CFP Otherness: Essays and Studies - Spring 2026 (2/15/2026)

Otherness: Essays and Studies - Spring 2026

deadline for submissions:
February 15, 2026

full name / name of organization:
Centre for Studies in Otherness

contact email:
otherness.research@gmail.com

source: https://call-for-papers.sas.upenn.edu/cfp/2025/12/05/otherness-essays-and-studies-spring-2026

The peer-reviewed e-journal Otherness: Essays and Studies is now accepting submissions for its 2026 general issue.

Otherness: Essays and Studies publishes research articles from and across different scholarly disciplines that examine, in as many ways as possible, the concepts of otherness and alterity. We particularly appreciate dynamic cross-disciplinary study.

“To approach the Other in conversation is to welcome his expression, in which at each instant he overflows the idea a thought would carry away from it. It is therefore to receive from the Other beyond the capacity of the I, which means exactly: to have the idea of infinity. But it also means: to be taught.”
― Emmanuel Levinas, Totality and Infinity: An Essay on Exteriority

Otherness is complex and multivalent term. Otherness is defined by difference, both via outside markers and internal characteristics. Otherness is also a means by which we define ourselves. Thus the concept is inevitably bound with conceptions of selfhood, making it fundamental for discussions of subjectivity, social, cultural and national identity, and larger discussions of ontology. In light of more recent theory and criticism, the assumed line between the self and the other, the defining boundary of identity construction, is blurred, and as such the entire concept of otherness has become intricate and problematic.

In recent years, the concept has become even more salient, as boundaries become increasingly tested, identities challenged, and difference ever more powerfully promoted. As bell hooks reminds us, “when the dominant culture demands that the Other be offered as a sign that progressive political change is taking place … it invites a resurgence of essentialist cultural nationalism” (Black Looks 1992). With that resurgence, we find the discussion of otherness ever more important. It is this concept, otherness, in all of its complexities and nuances that we seek to explore and discuss through Otherness: Essays and Studies.

Past projects from the Centre, and past issues of the journal, have brought together articles from the fields of cultural theory, continental philosophy, sociology, postcolonial studies, psychoanalysis, gender studies, Gothic studies, animal alterity, the performing arts, fandom and celebrity studies, postmodernism and poststructuralist theory, and the consideration of the post-linguistic turn in their consideration of otherness. This journal invites submissions dealing with aspects of critical, socio-political, cultural, and literary exploration, within the scope of studies in otherness and alterity.

Topics may include, but are not limited to:

Otherness in Cultural Representation

The Representation of Otherness in Popular Culture

Race, Otherness, and Mediated Representation

Cultural Appropriation, or The Commodification of the Other

Hybridity, Creolization, and the Global Other

Representations of Otherness in the Global South

Precarity, Otherness and Marginalization

Otherness and the Non-Human Animal

Ethics, Responsibility, and the Other

Memory, History, Trauma, and Otherness

Sexuality, Gender, the Body and the Other

Otherness, Phenomenology, and Lived Experience

Absolute Otherness vs. Self-Same Other

Monstrosity, Spectrality and Terror of the Other

Uncanny or Abject Others; or The Familiar Other

The Sublime or the Unimaginable Other

Otherness and the ‘Post-Racial’

Political Otherness, Democracy, and the Post-Truth Era

Nationalism, Multiculturalism, and the Identity of the Other

Articles should be between 5,000 – 8,000 words. All electronic submissions should be sent via email with Word document attachment formatted to Chicago Manual of Style standards (Author-Date) to the editor Matthias Stephan at otherness.research@gmail.com. See the submission guidelines at www.otherness.dk/journal for more details.

While we accept papers on a rolling basis, consideration for the next general issue will cut off on Feb 15, 2026.


Last updated December 8, 2025

CFP Haunting Revisions: The Female Gothic Across Time and Media (3/1/2026)

Haunting Revisions: The Female Gothic Across Time and Media

deadline for submissions:
March 1, 2026

full name / name of organization:
Special Issue of Women's Studies on the Female Gothic

contact email:
Haunting_revisions_submissions@mailfence.com

source: https://call-for-papers.sas.upenn.edu/cfp/2025/12/12/haunting-revisions-the-female-gothic-across-time-and-media

Call for Publications

Women’s Studies: An Interdisciplinary Journal (Taylor & Francis)

**Special Issue on

Haunting Revisions: The Female Gothic Across Time and Media**

Guest Editors:
Dr. Cindy Murillo, Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University
Dr. Jennifer Nader, Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University

Overview

The Female Gothic has long served as a vibrant site of cultural critique and imaginative resistance. From its eighteenth-century origins to its twenty-first-century reinventions, the mode has provided women—and now feminist, queer, trans, and nonbinary creators across media—with narrative tools for exploring domestic captivity, gendered violence, racial haunting, queer desire, environmental dread, and the uncanny dimensions of embodiment. Foundational scholarship by Ellen Moers (1976), Sandra Gilbert and Susan Gubar (1979), and later Diana Wallace (2009) and Andrew Smith (2009) has shaped the field, while more recent work increasingly examines the Female Gothic’s global, intersectional, and multimedia transformations.

This special issue, Haunting Revisions: The Female Gothic Across Time and Media, emerges from the panel “Unhomely Heroines: Rewriting the Female Gothic in American Fiction,” presented at the American Literature Association Symposium on the Female Gothic (October 17, 2025). The panel’s high attendance, lively discussion, and subsequent scholarly inquiries demonstrated a pressing need for renewed interdisciplinary engagement with the Female Gothic—especially given the profound cultural upheavals that have reshaped feminist discourse since the last major collected study in 2009 (Wallace & Smith).

Why Now?

Although scholars continue to publish monographs and articles on Gothic women’s writing, there has not been a recent special issue of Women’s Studies dedicated to revisiting the Female Gothic in light of the past decade’s cultural, political, and technological shifts. These include:

• The global #MeToo movement and feminist protest cultures
• Potential rollbacks of women’s voting and property rights through revived coverture frameworks
• Legal assaults on reproductive rights following the overturning of Roe v. Wade
• Rising visibility of trans and queer identities amidst escalating backlash
• Renewed racial justice movements and examinations of colonial hauntings
• Fictional and nonfictional digital Gothic forms (podcasts, TikTok horror, glitch aesthetics, AI-generated Gothic, virtual hauntings)
• Climate crisis, domestic precarity, and post-pandemic isolation reconfiguring the home as both sanctuary and site of terror

In this context, the Female Gothic has not faded—it has expanded, taking on new forms to express contemporary anxieties, desires, and resistances. Recent scholarship by Monica Germanà (2022), Gina Wisker (2016), and Maisha Wester (2012) highlights the evolving forms of the Female Gothic across global, racial, queer, and intersectional frameworks, making a 2027 special issue both timely and necessary.

Aims of the Special Issue

This special issue seeks to:Re-examine the Female Gothic through transnational, intersectional, and multimedia lenses.
Investigate how contemporary social and political pressures reshape Gothic tropes.
Explore the ways women and gender-minority creators use the Gothic to articulate trauma, agency, resistance, and radical imagination.
Highlight global, queer, racial, environmental, and posthuman approaches that extend the boundaries of Female Gothic scholarship.
Foster interdisciplinary conversations across literature, film, television, digital media, music, art, and performance.

We welcome full-length scholarly articles (approximately 20–30 pages), shorter essays, interviews, creative-critical forms, and interdisciplinary approaches.

All submissions will undergo a rigorous double-blind peer review process.

Topics May Include, but Are Not Limited To:

• Historical and Global Female Gothic Traditions
• Race, Coloniality, and Haunting
• Queer, Trans, and Nonbinary Gothic
• Digital, Virtual, and AI Gothic Media
• Domesticity, Intimacy, and Reproductive Futures
• Environmental and EcoGothic Perspectives
• Posthuman, Abject, and Embodied Gothic
• Female Gothic in Film, Television, Music, and Games
• Archival, Historical, and Recovery Work



Key Dates

Abstract Submission Deadline: March 1, 2026
Notification of Acceptance: April 10, 2026
Full Article Submission: August 10, 2026
Peer Review Decisions: October 10, 2026
Revisions Due: January 10, 2027
Final Copy Deadline: February 20, 2027
Publication: Mid-2027

Submission Guidelines

Please email a 250-word abstract (with 3–5 keywords) and a short bionote to:

Haunting_revisions_submissions@mailfence.com by March 1, 2026.

Completed manuscripts will be submitted through Women’s Studies’ editorial system after abstract approval.


Last updated December 12, 2025

CFP Welcome to Hawkins: A Special Issue on Stranger Things (1/30/2026)

Welcome to Hawkins: A Special Issue on Stranger Things

deadline for submissions:
January 30, 2026

full name / name of organization:
Slayage

contact email:
janet.croft@uni.edu

source: https://call-for-papers.sas.upenn.edu/cfp/2026/01/10/welcome-to-hawkins-a-special-issue-on-stranger-things

Welcome to Hawkins: A Special Issue on Stranger Things



Slayage plans a special issue on Stranger Things for publication in late June 2026. Slayage is an international and interdisciplinary refereed scholarly journal concerned with the “fuzzy set” with Buffy the Vampire Slayer at its center, and Stranger Things, a multi-season television series with kick-ass heroines, the irruption of the supernatural into the mundane, high-stakes action, strong characterizations, snarky humor, and an emphasis on relationships and the complexities of queerness and race, fits our definition nicely. It’s even got a Hellmouth in a library!



As an interdisciplinary journal primarily concerned with visual media, we will be interested in nearly any approach to Stranger Things: literary-critical, sociological, historical, musical, queer theory, pop science, etc. Read more about Slayage at http://www.buffystudies.org/slayage-the-international-journal-of-buffy.html and please see the Slayage Style Sheet at http://www.buffystudies.org/slayage-house-style-sheet.html for guidance on citation style, especially for television episodes.



Here are some ideas to consider:

• Mothers and mothering: good mothers, evil mothers, avenging mothers
• Strong women, beweaponed and weaponized girls, and the Ripley (Alien) trope
• Fathers and fathering, and masculinities in general
• Groupings of generations and cohorts, and how their different story arcs work together
• Nostalgia and audience engagement
• Mythic patterns in storytelling
• Music used in the show and its significance; music as weapon and lifeline
• Resonances with other texts: A Wrinkle in Time, The Lord of the Rings, the Indiana Jones movies, the Star Wars movies, Carrie, The Goonies, A Nightmare on Elm Street, Ghostbusters, the Whedonverse, and on and on and on. Not just a recap of inspirations, but digging into the how and why.
• The show’s use of Dungeons and Dragons, and the early D&D panic
• Queer characters, queer theory, queer history
• Race in the 1980s: what the show got right, what it got wrong
• US/Russia/world relations in the 1980s and what the show does with them
• Crazy science and conspiracy theories
• The stage play Stranger Things: The First Shadow and the canonicity of other supplemental texts
• The independent-kids-on-bikes motif in Stranger Things and its sources
• The midwestern setting and its callbacks to sources like Breaking Away
• The suburban shopping mall: its significance in 80s teen culture and its use in horror films like Dawn of the Dead

Editors for this special issue are:



Dr. Kristine Larsen is distinguished Connecticut State University Professor of Earth and Space Sciences at Central Connecticut State University, where she has taught since 1989. Her teaching and research focus on the intersections between science and society, including science in the works of J.R.R. Tolkien. Her latest books are Science, Technology and Magic in The Witcher: A Medievalist Spin on Modern Monsters (McFarland, 2023), and The Sun We Share: Our Star in Popular Media and Science (McFarland, 2024).



Janet Brennan Croft (ORCiD 0001-0001-2691-3586) recently retired from the University of Northern Iowa as Librarian Emerita. She is the author of War in the Works of J.R.R. Tolkien (recently reissued by Bloomsbury; 2005 Mythopoeic Society Award for Inklings Studies). She has also written on the Peter Jackson Middle-earth films, the Whedonverse, Orphan Black, Terry Pratchett, Lois McMaster Bujold, and other authors, TV shows, and movies, and is editor or co-editor of many collections of literary essays, the most recent being Loremasters and Libraries in Fantasy and Science Fiction, co-edited with Jason Fisher(Mythopoeic Press, 2021). She edits the refereed scholarly journal Mythlore, is archivist and associate editor of Slayage: The International Journal of Buffy+, and chairs the Tolkien in Popular Culture Area at SWPACA.



Send abstracts of 400 words plus selected preliminary references to Kris Larsen and Janet Brennan Croft at janet.croft@uni.edu and larsen@ccsu.edu by January 30, 2026. Decisions on abstracts will be made by February 4. Initial submissions are due by April 15, and final revisions completed by June 10 for publication at the end of June.


Last updated January 12, 2026

CFP Slayage 11 Conference (1/15/2026; Illinois 7/9-12/2026)

Slayage 11 Conference

deadline for submissions:
January 15, 2026

full name / name of organization:
Association for the Study of Buffy+

contact email:
slayage.conference@gmail.com

source: https://call-for-papers.sas.upenn.edu/cfp/2025/10/19/slayage-11-conference

Slayage: The International Journal of Buffy+ and the Association for the Study of Buffy+ invite proposals for the eleventh biennial Slayage Conference (SC11). Devoted to creative works and workers of the ‘fuzzy set’ surrounding Buffy the Vampire Slayer, SC11 will be held on the campus of Illinois State University in Normal Illinois, 9-12 July 2026. This eleventh convening of Slayage conference will be organized by Local Arrangements Chair Bin Lizzo, rlizzo@ilstu.edu.

We welcome proposals of 200-300 words (or an abstract of a completed paper) on any aspect of Buffy+ television, film, and web texts. The name Buffy recalls the significance of scholarly examinations of feminism, but Slayage is much more. The “plus” is meant to be a sign of inclusivity, both for scholars and texts.

The plus-mark is meant to invite analyses of not only Angel, Firefly, Dollhouse, etcetera, but also the work of all the various creators involved with those texts (ranging from, but not limited to: Amy Acker, Christophe Beck, Charisma Carpenter, Stephen DeKnight, Jane Espenson, Nathan Fillion, Sarah Michelle Gellar, Ron Glass, Summer Glau, Marita Grabiak, David Greenwalt, Diego Gutierrez, and all the alphabetical others, including the Ws) as well as (primarily visual) media more or less resembling Buffy (where ‘resemblance’ is likewise subject to further discussion). In other words, the plus-mark indicates the “fuzzy set” of which Buffy is the center. Drawing on Brian Attebery's description in Strategies of Fantasy, the fuzzy set is “defined not by boundaries but by a center.” Hence, a scholar applying to Slayage Conference 10 might use Buffy as a yardstick to tell us why we should consider their chosen topic to be part of this fuzzy set. For further thought, consider:

Is your object of study “high stakes TV” with a kick-ass young female lead?


A movie or book series concerned with the frequent irruption of the supernatural into the mundane?


Are snarky humor and linguistic play part of the appeal of the source text? Strong characterization, an emphasis on relationships, and long story arcs spanning a season or more?


Moral dilemmas, stylish but affordable boots, and starship captains with tight pants?

Moreover, the “plus” specifically alludes to LGBTQIA+, too, one of the important touchstones of the original series. The complexities of queerness are part of the intriguingly nuanced nature of many of these texts. The Tara/Willow storyline was both groundbreaking and, with Tara’s death, ultimately controversial. Scholarship explored this subject from many angles; the response to this LGBTQIA+ storyline is an illustration that our analyses should be scholarly critiques, not just hagiography. The conference was established to provide a venue for writing about good work, but good works are not perfect, and scholarship should strive to see clearly. LGBTQIA+ texts and scholars have been an important part of this clear-sighted assessment, and SC10would be strengthened by further contributions in light of contemporary scholarship. Intersectional scholarship is strongly encouraged.For further thought, consider:

How do we now see Dru and Darla?


Does Felicia Day’s Mag of Dollhouse connect at all with her Charlie in Supernatural?


Is asexuality visible anywhere in these texts?


How might current scholars address the presentation of J. August Richards’ Gunn in the light of his coming out as a gay man?

Importantly, the “plus” is meant to refer to the need to counteract a “minus”—that is, the scarcity of Latinx and Black, Indigenous, Person of Color representations in Buffy (the Original Sin of the Buffy text) as well as problematic representations in that and related texts. Since Kent Ono’s 2000 essay “To Be a Vampire on Buffy the Vampire Slayer,” scholars have been examining these matters. However, a great deal remains to be done—again, not just on Buffy but also on related texts. For further thought, consider:

What can we say about the multiple roles of Maurissa Tancharoen?


What about Gina Torres and Harry Lennix?


We can revive Kendra in our scholarly discussions, but we should not stop there.

Multidisciplinary approaches (literature, philosophy, political science, history, communications, film and television studies, women’s studies, religion, linguistics, music, cultural studies, art, and others) are all welcome. A proposal/abstract should demonstrate familiarity with already-published scholarship in the field, which includes dozens of books, hundreds of articles, and over twenty years of the peer-reviewed journal Slayage. Proposers may wish to consult the annotated Oxford University Press bibliography on Buffy the Vampire Slayer as well as the Slayage contents list and the bibliography housed at the ASB+ website.

An individual paper is strictly limited to a maximum reading time of 20 minutes, and we encourage, though do not require, self-organized panels of three presenters. Proposals for workshops, roundtables, or other types of sessions are also welcome. Submissions by graduate and undergraduate students are invited; undergraduates should provide the name, email, and phone number of a faculty member willing to consult with them (the faculty member does not need to attend). A limited number of hybrid slots will be provided. 

Proposals should be submitted online to using this form and will be reviewed by program chairs Cynthia Burkhead, Jessica Hautsch, and James Rocha. Submissions must be received by January 15th, 2026. Decisions will be made no later than March 15th; however, a rolling response to early submissions will be provided. Questions regarding proposals can be directed to the conference email address: slayage.conference@gmail.com.


Last updated October 27, 2025

CFP Don't Look Away: The Monstrous, the Gothic, and Survivance in the Worlds of Stephen Graham Jones (1/26/2026; ALA Chicago 5/20-23/2026)

American Literature Association Panel | Don't Look Away: The Monstrous, the Gothic, and Survivance in the Worlds of Stephen Graham Jones

deadline for submissions:
January 26, 2026

full name / name of organization:
Billy J. Stratton / Stephen Graham Jones Society

contact email:
billy.stratton@du.edu

source: https://call-for-papers.sas.upenn.edu/cfp/2025/11/05/american-literature-association-panel-dont-look-away-the-monstrous-the-gothic-and

Don't Look Away: The Monstrous, the Gothic, and Survivance in the Worlds of Stephen Graham Jones

Organized by the Stephen Graham Jones Society

Chair: Dr. Billy J. Stratton, University of Denver

The Stephen Graham Jones Society invites proposals for a panel at the 2026 American Literature Association (ALA) meeting. We welcome submissions from emerging and established scholars investigating the vast, ever-expanding body of work by Stephen Graham Jones. This panel will focus on the recent and ongoing scholarship surrounding his horror fiction, as well as its significant pedagogical value in the contemporary classroom.

We seek proposals that examine any aspect of Jones’s profound literary, philosophical, and cultural engagements with the horrific. While we welcome all critical approaches, we are especially interested in presentations that engage with:

• Monster Theory and the Gothic: How does Jones deploy, deconstruct, or “Indigenize” traditional Gothic tropes (the haunted past, uncanny landscapes, the doubled self)? We invite papers that draw from Monster Studies or Gothic theory (including American, Southern, the Frontier Gothic, and Indigenous Gothic) to explore how his creations—from werewolves and ghosts to human slashers—challenge boundaries, embody social anxieties, and critique settler-colonial histories.
• Genre, Form, and Film Theory: We welcome analyses of his masterful manipulation of horror subgenres (the slasher, the possession narrative, the creature feature) and his deep, career-spanning intertextual dialogue with cinema. How do his narrative techniques force a new reckoning with the tropes we think we know?
• Key Themes and Motifs: Examinations of recurring concerns such as settler-colonial anxiety, Indigenous futurity and Gerald Vizenor’s conception of survivance, intergenerational trauma, the complex politics of land and place, the search for community, and the fluid, often fraught, constructions of identity and masculinity.

We encourage presentations that trace the evolution of these themes in his early experimental works (Demon Theory, All the Beautiful Sinners, The Last Final Girl), as well as his breakout horror novels (Mongrels, The Only Good Indians) to his most recent bestsellers, including the Indian Lake Trilogy (My Heart Is a Chainsaw, Don't Fear the Reaper, The Angel of Indian Lake), The Buffalo Hunter Hunter, and Killer on the Road.

Submission Guidelines:

Please submit a 250-300 word abstract and a brief C.V. to Billy J. Stratton at bstratt4@du.edu by the deadline of January 26, 2026. Include “SGJ Society ALA 2026” in the subject line of your email.

The American Literature Association’s 37th annual conference will meet in Chicago at the Palmer House from May 20-23, 2026. For further information or specific questions, please consult the ALA website at www.americanliteratureassociation.org or contact the conference director, Professor Leslie Petty, at ALA@rhodes.edu., or the Executive Director of the ALA, Professor Alfred Bendixen of Princeton University, at ab23@princeton.edu.



Last updated November 6, 2025

CFP Haunted Bodies Conference (1/19/2026; Kingston, UK & Online 5/22-24/2026)

Please note imminent deadline:

Haunted Bodies

deadline for submissions:
January 19, 2026

full name / name of organization:
Queen’s Graduate Conference in Literature

contact email:
queensgraduateconference@gmail.com



Queen’s Graduate Conference in Literature

Call for Papers | Haunted Bodies

Date: May 22-24, 2026 Location: Queen’s University, Kingston and Online

Submissions due:

DEADLINE EXTENDED TO JANUARY 19, 2026

The Queen’s Graduate Conference in Literature (QGCL) seeks academic abstracts and creative pieces for its 2026 conference on the theme of “Haunted Bodies.” The concept of “haunting” has both literal and metaphorical implications. Literature is rife with haunted bodies and haunting spectres, from the ghost of Patroclus visiting Achilles in a dream, to Hamlet’s father stalking the ramparts of Elsinore, to Catherine Earnshaw begging to come inside, to the uncanny visitation in Toni Morrison’s Beloved. Yet bodies can also be haunted in much subtler ways: characters can be haunted by grief or trauma; landscapes can be haunted by violence; bodies of text can be haunted by literary legacies, erasure, or edits. We invite proposals that aim to explore hauntings in their various forms and the ways in which these hauntings affect (or not) the unstable/undefined body.

Presentations will be 15–20 minutes long; topics of interest may include, but are not restricted to:

• Encountering the Other: How do hauntings reflect epistemological anxieties? How do ghosts and hauntings help us explore ideas surrounding belonging and alienation?
• Corporeality: What does it mean for a body to be haunted? Which body is being haunted? A human body? A body of text? Is the body corporeal at all? How can hauntings explore or complicate understandings of intimacy?
• Afterlives: Is the afterlife literal and/or metaphorical? What type of inheritances—literary, physical, or spiritual—are at play? How do we interact with loss? How does it manifest within and outside the body?
• Ghosts: In what ways do literal ghosts appear in literature? Consider ghost stories, horror fiction, the Gothic, etc. What does it mean to possess or be possessed, literally or metaphorically?

Academic Submission Guidelines:

• Submit a brief biography of no more than 100 words
• Academic abstracts should be 200–300 words
• Do not include your name in the abstract

Creative Works Submission Guidelines:

• Creative works can come in any form: fiction, poetry, creative non-fiction, fragments, audio-visual, etc.
• Submit a brief biography of no more than 100 words
• Submissions should be no more than 6000 words total or 15 minutes for non-textual works
• Applicants must upload a complete copy of their submission, including a title, to the Google form
• Do not include your name in the submission document

Please fill out the Google form here to apply: https://forms.gle/zFpKpNfjXo8zBk4v6

If you have any questions about the conference, please email queensgraduateconference@gmail.com



Last updated January 13, 2026