according to MLA style guidelines using in-text citations with author’s name and page number. Endnotes and works cited should appear at the end of the paper. In light of space limitations, please avoid excessive use of footnotes.

This issue will be edited by Carl H. Sederholm (csederholm@byu.edu); please direct all questions to him.

The deadline for submission is December 31, 2015, and the issue will appear in March 2017.

Friday, April 18, 2014

Monstrous Maternity Sessions at NeMLA 2014

An interesting mix here:

NORTHEAST MODERN LANGUAGE ASSOCIATION
3-6 APRIL 2014

Thursday Afternoon Sessions

3.02 Monstrous Maternity I: Mothers as Monsters
Chair: Aubrey Mishou, United States Naval Academy
“Of Monsters and Moms”
Gina MacKenzie, Holy Family University
“Voldemort’s Mother: How an Excess of Female Desire (Still) Creates a Monster”
Jessica Gray, Wright State University
“Trading the Apron for the Purse: Economic Freedom and Monstrous Mothers in French Literature”
Blandine Mitaut, Shippensburg University
“Mad Men’s Betty Draper, Fan Reaction, and Twenty-First Century Anxiety about Motherhood”
Caroline J. Smith, The George Washington University


Saturday Afternoon Sessions

15.07 Monstrous Maternity II: Monsters as Mothers
Chair: Alexandra Lykissas, Indiana University of Pennsylvania
“Monstrous Birth, Absent Mother: Monstrosity’s ‘Material’ Source in Early Modern Popular Print”
Julianne Mentzer, University of St Andrews
“Whose Child is This? Victor Frankenstein’s Monstrous Maternity”
Alexandra Lykissas, Indiana University of Pennsylvania
“Reconciling Daenerys Targaryen with the Mother of Dragons in A Song of Ice and Fire”
Hillary Ash, Kent State University
“‘You’re a beast!’: The ‘Good Mother’ as Monster in Disney/Pixar’s Brave”
Jeanna Kadlec, Brandeis University

CFP Monstrous Science (Journal Issue) (4/4/14)

Sorry for the late post:

Monsters and the Monstrous is a biannual peer-reviewed global journal that serves to explore the broad concept of ‘The Monster’ and ‘The Monstrous’ from a multifaceted interdisciplinary perspective. The journal publishes works that seek to investigate and assess the enduring influence and imagery of monsters and the monstrous on human culture throughout history. In particular, the journal has a dual focus with the intention of examining specific ‘monsters’ as well as evaluating the role, function and consequences of persons, actions or events identified as ‘monstrous’.

Current Call for Submissions

Volume 4, Number 1 (Summer) , Themed Issue on Monstrous Science

“Its magic Dr. Frankenstein!”…”No, its not magic…it’s science!”
(Dr. Whale, Once Upon a Time, Series 2)

“Let me tell you, my friend, that there are things done to-day in electrical science which would have been deemed unholy by the very men who discovered electricity—who would themselves not so long before have been burned as wizards.”
(Van Helsing, Dracula)

 This call for articles, artworks, poetry and prose considers the ways in which science can be seen as monstrous, or as the creator of monsters or a manifestation of a monstrous culture, society or ideology. This can be approached from an historical perspective, in the ways that “science” from the past is now viewed as barbaric/outdated/monstrous but also in the ways that current practice is either beyond common comprehension or is past is “sell by date.” This equally links into the ways that the scientific “avant-garde” of any period does not just bring innovation but also destruction. Monstrous science in this way is seen as that which knowingly goes beyond the accepted rules of international/medical law or of human ethics and morality but has unplanned for ramifications and results. In this last category is inevitably the figure of the evil genius but also the multinational conglomerate that sacrifices morality for monetary concerns. Within this are related cultural concerns over escalating global warming, ecological and economical disaster or even the zombie apocalypse. Such cultural specificity also highlights the uses of science where, in some cultures, more time and resources are spent researching cosmetics and weight loss medicines than cures to life threatening diseases. Monstrous science can be the processes and techniques used, or the ideologies that inform them. It can be the outcome of experiments, whether intentional or not as well as their uses, and what it tells us about those that perform them.

Submission are required on the following or related areas:

Biological enhancement, Frankenstein’s Monster, Godzilla, Cloning, GM crops etc.
Historical approaches/formulations: the four humours, eugenics, phrenology, hysteria etc.
Chemical weapons, bacterial warfare and medical cures gone wrong (i.e.28 Days Later).
The control and manipulation of the human body and the post-human future
Automatons, machine men, cyborgs, technologies from outer space
Rationality, quantum logic and ghosts in the machine and alternative science.
We are also looking for film and book reviews on any theme related to the idea of Monsters and the Monstrous. All materials reviewed should have been published or released within two years of the journal issue they are submitted to. Any queries, please contact the editor at the email below.

Submissions for this Issue are required by Friday 4th April 2014 at the latest. Contributions to the journal should be original and not under consideration for other publications at the same time as they are under consideration for this publication. Submissions are to be made electronically wherever possible using either Microsoft® Word or .rtf format. All images, artworks and photographs need to have the appropriate copyright permissions before being sent in.

We also invite submission to our special features on Non-English Language Book Reviews. Please mark entries for these topics with their respective headings.

All accepted articles, artworks and prose pieces will receive a free electronic version of the journal.

Length Requirements:
~ poetry, prose, short stories can be any length but not exceed 7,000 words.
~ articles should be between 4,000 – 7,000 words long
~ reflections, reports and responses should be 1,500 – 3,000 words long
~ book and film reviews should be between 500 and 1,500 words long

Submission Information:

All submissions should include a short biography (100-150 words) that will be included with the to be included submission if accepted. Please send submissions via e-mail using the following Subject Line:
‘Journal: Contribution Type (article/review/…): Author Surname’

Submissions E-Mail Address: ten.yranilpicsid-retni@lanruojsretsnom

Submissions will be acknowledged within 48 hours of receipt.

Style Sheets
All submissions should be formatted in accordance with the journal style sheets. A .pdf copy of these may be obtained from The Inter-Disciplinary Press web site: Go To Style Sheets

Proof/Checking
If accepted for publication, you will be provided with one opportunity to see a proof inspection copy of your submission. Only typographical or factual errors may be changed during proof checking stage. Revisions or addition to the text will not be possible.

Copy
All contributors will receive one complimentary PDF copy of the edition in which their submission appears. Camera-ready .pdf of prints will also be made available.

CFP LAST CALL for Monsters in the Margins: The Horrors of Image/Text (4/25/14)

I'm not sure if this was posted earlier. The original call was with a 15 March 2013 deadline.

[CFP] UPDATE: Monsters in the Margins: The Horrors of Image/Text (LAST CALL)
Posted 14 Mar, 2014
NEW DEADLINE: April 25, 2014

Edited by Don Ault, Najwa Al-tabaa, and Katherine Shaeffer

Due to low response, we are re-releasing our CFP for "Monsters in the Margins," an upcoming special issue of ImageTexT that will utilize the theme of our 2012 UF Conference on Comics and Graphic Novels. The new deadline for submissions is April 25th, 2014.

Please note that, if there is not sufficient interest in the "Monsters" special issue, any submissions we receive or have received for it will be folded into the submissions for our next General issue of ImageTexT.

In any crisis, whether economic or cultural, there is a sense of an unimaginable danger right around the corner. These unknown and unfathomable terrors fascinate the imagination and dramatically play out our anxieties in a more cognitively relatable form. We attempt to embody them, to transplant them, or to make them somehow tangible, yet despite the variety of attempts, the underlying anxiety persists. The narratives and forms into which we channel our terrors become our monsters. At the same time, the modes and means of this content production and distribution seem to loom, suggesting changes and mutations around the corner, and the outliers and disturbances in the status-quo make us wary of what's to come.

In the midst of the first true economic crisis of the 21st century, we return to these sites with renewed curiosity. How can we depict the sublime terror of our anxieties? How can we convey our unabashed horror through image and text, and communicate those feelings across venues and platforms? Why do we keep trying to re-imagine the same monstrous templates, especially when the tools of a craft are perpetually unstable?

The targeted goal of the "Monsters in the Margins" special issue from ImageTexT is to address these issues by welcoming any and all explorations into the representation of monsters in a imagetextual form. As a proceedings issue following 2012's Monster in the Margins UF Graduate Comics Organization conference, we invite papers from both panelists and speakers at the conference, as well as scholars who did not attend the conference. All articles relevant to the special issue topic will be judged on merit.

We are especially interested in how the combination of text and image augments each in potentially productive and monstrous ways. From traditional genres to new horizons of horror, we seek to examine the monsters of media and attempt to understand how the medium influences the message, and vice versa.

Submissions should maintain a focus on comics, manga, children's literature, video games, imaging technology or any other form that includes both image and text in its representations (either simultaneously or indirectly). In addition to these product-oriented examinations, we also welcome viewpoints from both creative and cultural/sociological orientations, including artist's and writer's perspectives on the acts of creation, examinations of distributive modes, and cultural responses to the distribution of visual/textual content.

Potential topics for submission include, but are not limited to:

How do 'traditional' monsters change as time passes and cultural movements shift?
How do image and text interplay to provide an affective sensation of the ineffable?
Does the rise of paratextual supplements to imagetextual publications mutate the 'core' content? Does it make monstrous our experience of reading it?
Can the visual or textual elements of a composition interfere with one another to create a monster?
How does the medium function as a monster? How can developing media and modes of distribution, such as zines and webcomics, be seen as marginalized and monstrous imagetextual distortions?
How does one create a monster? What decisions go into the production of a novel creature that is meant to disturb?
What is the role of the 'friendly' or 'cute' monster?
What role do features such as font selection, coloring technique, paper texture or material lack, blurbs, and covers serve in the reception/portrayal of the monstrous?
Accepted essays are expected to be approximately 4,000-7,000 words. Interested writers should email their full articles with any intended images by April 25th, 2014 to naltabaa@ufl.edu and copy them to khshaeffer@gmail.com.

Please also include a one-paragraph personal summary with your submission.

Thursday, April 17, 2014

CFP Young Adult Literature (5/15/14; PAMLA 10/31-11/2/14)

Pacific Ancient and Modern Language Association
112th Annual Conference - Riverside Convention Center, California
Friday, October 31 - Sunday, November 2, 2014

Young Adult Literature

Presiding Officer:
Shanna Shadoan, McGill University, Canada and Denver Library

Focusing on the liminal space between childhood and adulthood, the young adult literature genre offers critical insight into developmental tensions of youth, and our cultural values and preoccupations. Given the theme of “Familiar Spirits” for the conference, we invite all interested to submit papers exploring the uncanny, paranormal, and strange, as well as those that examine the familiar and ordinary as they are expressed in young adult literature today.  Discussions of the mysterious and speculative will be especially welcome, but papers on any aspect of YA are accepted.

Status:
Open (accepting submissions)
Associated Sessions
Young Adult Literature
Topic Type:
Special Session

- See more at: http://www.pamla.org/2014/topics/young-adult-literature#sthash.v4Hdfs9l.dpuf

CFP Rise of Undead Culture (5/15/14; PAMLA 10/31-11/2/14)

Pacific Ancient and Modern Language Association
112th Annual Conference - Riverside Convention Center, California
Friday, October 31 - Sunday, November 2, 2014

Beyond Life: The Rise of Undead Culture

Presiding Officer:
Roland Finger, Cuesta College
The undead have forcefully risen in popular literature and media and targeted the pillars of society—identity, family, religion, and government. Normal life simultaneously loses and acquires value vis-à-vis threats from the undead. This session investigates the significance of the undead within culture, literature, and philosophy.

Status:
Open (accepting submissions)
Associated Sessions
Beyond Life: The Rise of Undead Culture.
Topic Type:
Special Session

- See more at: http://www.pamla.org/2014/topics/beyond-life-rise-undead-culture#sthash.Mk2gGCQw.dpuf

CFP Familiar in Contemporary American Gothic (5/15/14; PAMLA 10/31-11/2/14)

Pacific Ancient and Modern Language Association
112th Annual Conference - Riverside Convention Center, California
Friday, October 31 - Sunday, November 2, 2014

Gothic Returns: The Familiar in Contemporary American Gothic

Presiding Officer:
Chad Luck, California State University, San Bernadino
From hauntings, to the uncanny, to dark nostalgia, the contemporary American Gothic has been closely linked to the return of the once familiar. This panel explores the nature of such “gothic returns,” considering the ways in which the genre itself relies on a complex retrospective dynamic.

Status:
Open (accepting submissions)
Associated Sessions
Gothic Returns: The Familiar in Contemporary American Gothic”
Topic Type:
Special Session

- See more at: http://www.pamla.org/2014/topics/gothic-returns-familiar-contemporary-american-gothic%E2%80%9D#sthash.GbeLuLIp.dpuf

CFP Magic and Witchcraft (5/15/14; PAMLA 10/31-11/2/14)

Pacific Ancient and Modern Language Association
112th Annual Conference - Riverside Convention Center, California
Friday, October 31 - Sunday, November 2, 2014

Magic and Witchcraft

Presiding Officer:
Logan Greene, Eastern Washington University
Magic and witchcraft are powerful cultural phenomena that have gripped our imaginations throughout the centuries. The ceremonial, folk, and divinatory practices contained in these labels have continued in changing forms to the present day. This panel invites scholars in literature, history, anthropology, cultural studies, and religious studies to share their research and reflections on this topic.

Status:
Open (accepting submissions)
Associated Sessions
Magic and Witchcraft
Topic Type:
Special Session

- See more at: http://www.pamla.org/2014/topics/magic-and-witchcraft#sthash.BWVpg7Ze.dpuf

CFP Children's Animation and After-Life Narratives (5/15/14; PAMLA 10/31-11/2/14)

112th Annual Conference - Riverside Convention Center, California
Friday, October 31 - Sunday, November 2, 2014

Reanimating the Child: Children's Animation and After-Life Narratives

Presiding Officer:
David Boyd, Metropolitan State University of Denver

The first decade of the twenty-first century has seen a tremendous influx of children's animation from both the United States and Japan that dwell on death. This brand of animation examines, firstly, how children contemplate and process death, and secondly, reveals how the image of the child can be associated or conflated with the figure of the undead other. While Japanese illustrators and animators have produced many more examples of this type of children's media (specifically through the genre they call yokai shonen or "adventurous ghost stories"), American alternatives may also include The Grim Adventures of Billy and Mandy (2003-2008), ParaNorman (2012), and Frankenweenie (2012). In these stories, a child either dies and becomes a supernatural hero, or experiences loss and acquires supernatural powers that allow him/her to interact with the undead. The popularity of this mode seems to address not just a child's perception of loss, death and grieving, but also more expansive post-human anxieties concerning finitude, agency, and otherness.

Status:
Open (accepting submissions)
Associated Sessions
Reanimating the Child: Children's Animation and After-Life Narratives
Topic Type:
Special Session

- See more at: http://www.pamla.org/2014/topics/reanimating-child-childrens-animation-and-after-life-narratives#sthash.vhU68ITI.dpuf

CFP Spirits in Latin American Horror Films (5/15/14; PAMLA 10/31-11/2/14)

Pacific Ancient and Modern Language Association
112th Annual Conference - Riverside Convention Center, California
Friday, October 31 - Sunday, November 2, 2014

Spiritual Manifestations in Latin American Indigenous Horror Films

Presiding Officer:
Mari-Eve Monette, McGill University
Because horror films combine realism and the phantasmagorical, Latin American indigenous cinematographers have increasingly embraced this genre to transmit oral myths and legends that reflect their belief in different spiritual dimensions and manifestations. This special session seeks to explore how the horror filmic genre empowers these indigenous oral traditions.

Status:
Open (accepting submissions)
Associated Sessions
Spiritual Manifestations in Latin American Indigenous Horror Films
Topic Type:
Special Session
- See more at: http://www.pamla.org/2014/topics/spiritual-manifestations-latin-american-indigenous-horror-films#sthash.opLSjITE.dpuf

Gothic (5/15/14; PAMLA 10/31-11/2/14)

Pacific Ancient and Modern Language Association
112th Annual Conference - Riverside Convention Center, California
Friday, October 31 - Sunday, November 2, 2014

The Gothic

Presiding Officer:
Cheryl Edelson, Chaminade University of Honolulu
Given the recent popularity of the Twilight series of novels and films, television programs such as True Blood and Grim, and numerous remakes of Gothic “classics” such as Frankenstein and Dracula, it is clear that Gothic motifs of haunting, ghosts, the undead, and the supernatural are still “alive and well” in contemporary culture. This panel will bring together critical responses to Gothic texts and their various iterations.

Status:
Open (accepting submissions)
Associated Sessions
The Gothic
Topic Type:
Special Session

- See more at: http://www.pamla.org/2014/topics/gothic#sthash.q85Ii7qK.dpuf

CFP Television Studies (5/15/14; PAMLA 10/31-11/2/14)

Pacific Ancient and Modern Language Association
112th Annual Conference - Riverside Convention Center, California
Friday, October 31 - Sunday, November 2, 2014

Television Studies

Presiding Officer:
Russell McDermott, New York University
Proposals for papers are invited on any subject relating to the study of Television. Papers that  relate to the conference theme, "Familar Spirits," and explore the ghostly, ghastly, the uncommon and uncanny, the profound and the paranormal are especially welcome, but proposals on any topic related to television will be considered and appreciated.

Status:
Open (accepting submissions)
Associated Sessions
Television Studies
Topic Type:
Standing Session

- See more at: http://www.pamla.org/2014/topics/television-studies#sthash.nrHfLzNF.dpuf

CFP Familiar Spirits (5/15/14; PAMLA 10/31-11/2/14)

Another great sounding conference:

Pacific Ancient and Modern Language Association
112th Annual Conference
http://www.pamla.org/2014

Friday, October 31, 2014 to Sunday, November 2, 2014
Riverside Convention Center
Riverside, California
Riverside Convention Center
Our 2014 PAMLA Conference will be held at the beautiful, brand-new Riverside Convention Center, in Riverside, California. Downtown Riverside is a hidden gem of Southern California, less than 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.

We are planning some very special events for Halloween and the entire conference, including our special conference theme, “Familiar Spirits.” 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) is Thursday, May 15, at midnight. There are more than 100 approved sessions you can propose a paper to, and a few more may appear as if by magic in the coming days.

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.

- See more at: http://www.pamla.org/2014#sthash.jCOAeAoM.dpuf

Temporality of Magic (5/15/14; PAMLA 10/31-11/2/14)

CPF PAMLA Conference, 2014 Special Session: “That Old Black Magic”: Temporality of Magic
full name / name of organization:
Sören Fröhlich / University of California, San Diego
contact email:
sfrohlic@ucsd.edu

Recent scholarship in the ‘temporal turn’ has raised fundamental questions in the intersection of time and cultural representations (). However, this scholarship frequently side-steps cultural representations of time as malleable and non-rational, as well as supernatural temporalities. Thinking alongside the 2014 PAMLA Conference theme “Familiar Spirits,” this panel invites papers that consider the relation between magic and time.

What happens when we consider that at once relative and all-pervasive dimension of time through the lens of the imagination, the cultural, and the irrational? Whose time is it that counts, and how can it be manipulated? This panel invites discussions of time in representation of magic including, but not limited to literature, art, film, and history.

Topics might consider questions like:

Is there a connection between legacies of racism, sexism, or gender discrimination and time?
Does time differ in the conception of magic across disciplines?
How do religious and magical notions of time cooperate or clash?
Can temporal changes associated with trauma and anxieties be represented through magic?
How are nostalgia and magic related temporally?
What characterizes magic temporality or the temporality of magic?
Which questions about time does the historiography of magic offer?
How can narrative dimensions of time be manipulated to convey a sense of magic?
How do magical manipulations of time relate to retrospective or futuristic projections?
Can time be the different between good and bad magic?

To submit, please follow the directions on

http://www.pamla.org/2014/topics/“-old-black-magic”-temporality-magic

Note: PAMLA proposals cannot be submitted by email. In order to fill out a paper proposal, proposers simply:
1. register at and log in to the PAMLA clearinghouse form at http://www.pamla.org/2014,
2. fill out a paper proposal, including a paper title, a brief abstract and long proposal (max. 50 and 500 words, respectively), and
3. indicate whether the use of a laptop connected to a projector is needed.

For further detail on the proposal submission procedure, please visit:
http://www.pamla.org/2014/guidelines-and-procedures,
or email: Sören Fröhlich, University of California, San Diego (sfrohlic@ucsd.edu).

By web submission at 04/01/2014 - 18:19

Call for Bloggers: International Gothic Association Postgrad Blog (no deadline)

Call for Bloggers: International Gothic Association Postgrad Blog
full name / name of organization:
International Gothic Association
contact email:
lrk207@lehigh.edu

Call for Bloggers: International Gothic Association Postgraduate Blog

The International Gothic Association fosters postgraduate/graduate student work through its student-run, student-written postgraduate blog. Every month, the blog features posts by a different graduate student working in the field of the Gothic, across time periods and disciplines, from French Revolution writers to Star Trek, ghost stories to zombies and beyond. Posts can consist of the writer's current dissertation/thesis work, but it may also include film/book reviews, teaching topics, events, discussion questions, etc. Each blogger usually writes between two and four posts for the month, of approximately 500-800 words. The posts can be formal or informal, depending on the writer's preference. You can see examples of past posts on the blog here: http://www.iga.stir.ac.uk/blog.php

We are searching for guest blog writers for the coming academic school year. Writers must be graduate students working with some aspect of the Gothic. This is a great opportunity to share your work and join the Gothic community! Please get in touch with the IGA Postgrad Reps: Laura Kremmel (lrk207@lehigh.edu), Chloe Buckley (c.buckley@lancaster.ac.uk) and James Campbell (jc92@stir.ac.uk) if you are interested or have any questions.


By web submission at 03/27/2014 - 14:07

CFP Conference on the Supernatural (6/1/14; State College, PA 10/3-4/14)

[UPDATE] Oh! The Horror!: The Supernatural in Literature, Film, and Popular Culture
full name / name of organization:
Pennsylvania College English Association 2014 Conference
contact email:
penncea@gmail.com
Proposal Submission Deadline: June 1, 2014

Conference Dates: October 3-4, 2014

Conference Location
1450 S. Atherton St., State College, PA [= Ramada Conference Center State College]

Keynote Speakers
John Russo and Russ Streiner
Writer, Producers, and Actors of Night of the Living Dead

Conference Email Address: penncea@gmail.com

PCEA 2014 Conference Theme

From the past to the present, the supernatural has inundated our popular culture. Zombies, witches, vampires, and werewolves star in our books, television shows, graphic novels, comics, stage performances, and films. This conference will contribute to the already rich discussion surrounding these topics that may already be taking place in our classrooms, on our campuses, and in our culture.

PCEA invites proposals for original creative works and critical interpretations that celebrate our theme. We also welcome all proposals related to the study and/or teaching of literature, film, composition and linguistics, as well as creative works.

The conference will also feature a special showing of one of Russo and Streiner’s films followed by a question and answer session. Entry to this presentation is included for all conference participants, but those interested in attending this session only can purchase separate tickets. A limited supply of autographed books, photos, and other collectables will also be available.

PCEA 2014 Conference Proposal Submission Instructions

PCEA invites either panels or individual papers for the 2014 PCEA Conference. Proposals in any area of literary, film, composition studies, and popular culture are welcome. Both pedagogical and theoretical proposals are encouraged, as are proposals to present original creative writing. To preserve time for discussion, PCEA limits all presentations to 15 minutes.

PCEA invites faculty, graduate students, and independent scholars to submit proposals. Undergraduate student participation is limited to faculty-organized and led panels. Faculty organizers should submit panel information, including contact information and abstracts. Individual undergraduate proposals will not be accepted. Undergraduate students are welcome to attend the conference as participants if they are not members of a panel.

Panels must consist of at least three presenters and, in order to leave time for questions, should not last longer than 45 minutes.

Proposers must join PCEA in order to present at the conference.

Please submit proposals using our Submittable Site: https://paenglish.submittable.com/submit

Read the full cfp here: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1CimigMNIZu5J31-Mg4fNssexLJTzS-RyQT8QXURrR38


By web submission at 03/25/2014 - 20:58

CFP English Gothic Literature on Screen Collection (7/1/14)

English Gothic Literature on Screen Chapter Proposal Call
full name / name of organization:
Lorna Fitzsimmons
contact email:
lfitzsimmons@csudh.edu

This is a chapter proposal call for an edited book GOTHIC LITERATURE IN ENGLISH ON SCREEN. Chapters will address film, television, and other screen adaptations and should demonstrate currency in contemporary adaptation theory. For initial consideration, email a statement of interest. Proposals of 600 words plus bibliography will be due by July 1 2014. Chapters will be 6000 words, due by January 5, 2015.

Lorna Fitzsimmons is Associate Professor and Coordinator of the Humanities Program at California State University Dominguez Hills in Los Angeles.


By web submission at 04/01/2014 - 18:55

Uncanny Animations - Spec. Issue of Preternature (proposals 4/15/14)

Here's a rather unique one:

Uncanny Animations
full name / name of organization:
Preternature: Critical and Historical Studies on the Preternatural
contact email:
kirsten@uszkalo.com
Please forgive the Cross-posting

Preternature: Critical and Historical Studies on the Preternatural, invites submissions for the special issue, “Uncanny Animations,” guest-edited by Prof. Elina Gertsman.

We seek essays that offer inquiry into the agentic potential—depicted, imagined, described, and perceived—of medieval animate or animated objects. Topics may include, but are not limited to, the ontology of living images; miracle stories that focus on image enlivening; visual and literary histories of automata; articulated objects used in devotional performances; agency of relics and reliquaries; and discourses of iconoclasm that target the living nature of images. The editor welcomes essays that are interdisciplinary in nature; submissions from scholars working on Byzantine and Islamic material are especially encouraged.

Contributions should be 8,000 - 12,000 words, including all documentation and critical apparatus. If accepted for publication, manuscripts will be required to adhere to the Chicago Manual of Style, 15th edition (style 1, employing endnotes).

The title of proposed contributions, a brief abstract, and a CV, should be e-mailed to elina.gertsman@case.edu by April 15, 2014.

Complete papers must be submitted through Preternature's Content Management System at http://preternature.org by June 15, 2014.

Queries about the journal should be made to the Editor, Dr. Kirsten C. Uszkalo (Kirsten@uszkalo.com)

Thanks for the continuing interest in our work!

Dr. Kirsten C. Uszkalo
kirsten@uszkalo.com


By web submission at 03/19/2014 - 03:34

CFP Undead as Sustainable (Academic) Resource (6/1/14, SAMLA 11/7-9/14)

The Undead as Sustainable (Academic) Resource, SAMLA 11/7-9/14
full name / name of organization:
Lynne M. Simpson, College English Association
contact email:
lsimpson@presby.edu

“ZOMBIES are a value stock. They are wordless and oozing and brain dead, but they’re an ever-expanding market with no glass ceiling,” writes Chuck Closterman for The New York Times. Thanks in part to the commodification of the zombie, the undead prove rich fodder for the academic as well. Papers that explore the zombie as cultural, ecological, political, or, of course, commoditized figure are welcome. Please send abstracts of around 500 words to Lynne Simpson at lsimpson@presby.edu by June 1, 2014.

SAMLA 86th Annual Conference: Sustainability and the Humanities
November 7-9, 2014
Marriott Atlanta Buckhead Hotel
Atlanta, Georgia

For more information on the conference, please see the following:
https://samla.memberclicks.net/conference


By web submission at 03/18/2014 - 02:43


More CFPs Coming!

Sorry for the flurry of CFPs tonight. I invariably get behind on things, but, whether I send a proposal or not, there are all worth looking at, as they often suggest new ways of looking at familiar texts.


CFP Gothic Spaces Conference (6/30/14; Australia 1/21-22/15)

CFP The Second Biennial Conference, Gothic Spaces: Boundaries, Mergence, Liminalities
full name / name of organization:
The Gothic Association of New Zealand and Australia (GANZA)
contact email:
conference@ganza.co.nz
Gothic Spaces: Boundaries, Mergence, Liminalities

The Gothic Association of New Zealand and Australia (GANZA) welcomes proposals for its biennial conference, to be held at Novotel Darling Harbour, Sydney, on 21-22 January 2015.

Recent developments in Gothic Studies have highlighted the importance of ‘space’. Here, ‘space’ is not only an abstract locus of meaning, but is also a loaded term that incorporates the interconnecting dimensions of cultural, geographical, and textual studies. As matters of spirituality and location, style and representation, chaos and order intersect, the Gothic continues to be moulded and re-moulded in relation to ever-changing understandings of both division and fusion. As such, the Gothic refuses to occupy a single space, and, as it interweaves and merges with multiple disciplines, readings, and interpretations, it also puts on new masks that change and mutate over time, societies, and cultures. The Gothic inhabits a space that is as liminal as it is demarcated, ambiguous as it is defined.

The aim of this conference is to revise, revisit, and question the meaning and impact of ‘Gothic spaces’ not only in aesthetic terms, but also in relation to their physical, psychological, and cultural scopes.

The conference will be interdisciplinary and multidisciplinary in nature. Topics may include, but are not limited to:

Gothic genres
Liminal identities
Hybridity and trangression
Gender boundaries and definitions
Gothic Bodies
Post/in/un-humanity
Narratives of ab/normality
Gothic geographies
‘Gothic tourism’
Haunted spaces
In/between spaces
Digital Gothic: reality/virtuality
Public/private nightmares
Dead/alive dichotomies
Sanity and insanity
Food and consumption
Gothic writing: canon and innovation
Gothic visuals and styles
Urban/rural spaces
Gothic forms (literature, film, poetry, comics etc.)
Theories of the Gothic

Proposals for panels are also welcome. Abstracts (250 words max) for 20 minute papers should be emailed to the attention of the conference organisers at: conference@ganza.co.nz.

Abstracts should include your name, affiliation, e-mail address, and the title of your proposed paper. The deadline for submissions is 30 June 2014.


By web submission at 03/17/2014 - 08:55

CFP Gothic Landscapes Collection (6/15/14)

"Gothic Landscapes: Changing Eras, Changing Cultures, Changing Anxieties" due 6/15/14
full name / name of organization:
Dr. Sharon R. Yang, Professor, English Department, Worcester State University
contact email:
syang@worcester.edu

The Gothic is a genre that emerged during the turmoil leading up to and caused by the French Revolution. Its symbolic use of shattered landscapes, natural and human made, challenging the view of the individual and society as ordered and rational, continues to evolve to reflect the anxieties of the eras and changing cultures of the nineteenth-, twentieth-, and twenty-first centuries. Ruined castles and mansions, blasted heaths, and ominous mountains and cliffs give way to uncharted lands for colonization, mean streets and urban jungles, sinister laboratories, gruesome battlefields, the labyrinth of political and economic conspiracies, and the dark unknowns of the human mind and body themselves. This collection will explore how Gothic’s use and refashioning of its generic landscapes trace the changing social and philosophical concerns in the centuries since its development to the present in literature. We are looking for essays that will explore how landscape in the Gothic is adapted across various time periods, geographies and cultures to reflect shifting cultural anxieties, concerns, and values.

Please submit an abstract of no more than 500 words by June 15, 2014 to either of the following individuals. Email submissions preferred. Abstracts may be submitted via email or snail mail. Snail mail submissions should include an SASE:

Dr. Sharon Rose Yang
55Elmwood Street
Auburn, MA 01501

syang@worcester.edu

or

Dr. Kathleen Heaely
P.O. Box 376
Eastford, CT 06242

khealey@worcester.edu


By web submission at 03/13/2014 - 14:33

CFP Literary Monsters (5/20/14; SAMLA 11/7-9/14)

Literary Monsters - SAMLA 2014 - Nov. 7-9
full name / name of organization:
Lisa Wenger Bro
contact email:
lisa.bro@mga.edu
Special Session at S014 SAMLA conference (Atlanta)

In today's culture, it's almost impossible to avoid "monsters." Straight from mythology and legend, these fantastic creatures traipse across our television screens and the pages of our books. Over centuries and across cultures, the inhuman have represented numerous cultural fears and, in more recent times, desires. This panel will explore the literal monsters--whether they be mythological, extraterrestrial, or man-made--that populate fiction and film, delving into the cultural, psychological and/or theoretical implications.

Please submit a 250-300 word abstract, a brief bio, and any A/V needs by May 20, 2014 to Lisa Wenger Bro, Middle Georgia State College, at lisa.bro@mga.edu.


By web submission at 03/12/2014 - 20:37

CFP Rebirth - Spec. Issue of Bristol Journal of English Studies (proposals by 4/25/14)

Bristol Journal of English Studies, Issue 5, Rebirth
full name / name of organization:
Bristol Journal of English Studies
contact email:
bristoljournalofenglishstudies@gmail.com
Bristol Journal Of English Studies call for submissions
Issue 5, Autumn 2014

Whether understood literally or symbolically, narratives of rebirth are a staple of myriad cultures and societies. Some rebirths can be dramatic, instantaneous, and we can see these kinds of transfigurations in, for example, Ovid’s Metamorphosis. Or, rebirth could perhaps be an ongoing, glacially-slow process, such as the perpetually provisional rebirths of Darwinian evolutionary theory: over time, for example, a microbe can become Picasso, but does the length of time preclude the possibility of this being seen as the rebirth of the microbe? Each day, even, could be seen as re-awakening and rebirth, after the shut-down of foetal-sleep; does memory preserve and make continuous our identity, as it did for John Locke, or has something fundamental changed overnight?
Religious and mythic texts, perhaps viewing rebirth in more spiritual terms, emphasise the proximity of rebirth to the divine and through which a spiritual transfiguration (and, less frequently, a physical transformation) may take place; in the Christian Bible, Christ undergoes both a moment of transfiguration and a resurrection; in Egyptian mythology, the creation myth perpetuates a kind of rebirth, in which the gods transform themselves into the material universe. In a more modern, secular culture, talk of rebirth often hinges on more tangible ideas of refreshment or renewal; in pop culture, for instance, an artistic rebirth allows a performer to distance themselves from a past (a scandal, an identity, a rather lack-lustre album) while simultaneously indicating their creative reinvigoration – whether for personal or commercial reasons. Revivals (of critical theories, of artistic or cinematic movements, of musical or fashion trends...) allow a group of individuals to participate collectively in a conscious resurrection of a particular phenomenon. To what extent is this a rebirth? What is the purpose (socially, culturally or psychologically) of rebirth? What remains of spiritual and theological notions of reincarnation and regeneration in modern narratives of rebirth? Are rebirths necessarily always positive? Is it even possible to be properly reborn?

The Bristol Journal of English Studies invites proposals for articles that aim to explore any number of these questions, in connection with any era or genre of literature, film, art, music or culture more broadly. Areas for consideration might be (though not limited to):

- Transformation; metamorphosis; transition; reincarnation; transfiguration.
- Religious figurations of rebirth; Messianic rebirths; resurrection; notions of being ‘born again’, Christian or otherwise.
- Identity and rebirth; the extent to which identity is or is not continuous; the adoption of new identities, conscious or otherwise; what stays the same, what changes?
- Psychoanalytical conceptions of rebirth; Jungian narratives of rebirth, Symbols of Transformation.
- The subversion or negation of death; death as a transient phenomenon.
- Becoming undead as a form or perversion of rebirth; the exploration of these themes in the literature of the gothic.
- Textual rebirth; whether or not re-writing, adaptation and even re-reading constitute the ‘rebirth’ of a text.
- Consumerism and rebranding; the illusion that something is either ‘fresh’ or ‘new’ through corporate marketing strategies; the alienation of audience through rebranding.

The editors seek 250 word proposals on the topic of rebirth, for 5,000-7,000 word articles or essays of up to 5,000 words. For guidance on this please see the attached Submissions Guidelines. Proposals should be sent, with 5-10 keywords, to bristoljournalofenglishstudies@gmail.com before 25th April 2014. Decisions will be made and communicated to authors by May 2nd, and completed articles will be due on June 2nd for publication in autumn 2014.

Please note that all articles and abstracts for consideration must follow the MHRA style guide.

website: http://englishjournal.blogs.ilrt.org/


By web submission at 03/12/2014 - 17:23