CFP Gothic Literature: Creative Activity, Research, and Pedagogy (9/1/2025; Special Issue of Interdisciplinary Humanities)

Gothic Literature: Creative Activity, Research, and Pedagogy

deadline for submissions: 

September 1, 2025

full name / name of organization: 

Interdisciplinary Humanities

contact email: 

cuevae@uhd.edu

Call for Papers

Interdisciplinary Humanities

Special Double Issue

Gothic Literature: Creative Activity, Research, and Pedagogy

 

Interdisciplinary Humanities announces a special double issue dedicated to exploring Gothic literature's rich and diverse world. This special issue will feature creative works, scholarly research, and pedagogy with a particular focus on the New England Gothic context, although submissions on alternate Gothic traditions are encouraged for specific areas of focus outlined below. We invite papers that investigate the New England Gothic genre's literary, cultural, and historical dimensions as well as creative works that engage with, draw inspiration from, and/or reinterpret Gothic traditions for contemporary audiences.

 

Research Topics

We welcome submissions that engage with topics such as the following:

• Critical analysis of Gothic texts, particularly focused on those rooted in the New England Gothic tradition.
• The evolution of New England Gothic literature’s themes and motifs, including the supernatural, horror, isolation, and decay.  Of particular interest are the ways in which these phenomena integrate with conversations about Indigenous peoples, the Puritans, religious and cultural superstitions and stereotypes, clashes of diverse cultures in these contexts, etc.
• The intersection of Gothic literature with other literary genres such as horror, fantasy, science fiction, and media such as film, video games, and digital texts.  This topic is open to submissions rooted across a more holistic Gothic literature and art field.
• Comparative studies of New England Gothic with other regional Gothic traditions, such as Southern Gothic or Transatlantic Gothic.
• Exploration of how New England Gothic literature reflects and shapes cultural anxieties related to gender, race, class, or historical trauma.
• Environmental and eco-Gothic themes, particularly in relation to the landscapes of New England.
• The role of art, architecture, geography, and space in Gothic narratives.  This topic is open to submissions investigating a broad field of Gothic traditions.
• The relationship between Gothic literature and cultural theory and analysis, including religious or philosophical traditions.

Creative Works

We also invite creative submissions inspired by Gothic traditions. These may include but are not limited to:

• Short stories, flash fiction, or novel excerpts that are drawn specifically from New England Gothic themes and/or contexts.
• Poetry that evokes the New England Gothic tradition's atmosphere, tone, or imagery.
• Experimental or hybrid forms that push the boundaries of New England Gothic literature.
• Creative non-fiction or memoirs that reflect on personal encounters with New England Gothic themes, narratives, or landscapes.

Pedagogy

• Innovative teaching methods for the Gothic.
• Curriculum design and assessment strategies.
• Interdisciplinary approaches to teaching Gothic texts.
• Digital humanities and Gothic literature /culture education.

 

Editors

Volume 1: Gothic Literature: Creative Activity and Research

• Jay Burkette (Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University)
• Wendy Galgan (Saint Joseph’s College of Maine)
• Megan Gannon (Ripon College)
• Darian Wharton (University of New Mexico)

 

Volume 2: Gothic Literature / Culture and Pedagogy

• Debra Bourdeau (Missouri University of Science and Technology)
• Clint Jones (Capital University)
• Mary Powell (Desert Vista High School and Grand Canyon University)
• Elissa Pugh (Concord University)

 

Important Dates

• Submission Deadline: October 1, 2025
• Notification of Acceptance: November 1, 2025

 

Review Process

All submissions will undergo a double-blind peer review process. Manuscripts will be evaluated based on originality, relevance, methodological rigor, and contribution to the field.

 

Contact Information

• Ed Cueva, Interdisciplinary Humanities Lead Editor: cuevae@uhd.edu

 Last updated March 31, 2025

CFP “A Day”: 2nd Annual Goth Music and Subculture Conference (5/22/2025; online 8/16/2025)

Sharing on behalf of the organizer.

“A Day”: 2nd Annual Goth Music and Subculture Conference

Deadline: May 22, 2025 

Conference Date: August 16, 2025 

Format: Online (via Zoom, Pacific)

Abstract: 150 words + 100 word biographical statement + Time Zone

Submit to: Noah Gallego, California State Polytechnic University @ noahrgallego@gmail.com 

Contact: Noah Gallego @noahrgallego@gmail.com

The Goth Music and Subculture Conference is coming back from the grave for another round of critical discussion! Due to the success of the inaugural conference last August, this sophomore installment will continue to critically engage the music and other artifacts from the goth music genre and subculture. 

Last year we commemorated the 45th anniversary of the release of the definitive goth single, “Bela Lugosi’s Dead” by the ur-goth band, Bauhaus, as well as the 68th death-day of the Count himself. This year, in 2025, we will commemorate two anniversaries: the 40th anniversary of the release of seminal Dutch darkwave Clan of Xymox’s self-titled debut album (1985) as well as the release of the Northern English goth industrial group The Sisters of Mercy’s debut album, First and Last and Always (1985). 

1985 was a pivotal year in the goth subculture as both of these bands opened new doors to goth music production, with Xymox and the Sisters becoming pioneers in the darkwave and industrial subgenres, respectively. While the primary topics of inquiry for this conference are COX and TSOM, interested parties are welcome to explore other bands and discographies; they are especially encouraged to explore non-canonical as well as contemporary acts. 

Below is a list that is illustrative but certainly not exhaustive of topics that prospective candidates are encouraged to explore:

Criticism: 

• Gender, sexuality, queerness
• Disability 
• Monstrosity and Abjection
• Class 
• Race
• Postcolonialism, Decoloniality, (Neo-)Orientalism
• Religion, spirituality, the occult, theology 
• Ecocriticism 
• Nonhuman/Transhuman/Posthuman (Animals, cyborgs, A.I.)
• Feminism 
• Trauma and psychoanalysis 
• Rhetoric  
• Memory, hauntology, and the archive

Intersections:

• Goth and literary influences 
• Goth and popular culture (film, television, comics, video games, etc.)
• Goth and/as performance (theatre, drag)
• Goth and Internet culture 
• Goth and fashion 
• Goth and festival culture (concerts, goth nites, graves, dance)
• Goth and musicology
• Goth outside of the West 

Please send abstracts of 150 words to Noah Gallego @ noahrgallego@gmail.com, along with a short biographical statement (100 words) and time zone in order to best approximate presentation times for speakers. B.N. If certain obligations require you to be slated at a specific time that day, please also include those suggested times in your submission so you may be placed appropriately.

There are no pre-formed panels, but if you would like to submit a proposal for a special topics session, please do! A minimum of 2 papers would be required. Otherwise, you will be placed in a panel at the discretion of the organizer on the basis of theme and cohesion. 

Candidates may expect a notification of acceptance, acceptance with revision, or rejection up to a week following the deadline. Presenters should aim to create papers/presentations of approximately 10-15 minutes in length.

The conference will be held on the 69th death-day of The Count on August 16, 2025. The symposium will be free and held online over Zoom. The estimated time slot is 9:00 am - 5:00 pm Pacific. 

*NOTE ABOUT PUBLISHING PAPERS: There are currently no plans to publish the accepted papers. However, depending on the success of the symposium, I am certainly open to the possibility of (co-)editing a collection or special issue based on the papers presented. If you would like to collaborate on this project, please let me know!

**NOTE ABOUT AUDIO: Because Zoom can sometimes compromise the efficacy of audio, we recommend to refrain from including live play from your presentations. We understand this may sound counterintuitive for a conference primarily about music but because we are working in a virtual environment where things are certain to go awry, we want to preemptively minimize any technical difficulties that may arise. You are welcome to include links to playlists of the tracks or artist(s) you will be discussing, however! We apologize for the inconvenience, but we appreciate your understanding. 

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CFP Journal of Dracula Studies 2025 (5/16/2025)

Journal of Dracula Studies

deadline for submissions: 

May 16, 2025

full name / name of organization: 

Journal of Dracula Studies

contact email: 

journalofdraculastudies@kutztown.edu

source: https://call-for-papers.sas.upenn.edu/cfp/2025/03/27/journal-of-dracula-studies

The Journal of Dracula studies is open for submissions for its upcoming 2025 issue. We invite manuscripts of scholarly articles (4000-6000 words) on any of the following: Bram Stoker, the novel Dracula, the historical Dracula, the vampire in literature including folklore, fiction, film, popular culture, and related topics. For our 2025 issue we are especially interested in work looking at F.W. Murnau's 1922 film Nosferatu and its remakes/adaptations, as well as its influence on the legacy of Stoker's work and vampire literature more broadly. Submissions should be sent electronically (as an e-mail attachment in .docx). Please indicate the title of your submission in the subject line of your e-mail.

Please follow MLA style. Examples of papers published in the Journal are available at https://research.library.kutztown.edu/dracula-studies/. 

Contributors are responsible for obtaining any necessary permissions and ensuring observance of copyright.
Manuscripts will be peer-reviewed independently by at least two scholars in the field.
Copyright for published articles remains with the author.

Send electronic submissions to journalofdraculastudies@kutztown.edu 

Last updated March 31, 2025

CFP Cinema and Posthuman Bodies (5/15/2025)

Cinema and Posthuman Bodies

deadline for submissions: 

May 15, 2025

full name / name of organization: 

Asijit Datta

contact email: 

asijitdatta@gmail.com

source: https://call-for-papers.sas.upenn.edu/cfp/2025/03/28/cinema-and-posthuman-bodies

Cinema and Posthuman Bodies

Edited by Asijit Datta 

Let us begin with a few radical questions: If posthumanism indicates the ‘end of the human’ and an overhauling of humanistic modes of knowledge, does it also refer to the vanishing of the body?; or how do we define something as nebulous as a body, which is an embodied and extracted product of its surroundings?; or is it possible to arrive at a non-epistemic body or a body outside humanism’s claims and codes? Posthumanism interprets bodies as symbiotic, interrelational, transversal, contextually grounded, porous, and entangled assemblages of geo-biological, mythological-shapeshifting forces and various inorganic components. As a discourse, it practices the overcoming of traditional bodies and their cultural differences and instead imagines bodies that are non-anthropocentric, non-dualist, multiversal, cyborg, animalistic, deformed, extraterrestrial, sedimental, fossilized, archaeological, surgical, hybrid, digital, transitive, or all kinds of ‘post-humanist’ bodies that attack the heteronormative, straitjacketed, Vitruvian corporal frame of reference. Bodies, therefore, are not static objects open to anthropological or biological interrogation but represent dynamic, multi-layered forces that transcend all binaristic scaffoldings and form networks of interaction with non-human others in the ecosystem. In the course of history, the human body has moved through the routes of dualism (mind/body), differentiation (animal/human), anatomization (rise of medicine and remapping of entrails), prohibition (church/religion), perfection (Renaissance), industrialization (Industrial and French revolutions), transformation (World War and Avant-garde, Psychoanalysis), exploration (performance arts), regimentation (surveillance and biowarfare), and mutation (AI, biotechnology, and pandemics). Debates around the transmutation of bodies also raise concerns about the reproduction of cyberized figures, creation of artificial consciousness, transgenesis, uploading of memories onto a microchip (transubstantiation), or even cryopreservation. Where must we then urgently locate retaliatory, ‘obscene’ bodies in the age of the Anthropocene?

Science fiction, and especially horror films (found footage, creature features, psychological, slasher, zombie), seem to reinstate that the body given to us is prosthetic in nature. Despite being a heterogeneous amalgam and grounded in material-informational surroundings, the body has always reconstructed itself through substitutes and supplements. Film itself, as a medium, works as a widening device, extending the properties of the body inflicted with limitations. The need for physical replacements, additions, and erasures fundamentally emerges as a consequence of the aftereffects of death or the inevitability of death – the first generates fear, the other, shock. Somatic alterations imply a deep-seated proclivity in the human heart toward the unnatural, the bizarre, the traumatic. We are fascinated by the possibilities of our own primitive/futuristic bodies. Another intriguing thing to observe is that the metamorphosed person also seeks refuge in the monstrous identity of the other that they have now become. They are often posited as an object’s return to haunt the moral and ethical foundations of society or the body’s ways of dealing with its own anxieties. Gyrating and paroxysmic bodies move films beyond diegesis to some extra-sensory, spectatorial awakening. Eventually, bodies in such films endure metaphoric and polymorphic aftereffects of hyperconsumption. Genetic engineering, the atom bomb, the Holocaust, the AIDS crisis, the Cold War, and the ever-evolving colonial tendencies exposed the body to a constant feeling of nervousness and vertigo. Bodies, then, as hosts, are continuously tied to a kind of disquieting reaction to the socio-political, historical, and climatic encroacher and violator residing inside. Even early horrors like Nosferatu (1922) or Frankenstein (1931) address the problems of identity and deformity. Right from the appropriation of material bodies by amorphous aliens in Don Siegel’s Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1956) and Romero’s entrails-eating and pessimistic Night of the Living Dead (1968), to Cronenberg’s cosmetic implants and media meltdown in Videodrome (1983) and Tsukamoto’s cyberpunk metal fetishist Tetsuo: The Iron Man (1989), and down to Friedkin’s archaeological-antichristian Exorcist (1973), Scott’s extraterrestrial onslaught in Alien (1979), Boyle’s virus-crazy 28 Days Later (2002), Garland’s synthetic intelligence in Ex Machina (2014), and the recent ecological and extinction horrors like Train to Busan (2016), Cargo (2017), Annihilation (2018), and Gaia (2021) tend to convert concepts and metaphors into flesh, and flesh into something transgressive and ungraspable. A more alarming phenomenon is the sudden arrival of bodily variations or body horror in cinema, linked with depression, gender constructs, capitalist maltreatment, the environment, mechanophilia, sexual awakening, self-upgradation, self-censorship, pregnancy, infections, and sometimes even the sheer terror of being decaying mortal things. The otherized versions that a body is exposed to also enable it for an empathetic recognition of the torment of human and nonhuman others. Therefore, bodies as affective bearers of precarious coding are exhibited as sites of struggle and lessening subjectivity. However, in their heterogeneous arrangement, these ‘vulgar’ bodies are also modes of resistance.

Finally, the boundaries of consciousness are overwhelmed by the inherent plasticity of the body. The torture and distortion of bodies in horror or speculative cinema reconfigures its borders and stretches it beyond the grotesque and the bestial. These neomaterialist bodies, with their disintegrated constitution, challenge the divinely ordained authorized agents of humanism and the paradigm of autonomous transhumanism. Posthumanism tries to push the body from disidentification to reidentification. Bodies, under the posthumanist lens, are artifacts, artistic fabrications, postnatural, and mediated. They are not some authentic unity-to-be-preserved, but rather chimerical, microbial, and non-unitary. Horror films are strange places of post-death human afterness that also provide openings for the microbes living inside us to migrate to other, happier spaces.

This edited volume is in search of articles that discuss the potentialities and pluralities embedded within diverse posthuman bodies in horror and speculative cinema. The book invites original contributions on topics related to:

 

Posthumanism and Folk Horror

Posthumanism and Zombies 

Posthumanism and Body Horror

Posthumanism and Slashers

Posthumanism and Ecohorror

Posthumanism and Monstrosity

Posthumanism and Body Invasions

Posthumanism and Aliens

Posthumanism and Disasters

Posthumanism and Parallel Universe

Posthumanism and Extinction

Posthumanism and Alternate Intelligence 

Posthumanism and Cyberpunk

Posthumanism and Dystopia

Posthumanism and Mutation 

Posthumanism and Found Footage

 

Specific Guidelines for Submission:

If interested, kindly send abstracts of 350 words, a 100-word bionote, and 5 keywords to kimoextraterrestrial@gmail.com by May 15th 2025. 

Publisher: Bloomsbury (yet to receive the contract)

Full-length articles (6000 - 8000 words) by 30 September 2025. 

 

For any queries, please contact Dr Asijit Datta (asijitdatta@gmail.com). 

Last updated April 1, 2025

Conference Notice: Horror Studies Now (5/29-30/2025, Northumbria University, UK)

 Sadly another CFP that I missed earlier in the year.

Horror Studies Now (29-30 May 2025, Northumbria University, UK)

deadline for submissions: 

March 14, 2025

full name / name of organization: 

Horror Studies Research Group, Northumbria University

contact email: 

horrorstudies@northumbria.ac.uk

source: https://call-for-papers.sas.upenn.edu/cfp/2025/01/31/horror-studies-now-29-30-may-2025-northumbria-university-uk

Horror Studies Now: A Two-Day Conference (29-30 May 2025, Northumbria University, UK)

Researchers working in the broad field of “Horror Studies”, are invited to submit abstracts about their research for an in-person conference, hosted by the Horror Studies Research Group at Northumbria University (https://research.northumbria.ac.uk/horrorstudies), on 29-30 May 2025.

Speakers will each deliver a 15-minute talk about their research, followed by extended discussion and questions from the conference delegation. We welcome submissions from scholars at any career stage, but are particularly open to hearing from early career researchers and new voices in the field. The event is intended to provide a welcoming space in which to develop ideas, network, and forge collaborations with fellow Horror Studies researchers.

The event seeks to explore areas and approaches that have not yet been adequately accounted for or represented in the field, encompassing (but not limited to):

- The diversity of perspectives, identities, and voices that comprise Horror Studies and horror production

- Independent horror production, alternative histories, and horror produced outside of Europe and North America

- The field’s methodological richness, including archival approaches, audience research, practice-based research, and new theoretical perspectives

- The breadth of cultural perspectives that inform Horror Studies and horror media

- Papers that address horror in all its media forms including games, film, comics, music, social media, television, literature, art, and so forth

We seek to foreground scholarly excellence within the field by embracing a wide range of approaches, confronting representational biases within the canon, highlighting strategies to counter these biases, and contributing to a more diverse and inclusive academic landscape. We encourage and welcome expressions of interest from members of the global majority and people from underrepresented or marginalised groups.

Special guests include:

- Dr Cüneyt Çakırlar (Nottingham Trent University; editor of Transnational Horror: Folklore, Genre and Cultural Politics [Liverpool University Press, 2025])

- Dr Maxine Gee (Bournemouth University; screenwriter of short film Standing Woman [2020] and web series Tales of Bacon [2018])

- Professor Maisha L Wester (University of Sheffield/Indiana University, Bloomington; author of African American Gothic in the Era of Black Lives Matter [Cambridge University Press, 2025])

The deadline for abstracts (of 250 words) is 23:59 (GMT) Friday 14 March 2025. Abstracts should be accompanied by a biographical statement (of 50-100 words) and submitted at the following link: https://forms.office.com/e/FgdAxxxWxy.

A small fee will be required to attend to cover catering expenses; however, we are striving to keep this cost as low as possible. All speakers, unless they choose to decline, will have their work considered for the new Peter Hutchings Award for Outstanding Contribution to Horror Studies. The award includes a certificate for the winner and a publication (subject to revision) in Studies in the Fantastic.

Applicants will be notified of the outcome of their proposal within 14 days of the deadline.

Any questions should be directed to horrorstudies@northumbria.ac.uk

 

The Horror Studies Research Group at Northumbria:

Northumbria University is internationally renowned as the home of horror scholarship. This research specialism was founded by our late Professor Peter Hutchings, and the Horror Studies Research Group formalises Northumbria’s concentration of experts in this area. Our core team are widely recognised as leaders in this area, publishing field-defining monographs, presenting keynote lectures at major conferences, delivering talks at numerous European film festivals, holding positions on the editorial boards of the field’s primary book series and winning major research grants. Our global reputation for research excellence in Horror Studies is further proliferated by our many genre-based PhDs and alumni.

Last updated January 31, 2025

CFP Dracula: A Companion (3/31/2025)

Just came across this. Apologies for the late posting.

CFP: Dracula: A Companion

deadline for submissions: 

March 31, 2025

full name / name of organization: 

Matthew Crofts (University of Hull), Maddy Potter (University of Edinburgh)

contact email: 

m.crofts@hull.ac.uk

source: https://call-for-papers.sas.upenn.edu/cfp/2025/01/23/cfp-dracula-a-companion. 

CFP: Dracula: A Companion

Matthew Crofts & Maddy Potter

Dracula: A Companion is intended to both be an essential guide to interpreting Bram Stoker’s Dracula and a collection of new perspectives supporting a reshaping of the way the text is taught and engaged with by students. 

Fundamental to the approach of this companion is placing the text at the epicentre of its own cultural afterlife and pop culture status. Beginning with the novel’s inception and influences, Dracula is positioned as a ‘spark’ that ignited the character's enduring popularity and presence across the globe. From here, the familiar topics the novel is understood through will see novel perspectives, accounting not only for new and exciting research, but exploring  how Dracula’s immortality stems from how it can be subjected to new approaches, showcasing the versatility of the book, and its continued capacity to lend itself to readings that speak of topical cultural concerns. 

The final sections prioritise the way the text has been reshaped to suit contemporary audiences, distanced from the ‘original’ novel through adaptation and literary pastiche. Every ‘version’ of Dracula has the potential to be someone’s first encounter with the character, and may be what they think of when hearing the name. By giving this aspect a clear focus it establishes to students and readers alike that ‘Dracula’ is not contained within the novel, but has become a myth recognised across the globe.

We kindly request abstracts of no more than 250 words for either full essay style chapters of 4,500 words or shorter case studies focusing on individual texts of approx 2000 words. We are also open to further ideas, suggestions, and questions. The deadline for abstracts is Monday March 31st 2025. Full contributions are expected to be due at the end of Summer 2025.

Please email abstracts or any other enquiries to madeline.potter@ed.ac.uk & m.crofts@hull.ac.uk

 

Potential topics (but by no means limited to):

• Theatrical Influences on the novel’s form Historical influences

• Transylvania as a mosaic (Hungarian and Irish Parallelism)

• Stoker: a biographical reading

• Global Dracula Stoker’s own travels

• Dracula in translation 

• New perspectives on sexuality: LGBTQA+ readings/drag

• New scientific & medical readingsNew perspectives on race

• Romany enslavement

• Dracula as Sensation fiction/Victorian popular fiction

• Publishing practices

• Reception of Dracula

• Reading Dracula as a werewolf text

• Neo-Victorian readings

• Wider cultural understanding of Dracula [Intended as shorter chapters, akin to case studies of texts]

• Dracula adaptations, appropriations and pastiches

• Neglected adaptations (eg. The Claes Bang/Gatiss version, The 1977 Louis Jourdan version)

• Neglected adaptations from non-anglo/American countries

• Non-Western Draculas 

• Dracula for children: eg. Hotel Transylvania eg. Count Duckula 

• Dracula games (computer and table-top)

• Dracula in New Media & Fandom

Last updated January 25, 2025

CFP Ann Radcliffe Academic Conference 2025 (3/31/2025; StokerCon 2025 Stamford, CT 6/13/2025)

Ann Radcliffe Academic Conference


For Academic Researchers across the Horror Genre!



The Seventh Annual Ann Radcliffe Academic Conference at StokerCon 2025

https://www.stokercon2025.com/ann-radcliffe-academic-conference

CALL FOR INITIAL PAPERS

​

Conference Date: Friday, June 13, 2025

​

Conference Location: Hilton Stamford Hotel & Executive Meeting Center

1 First Stamford Pl

Stamford, CT 06902

​

The 2025 StokerCon convention is eager to channel the creative potential of Stamford’s history, culture, and communities.



Likewise, the co-organizers of the Ann Radcliffe Academic Conference look forward to interrogating, exploring, and re-imagining the field of horror and gothic studies. The Ann Radcliffe Conference is intended as a research showcase within Stokercon, as well as an opportunity for building community and collaboration. Therefore, we invite all interested scholars, researchers, creators, academics, and non-fiction writers to submit presentation abstracts for completed research projects, works-in-progress, and projects invested in the academic analysis of the horror genre and its history in all its forms. As in previous years, this conference will be held in a hybrid format, with both in-person panels and recorded online presentations available via Hopin.



We are eager to receive abstracts that expand the scholarship across horror and gothic studies. This can include, but is by no means limited to, analyses and critiques of fields or formats such as:

​

Art


Cinema


Comics/Manga


Literature


Music


Poetry


Television


Video Games


Cartoons/Anime



We invite papers that take an interdisciplinary approach to their subject matter and welcome scholarship that considers a diverse range of readings, interpretations, and application of theories. This includes work from a variety of interdisciplinary and transmedial fields including, but not limited to:



Critical race theory


Film theory and analysis


Gender/LGBTQIA+ theory


Historical analysis and interpretation


Archival research


Literary theory and analysis


Pedagogical approaches to horror and the gothic


Intersections with psychology, biology, and the history of medicine


Philosophical approaches



Presentation and Submission Guidelines:

​

Please upload a 250 – 300 word abstract below by March 31, 2025. Responses will follow as soon as possible.


Presentations should adhere to a 15-minute time limit, in order to ensure adequate time for discussion and commentary.


Please note in your abstract whether you plan to present your work in person or virtually. For those presenting virtually, recordings will need to be sent by April 15, 2024.



Please address any questions to AnnRadcliffeCon@gmail.com




CL​ICK HERE FOR SUBMITTABLE PAGE

​

​

In support of HWA’s Diverse Works Inclusion Committee goals, the Ann Radcliffe Academic co-chairs encourage the widest possible diverse representation to apply and present their scholarship in a safe and supportive environment. For more information, please see the Diverse Works Inclusion Committee Mission Statement at: http://horror.org/category/the-seers-table/



The Ann Radcliffe Academic Conference is part of the Horror Writers Association’s Outreach Program. Created in 2016 by Michele Brittany and Nicholas Diak, the Ann Radcliffe Academic Conference has been a venue for horror scholars to present their work alongside professional writers and editors in the publishing industry. The conference has also been the genesis of the Horror Writer Association’s first academic release, Horror Literature from Gothic to Post-Modern: Critical Essays, composed entirely of Ann Radcliffe Conference presenters, published by McFarland in February 2020.


Membership to the Horror Writers Association is not required to submit or present, however registration to StokerCon 2025 is required to be accepted and to present. StokerCon registration, including full event registration and day passes, can be obtained by going to https://www.stokercon2024.com.



There is no additional registration or fees for the Ann Radcliffe Academic Conference outside StokerCon registration. If interested in applying to the Horror Writers Association as an academic member, please see www.horror.org/about/.

CFP Theorizing Zombiism 4: Fast Zombies/SLO Zombies Conference (1/31/2025; San Luis Obispo, CA 7/18-19/2025)

 

Theorizing Zombiism 4: Fast Zombies/SLO Zombies

deadline for submissions: 

January 31, 2025

full name / name of organization: 

Zombie Studies Network

contact email: 

theorizingzombiism@gmail.com

source: https://call-for-papers.sas.upenn.edu/cfp/2024/11/16/theorizing-zombiism-4-fast-zombiesslo-zombies.

Theorizing Zombiism IV: Fast Zombie/SLO Zombie

 

 DEADLINE EXTENSION

 

California Polytechnic State University (Cal Poly)

Department of English

San Luis Obispo (SLO)

California

 

Provisional Date: 18-19 July, 2025

 

 

The Theorizing Zombiism (TZ) conference series is intent on exploring theories of what zombiism as the state of being or becoming zombified was and meant for the modern era. As the zombie figure shifts and mutates, discussions, and debates, have ensued about what constitutes a zombie and what does not. Since the 1932 film White Zombie, the zombie has developed numerous iterations: from the agentless worker to the shambling corpse, to the cannibalistic corpse, to the sentient zombie. This is, of course, an abbreviated list. The TZ4 conference aims to continue exploring the state of zombiism by examining not only what a zombie is but also how the figure functions. Through these two aspects, the Zombie Studies Network calls for papers examining the seemingly ever-shifting parameters of the zombie in both society and academia through all media versions. As discussions of zombies in academia, and in public, tend to be dominated by the cinematic portrayals, the hope for this conference is that other mediums will be explored to expand the scope of understanding of the zombie in comparison to the various spheres of society that engages with and utilizes the zombie. As a continuation from the previous conference as well, the TZ4 conference aims to provide a much-needed platform for the development of international and interdisciplinary relationships between researchers, educators, practitioners and other interested parties. Collaborations between disciplines is also encouraged. Proposals for panels and co-authored papers are also especially encouraged.

 

Abstract deadline: 31 January, 2025

 

Email abstracts to theorizingzombiism@gmail.com

 

Potential topics could be, but are not limited to, the following:

 

Zombie Science

Zombies in Science

Zombies across the disciplines compared to the humanities

Zombies in the news and social media

Short stories and short films

Novels

Comic/Graphic novels

Cosplay and Fancy Dress/Costume

Ecocritical zombiism
Zombies in Popular Culture
Historical/Literary mash-ups
The undead in myth and folklore
Zombies in survival video games
Zombies and consumer capitalism

Zombies and neoliberalism

Zombies and communism
Linguistic perspectives on the undead
Globalization, refugees, and migration
Gender/ethnicity/race and the undead
Nationalism through the zombie narratives
Zombiism and visual culture and art history
Zombie infections as a metaphor for pandemics
Re-evaluating the function of horror in society
Dead digital objects and undead archival objects
Expanding zombie tropes in other forms and fields
Zombie phenomenology/philosophy/psychoanalysis
The science of zombiism/the zombification of science
Legal zombiism: law and legislation that refuses to die
Zombie visuality: motifs unique to the zombie’s visual personality

 

categories

film and television

international conferences

popular culture

science and culture

theory

Last updated January 6, 2025

CFP A Warning to the Curious: Ghostly, Supernatural and Weird Tales Conference (4/10/2025; Online 8/23-24/2025)

 

Online Conference: A Warning to the Curious: Ghostly, Supernatural and Weird Tales

deadline for submissions: 

April 10, 2025

full name / name of organization: 

Romancing the Gothic

contact email: 

awarningtothecuriousconference@gmail.com

source: https://call-for-papers.sas.upenn.edu/cfp/2025/01/06/online-conference-a-warning-to-the-curious-ghostly-supernatural-and-weird-tales.

CFP for A Warning to The Curious: Ghostly, Supernatural and Weird Tales

 

An ONLINE conference on 23rd and 24th August 2025 marking the 100th anniversary of MR James A Warning to the Curious and Other Ghost Stories

SUBMISSION DEADLINE: 10th April 2025

The conference is fully online and is open to scholars and experts from around the world.

In 1925, M R James published his final collection of ghostly tales: A Warning to the Curious and Other Ghost Stories. Often thought of as a writer of ‘ghost stories’, James’ works span a range of supernatural manifestations and generically sit on the cusp of the ghostly and weird. James’ name has become almost synonymous with the ghostly tale and many of his works have been adapted. This conference seeks to explore not only James’ work but also its legacy and it aims to put James’ work within the wider context of ghostly, supernatural and weird writing on both a national and international level. We therefore welcome papers on writers and artists from any historical period and any country.

The year’s conference seeks to mark the anniversary of James’ collection with a conference exploring three key themes:

1)      MR James’ work, its reception, adaptation and legacy

2)      Short form terror – weird fiction, ghost stories, and other short forms traditions (including oral and digital modes)

3)      20th-century supernatural writing

 

We welcome papers focusing on ghostly and supernatural traditions globally as well as papers on the British tradition of which MR James formed such a key part. We do not wish to impose rigid definitions of the weird, ghostly, or ‘ghost story’ and welcome a wide range of approaches. While the conference predominantly focuses on written forms, we also encourage papers that look at oral and non-traditional modes of story production and non-narrative forms e.g. art and music.

Romancing the Gothic seeks to encourage innovative conversations across barriers, bringing together scholarship and research from different countries, traditions, sub-fields and perspectives.

We welcome scholars, researchers and experts from all stages of their career and from every background

What are we looking for?

We welcome:

• 20 minute papers
• 10 minute lightning talks
• Panels (3-4 papers of 20 minutes with or without a suggested panel chair)
• Workshops (cooking, writing, art, music, craft, drama, dance) related to the key themes of the conference

Potential Topics

We welcome papers on a range of topics. The below are suggested areas but we welcome papers from outside these themes.

• The production and dissemination of MR James’ work
• MR James’ short fiction
• Intersections between James’ academic work and his fiction
• Adaptations of James’ work
• Horror and the antiquarian
• Intersections of the archaeological and horror
• James’ legacy
• Fictional representations of MR James
• The Victorian or Edwardian ghost story (focus on any specific author or text welcomed)
• Early Weird Fiction
• Ghost belief in the late 19th and early 20th centuries
• 20th century developments in the ghost story
• Adaptations of 19th and early 20th century ghost tales
• The ghost story as form
• Oral traditions of ghost-telling
• Christmas story-telling and adaptation traditions

 

An abstract of 150-250 words should be sent to awarningtothecuriousconference@gmail.com before 10th April 2025. If you have not written an abstract before, I will be running workshops on abstract writing. Please enquire at the email above. Your abstract should function as a short summary of your paper and demonstrate your expertise in the area. You can also include a short biography (<100 words) but all submissions will be judged solely on the abstract and a biography is not required at this stage.

Accessibility Notes

We want to work with all contributors to make sure that the conference is fully accessible for them. We work entirely online. Subtitles are auto-generated during the conference. Information is provided with alt-text where required and accessibility training is offered to all speakers. For the conference itself, clear information on the timetable, running of the event and what to expect is provided ahead of time. We have a clear code of conduct which is used to maintain a welcoming atmosphere and a comfortable space for all participants. We are explicitly queer friendly and aim to be an inclusive conference for all. If you have any questions, queries or requests at this stage or at a later stage, please do not hesitate to contact me at awarningtothecuriousconference@gmail.com

 

categories

film and television

online conferences

popular culture

twentieth century and beyond

victorian

Last updated January 10, 2025

CFP New Perspectives on Creature Features (3/10/2025)

 

New Perspectives on Creature Features

deadline for submissions: 

March 10, 2025

full name / name of organization: 

Fernando Gabriel Pagnoni Berns

contact email: 

monstersfilms@yahoo.com

source: https://call-for-papers.sas.upenn.edu/cfp/2024/12/18/new-perspectives-on-creature-features. 

New Perspectives on Creature Features

 

Edited by

Fernando Gabriel Pagnoni Berns (Universidad de Buenos Aires)

 

The editor is looking to put together an edited collection on creature features. The recent success of films such as Crawl (Alexander Aja, 2019) and the Monsterverse (Godzilla, King Kong, etc.), and the renewed interest in rebooting the classical monster pantheon (Leigh Whannell’s Wolf Man) has shown that there is a growing interest in monsters’ films. Arguably, horror cinema began with creatures such as Frankenstein, Dracula, the Mummy and the Wolf Man and they have been popular since then. During the 1950s, the classical monsters were replaced by hideous alien creatures and the 1970s were witness of the “animal revenge” horror cycle. Creature features is today as popular as yesterday (maybe even more), yet “monster movies” are still considered as lowbrow efforts. Thus, this edited collection looks for close readings of films led by creatures and monsters in the 21st Century. Classical films will be welcome if analyzed through new, contemporary theories to show how their purpose/meaning has changed over time.

This collection will be global in scope, and creatures features Asia, Africa, and Latin America are very welcome.

 

Contributions could include, but are not limited to, the following topics:

 

-Classical monsters (vampires, werewolves, the Frankenstein monster, etc.)

- Animals in horror cinema

-Aliens

-Cryptids

-Trash cinema

-The creature as metaphor

-Creatures features and humor

-Global creatures’ features

-Kaiju

-Cute monsters

 

 

We are open to works that focus on other topics as well. Prospective authors are well to contact the editor with any questions, including potential topics not listed above. Please submit a 300-500-word abstract of your proposed chapter contribution as a Word Doc (not PDF) with a brief bio (in the same document), current position, affiliation, and complete contact information to editor Fernando Gabriel Pagnoni Berns to monstersfilms@yahoo.com by 10 March 2025. Potential contributors must keep in mind that this book will be edited by Peter Lang for its “New Perspectives” series (edited by Simon Bacon), which asks for short chapters of around 3,500-4,000 words.

Final chapters are likely due in August 2025.

Please share this announcement with anyone you believe would be interested in contributing to this volume.

Note: Acceptance of a proposed abstract does not guarantee the acceptance of the full chapter

 

 

Fernando Gabriel Pagnoni Berns (PhD in Arts, PhD Candidate in History) works as Professor at the Universidad de Buenos Aires (UBA) - Facultad de Filosofía y Letras (Argentina)-. He teaches courses on international horror film. He is director of the research group on horror cinema “Grite” and has authored a book about Spanish horror TV series Historias para no Dormir (Universidad de Cádiz, 2020) and has edited books on Frankenstein bicentennial (Universidad de Buenos Aires), one on director James Wan (McFarland, 2021), the Italian giallo film (University of Mississippi Press, 2022), horror comics (Routledge, 2022) and Hammer horror films (Routledge, 2024). Currently editing a book on Baltic horror. He is Director of “Terror: Estudios Críticos” (Universidad de Cádiz, Spain), the first-ever horror studies series in Spain.

 

https://posgrado.filo.uba.ar/pagnoni-fernando

categories

fan studies and fandom

film and television

interdisciplinary

journals and collections of essays

popular culture

Last updated January 2, 2025