Sunday, April 28, 2019

Notice of Monsters: An Inclusive Interdisciplinary Conference (Lisbon 8/31-9/1/2019)

Sorry for the delay posting this. Do note the submission deadline has now passed.

Monsters: An Inclusive Interdisciplinary Conference
https://networks.h-net.org/node/14467/discussions/3597375/monsters-inclusive-interdisciplinary-conference
Discussion published by Elif Sendur on Sunday, January 20, 2019



Monsters
An Inclusive Interdisciplinary Conference

Saturday 31st August 2019 - Sunday 1st September 2019
Lisbon, Portugal

This inclusive interdisciplinary conference seeks to investigate and explore the enduring influence and imagery of monsters and the monstrous on human culture throughout history. In particular, the project will have a dual focus with the intention of examining specific ‘monsters’ as well as assessing the role, function and consequences of persons, actions or events identified as ‘monstrous’. The history and contemporary cultural influences of monsters and monstrous metaphors will also be examined with a view to forming a selective publication to engender further collaboration and discussion.

Consistent with its inter-disciplinary ethos, the event proposes to step outside the traditional conference setting and offer opportunities for artists, photographers, practitioners, theorists, independent scholars, academics, performers, writers, and others to intermingle, providing platforms for interdisciplinary interactions that are fruitful and conducive to broadening horizons and sparking future projects, collaborations, and connections.

The organisers welcome proposals for presentations, displays, exhibits, round tables, panels, interactive workshops and other activities to stimulate engagement and discussion on any aspect of the interplay between monsters, monstrosities, and the monstrous, particularly in relation to any of the following themes:

* The “monster” through history
* Civilization, monsters and the monstrous
* Children, childhood, stories and monsters; monsters and parents
* Comedy: funny monsters and/or making fun of monsters (e.g. Monsters Inc, the Addams Family)
* Making monsters; monstrous births
* Mutants and mutations
* Technologies of the monstrous
* Horror, fear and scare
* Do monsters kill because they are monstrous or are they monstrous because they kill?
* How critical to the definition of “monster” is death or the threat of death?
* human ‘monsters’ and ‘monstrous’ acts? e.g, perverts, paedophiles and serial killers
* the monstrous and gender
* Revolution and monsters; the monstrous and politics; enemies (political/social/military) and monsters
* Iconography of the monstrous
* The popularity of the modern monsters; the Mummy, Dracula, Frankenstein, Vampires, Hannibal
* The monster in literature
* the monstrous in popular culture: film, television, theatre, radio, print, internet
*The monstrous and journalism
* Religious depictions of the monstrous; the monstrous and the supernatural
* Metaphors and the monstrous
* the monstrous and war, war reportage / propaganda

Papers will also be accepted which deal solely with specific monsters.

What to Send
The aim of this interdisciplinary conference and collaborative networking event is to bring people together and encourage creative conversations in the context of a variety of formats: papers, seminars, workshops, storytelling, performances, poster presentations, panels, q&a’s, round-tables etc.

300 word proposals, presentations, abstracts and other forms of contribution and participation should be submitted by Friday 8th March 2019. Other forms of participation should be discussed in advance with the Organising Chair.

All submissions will be minimally double reviewed, under anonymous (blind) conditions, by a global panel drawn from members of the Project Development Team and the Advisory Board. In practice our procedures usually entail that by the time a proposal is accepted, it will have been triple and quadruple reviewed.

You will be notified of the panel’s decision by Friday 22nd March 2019.

If your submission is accepted for the conference, a full draft of your contribution should be submitted by Friday 12th July 2019.

Abstracts and proposals may be in Word, PDF, RTF or Notepad formats with the following information and in this order:
a) author(s), b) affiliation as you would like it to appear in the programme, c) email address, d) title of proposal, e) body of proposal, f) up to 10 keywords.

E-mails should be entitled: Monsters Submission.

Early Bird Submission and Discount
Submissions received on or before Friday 8th February 2019 will be eligible for a 10% registration fee discount.

Where to Send
Abstracts should be submitted simultaneously to the Organising Chair and the Project Administrator:

Dr Cristina Santos: csantos@brocku.ca
Project Administrator: lisbonmonsters@progressiveconnexions.net

What’s so Special About Progressive Connexions Events?
A fresh, friendly, dynamic format – at Progressive Connexions we are dedicated to breaking away from the stuffy, old-fashion conference formats, where endless presentations are read aloud off PowerPoints. We work to bring you an interactive format, where exchange of experience and information is alternated with captivating workshops, engaging debates and round tables, time set aside for getting to know each other and for discussing common future projects and initiatives, all in a warm, relaxed, egalitarian atmosphere.

A chance to network with international professionals – the beauty of our interdisciplinary events is that they bring together professionals from all over the world and from various fields of activity, all joined together by a shared passion. Not only will the exchange of experience, knowledge and stories be extremely valuable in itself, but we seek to create lasting, ever-growing communities around our projects, which will become a valuable resource for those belonging to them.

A chance to be part of constructing change – There is only one thing we love as much as promoting knowledge: promoting real, lasting social change by encouraging our participants to take collective action, under whichever form is most suited to their needs and expertise (policy proposals, measuring instruments, research projects, educational materials, etc.) We will support all such actions in the aftermath of the event as well, providing a platform for further discussions, advice from the experts on our Project Advisory Team and various other tools and intellectual resources, as needed.

An opportunity to discuss things that matter to you – Our events are not only about discussing how things work in the respective field, but also about how people work in that field – what are the struggles, problems and solutions professionals have found in their line of work, what are the areas where better communication among specialists is needed and how the interdisciplinary approach can help bridge those gaps and help provide answers to questions from specific areas of activity.

An unforgettable experience – When participating in a Progressive Connexions event, there is a good chance you will make some long-time friends. Our group sizes are intimate, our venues are comfortable and relaxing and our event locations are suited to the history and culture of the event.

Ethos
Progressive Connexions believes it is a mark of personal courtesy and professional respect to your colleagues that all delegates should attend for the full duration of the meeting. If you are unable to make this commitment, please do not submit an abstract or proposal for presentation.

Please note: Progressive Connexions is a not-for-profit network and we are not in a position to be able to assist with conference travel or subsistence, nor can we offer discounts off published rates and fees.

Enquiries: lisbonmonsters@progressiveconnexions.net

Web address: http://www.progressiveconnexions.net/interdisciplinary-projects/evil/mon...

Sponsored by: Progressive Connexions

Friday, April 26, 2019

CFP Call for Papers for the Inaugural Session of the Monsters and the Monstrous Area (6/1/2019; Portsmouth, NH 11/15-16/2019)


Call for Papers for the Inaugural Session of the Monsters and the Monstrous Area

2019 Conference of the Northeast Popular & American Culture Association (NEPCA)

Sheraton Portsmouth Harborside Hotel in Portsmouth, NH, Friday, 15 November, - Saturday, 16 November

Proposals due by 1 June 2019

The Monsters and the Monstrous Area welcomes proposals that investigate any of the things, whether mundane or marvelous, that scare us. Through our sessions, we hope to pioneer fresh explorations into the darker sides of the intermedia traditions of the fantastic (including, but not restricted to, aspects of fairy tale, fantasy, gothic, horror, legend, mythology, and science fiction) by illuminating how creative artists have both formed and transformed our notions of monsters within these sub-traditions in texts from various countries, time periods, and media and for audiences at all levels. Our primary goal is to foster a better understating of monsters in general and to examine their impact on those that receive their stories as well as on the world at large. However, as a component of the Northeast Popular Culture/American Culture Association, the Monsters and the Monstrous Area is also especially interested in celebrating both the New England Gothic tradition and the life, works, and legacy of H. P. Lovecraft, a leading proponent of Weird Fiction and an immense influence on contemporary popular culture.

Please submit paper proposals through NEPCA’s Google form accessible from https://nepca.blog/conference/. Submissions should comprise the presenter’s personal information (including email, full name, home address, telephone, academic affiliation [if one], and scholarly rank [if relevant], and a short bio of 50-200 words) AND paper information (including a working title of no more than 60 characters and proposal/abstract of no more than 250 words). Do be sure to select “Monsters and the Monstrous Area” as your designated Subject Area.

Please address any inquiries about submissions to the area chair, Michael A. Torregrossa, at popular.preternaturaliana@gmail.com.

The Monsters and the Monstrous Area is affiliated with the Northeast Alliance for Scholarship on the Fantastic, which maintains three websites that might be of interest to potential presenters. They are Northeast Fantastic (https://northeastfantastic.blogspot.com/), Popular Preternaturaliana: Studying the Monstrous in Popular Culture (https://popularpreternaturaliana.blogspot.com/), and Frankenstein and the Fantastic (https://frankensteinandthefantastic.blogspot.com/).

NEPCA prides itself on holding conferences that emphasize sharing ideas in a non-competitive and supportive environment. We welcome proposals from graduate students, junior faculty, and senior scholars. NEPCA conferences offer intimate and nurturing sessions in which new ideas and works-in-progress can be aired, as well as completed projects. Further details on the organization can be found at their website: https://nepca.blog/.

Sunday, April 14, 2019

Journal of Dracula Studies 2019 Submissions (papers by 5/1/2019)

Journal of Dracula Studies
https://call-for-papers.sas.upenn.edu/cfp/2019/01/23/journal-of-dracula-studies

deadline for submissions:
May 1, 2019

full name / name of organization:
Anne DeLong/Transylvanian Society of Dracula

contact email:
journalofdraculastudies@kutztown.edu



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 folklore, fiction, film, popular culture, and related topics.

Submissions should be sent electronically (as an e-mail attachment in .doc or .rtf). Please indicate the title of your submission in the subject line of your e-mail. Send electronic submissions to journalofdraculastudies@kutztown.edu.

Please follow the updated MLA style. 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.

Submissions must be received no later than May 1 in order to be considered for that year’s issue.


Last updated January 23, 2019

Sunday, September 23, 2018

CFP Of God and Monsters Conference (11/1/2018; Texas State U 4/4-6/2019)


Sorry to have missed posting this sooner:

Of God and Monsters
April 4th – 6th 2019
Texas State University San Marcos, TX

http://www.theofantastique.com/2018/08/30/call-for-papers-of-gods-and-monsters-at-texas-state-university/

Judith Halberstam famously claimed that monsters are “meaning machines” that can be used to represent a variety of ideas, including morality, gender, race, and nationalism (to name only a few). Monsters are always part of the project of making sense of the world and our place in it. As a tool through which human beings create worlds in which to meaningfully dwell, monsters are tightly bound with many other systems of meaning-making like religion, culture, literature, and politics. Of Gods and Monsters will provide focused space to explore the definition of “monster,” the categorization of monsters as a basis of comparison across cultures, and the relationship of monsters to various systems of meaning-making with the goal of understanding how humans have used and continued to use these “meaning machines.”

The Religious Studies program at Texas State University, therefore, welcomes submissions for our upcoming conference on Monsters and Monster Theory. Through this conference, we hope to explore the complex intersections of monsters and meaning making from a variety of theoretical, academic, and intellectual angles. Because “monsters” are a category that appears across time and cultural milieus, this conference will foster conversations between scholars working in very different areas and is not limited in terms of cultural region, historical time, or religious tradition. As part of fostering this dialogue, conference organizers are thrilled to announce that Douglas E. Cowan will serve as this event’s keynote speaker, while archival researcher and cryptid expert Lyle Blackburn will offer a second plenary address. Conference organizers anticipate inviting papers presented at this conference to submit their revised papers for an edited volume.

If interested, please submit an abstract with a maximum of 300-words to TexasStateMonsters@gmail.com by November 1st, 2018. Final decisions on conference participation will be sent out by the first week of December. If you have any further questions, please do not hesitate to contact conference organizers Natasha Mikles (n.mikles@txstate.edu) or Joseph Laycock (joseph.laycock@txstate.edu).

CFP Withcraft Hysteria: Performing Witchcraft in Contemporary Art and Pop Culture (proposals by 10/1/2018)


CFP: WITCHCRAFT HYSTERIA: Performing Witchcraft in Contemporary Art and Pop Culture
https://www.fantastic-arts.org/2018/cfp-witchcraft-hysteria-performing-witchcraft-in-contemporary-art-and-pop-culture/
August 14, 2018

Type:
Call for Papers

Date:
October 1, 2018

Location:
California, United States

Subject Fields:
Art, Art History & Visual Studies, Cultural History / Studies, Popular Culture Studies, Theatre & Performance History / Studies, Women’s & Gender History / Studies

WITCHCRAFT HYSTERIA. Performing witchcraft in contemporary art and pop culture.

We seem to be living in bewitched times. Witches are everywhere, or rather: victims of alleged witch hunts pop up all over the place, preferable on Twitter or other social media. Pop-stars perform as witches, like Katy Perry in her performance at the 2014 Grammy awards, where she appeared in a cowl before a crystal ball, while later dancing with broomsticks as poles. Beyoncé’s visual album “Lemonade” (2016) made several explicit references to black witchcraft rituals. Azealia Banks proclaimed in the same year on Twitter that she practiced “three years worth of brujería” (brujería, Spanish: witchcraft) and tweeted––while cleaning the blood-smeared room used for her animal sacrifices––“Real witches do real things”. Marina Abramovic’s performance piece “Spirit Cooking” (1996) was used in the ominous Pizzagate conspiracy theory of 2016, accusing Abramovic and the Hillary Clinton campaign in practicing witchcraft rituals and occult magic. Clinton and other influential women in politics–such as Nany Pelosi and Maxine Waters––get labeled as witches and Sarah Palin partakes in a ritual to secure her electoral win and “save her from witchcraft”. Meanwhile, thousands of people coordinate binding spells against political leaders (#bindtrump) and Silvia Federici’s seminal book “Caliban and the Witch” moved from the bookshelf to the bedside table for many art professionals.

The title “Witchcraft Hysteria” follows the inscription on the monument dedicated 1992 to the Salem Witch Trials (1692), that were informed by European-US-American witchcraft discourses of their time and in turn were highly influential on today’s discussions.

For this publication, we want to investigate the revival and the current interest in the figure of the witch and the performance of witchcraft in contemporary art, visual culture and pop culture. The figure of the witch as icon of historical significance and present relevance in art and politics has only gained in its cultural impact. Our project focuses on performance strategies of “performing witchcraft” in a contemporary context, focusing on the last two decades.

Relevant paper topics may consider, but are not limited to:

  • The figure of the witch in contemporary art and culture
  • Contextualizing Witchcraft Hysteria in Theater, Film, Television, Streaming Media, Social Media, etc. in their historical representations and current manifestations
  • Witchcraft (Hysteria) and Performance Studies
  • Witchcraft and feminist (art) practice
  • Practicing Witchcraft as political protest
  • The politics of being (labeled) a witch
  • Queer-Feminist perspectives on Witchcraft
  • (Intersectional) Questions of Gender, Class and Race and Witchcraft

Schedule

Proposals (500 words): October 1, 2018

Final Papers Due: January 16, 2018 [I assume this is an error for 1/16/2019]

Submission of Final Revised Papers for Publication: March 4, 2018 [likewise, I assume this is an error for 3/4/2019].

Publication: Summer, 2018 [again, I assume this is an error for Summer 2019]

Please submit a 500-word proposal and a 200-word biography to both editors: Johanna Braun (johannabraun@g.ucla.edu) and Katharina Brandl (katharina.brandl@unibas.ch) by October 1, 2018.

Contact Info:
Katharina Brandl

University of Basel, Switzerland

Johanna Braun
Erwin Schrödinger Research Fellow at University of California, Los Angeles

Contact Email:
johannabraun@g.ucla.edu

CFP Stephen King Area (10/1/2018; PCA/ACA Washington DC 4/17-20/2019)

CFP: Stephen King Area (2019 PCA National Conference), Washington D.C.
https://www.fantastic-arts.org/2018/cfp-stephen-king-area-2019-pca-national-conference-washington-d-c/
July 24, 2018

Stephen King Area (2019 PCA National Conference)

deadline for submissions:
October 1, 2018

full name / name of organization:
Patrick McAleer/Popular Culture Association

contact email: stephenkingpca@gmail.com



Stephen King Area

2019 PCA/ACA Annual National Conference

Washington D.C.: Wednesday, April 17th-Saturday, April 20th

The co-chairs of the Stephen King Area—Philip Simpson of Eastern Florida State College and Patrick McAleer of Inver Hills Community College—are soliciting papers, presentations, panels and roundtable discussions which cover any aspect of Stephen King’s fiction and film for the Annual National Joint Popular Culture Association/American Culture Association Conference to be held in Washington D.C. from April 17th-April 20th 2019. Papers, presentations, and panels can cover King’s experimentation with medium (e-books, graphic novels, TV series), his more recent fictions, including his Dark Tower series, and anything in between. Indeed, feel free to view past programs of the PCA/ACA conference at www.pcaaca.org to see what has been covered during recent conferences.

To have your proposal/abstract considered for presentation, please submit your proposal/abstract of approximately 250 words through the PCA/ACA Database—http://ncp.pcaaca.org/ — by October 1st, 2018. Here you will submit your paper proposal/abstract and also provide your name, institutional affiliation, and contact information. Responses/decisions regarding your proposals will be provided within two weeks of your submission to ensure timely replies. Of course, should you have any questions specific to the Stephen King Area, please send an e-mail to stephenkingpca@gmail.com and we will be happy to assist you.

Complete panel proposals of 3-4 people are also welcomed, as are proposals for roundtable discussions with two or more featured speakers and a moderator. For more information, visit the PCA/ACA at www.pcaaca.org.

Monday, July 2, 2018

CFP American Ecogothic (9/30/2018; NeMLA 2019)


American Ecogothic, NeMLA
https://call-for-papers.sas.upenn.edu/cfp/2018/06/29/american-ecogothic-nemla

deadline for submissions: September 30, 2018

full name / name of organization: Northeast Modern Language Association (NeMLA)

contact email: caitlin.duffy@stonybrook.edu


Leslie Fiedler describes American fiction as “bewilderingly and embarrassingly, a gothic fiction… a literature of darkness and the grotesque in a land of light and affirmation” (Love and Death in the American Novel, 29). However, for settlers within the early colonies and citizens of the young republic, the wilderness of the supposed New World not only represented material promise, but also unknown danger. This panel proposes a move away from the more common “land of light and affirmation” reading of American nature towards an ecogothic approach. Despite recent attention paid to the intersections between gothic and ecocritical studies, there continues to be an unfortunate dearth in scholarship focusing on the specifically American ecogothic. This scarcity is surprising given the important role played by nature in the formation of the American gothic mode. Three major critical works focused on the American ecogothic include Tom J. Hillard’s and Kevin Corstorphine’s essays within Ecogothic (2013) and Ecogothic in Nineteenth-Century American Literature (2017), edited by Dawn Keetley and Matthew Wynn Sivils. In the introduction to their volume, Keetley and Sivils note that, given its unwavering fixation with the wilderness, “American gothic literature has always been ecogothic” (6).

This panel invites papers that interrogate gothic depictions of landscapes and wilderness in American fiction (including, but not limited to, literature, film, television, and video games) from any time period. In particular, we seek papers that work towards a definition of the American ecogothic as a national mode or style. Papers that utilize the ecogothic lens to support, challenge, or problematize current conceptions of the American gothic are especially welcome. We also encourage papers that explore the American ecogothic temporally by tracing transformations or continuations of its fictional appearance across time.

All proposals must be submitted through the NeMLA portal by September 30th and should be no more than 300 words.

The 50th annual NeMLA conference will take place on March 21-24, 2019 in Washington, DC. For more information: http://www.buffalo.edu/nemla.html

Please email any questions you may have to caitlin.duffy@stonybrook.edu.

CFP Contemporary Horror Within and Beyond the Nation (9/30/2018; NeMLA 2019)


Contemporary Horror Within and Beyond the Nation, NeMLA 2019
https://call-for-papers.sas.upenn.edu/cfp/2018/06/26/contemporary-horror-within-and-beyond-the-nation-nemla-2019

deadline for submissions: September 30, 2018

full name / name of organization: Jack Dudley, Mount St. Mary's University

contact email: dudley@msmary.edu



Accepted Roundtable for NeMLA 50, March 21 -24, 2019, Washington, DC.

As Sophia Siddique and Raphael Raphael write in Transnational Horror Cinema: Bodies of Excess and the Global Grotesque (2016), “From its origins, what would eventually come to be called ‘the horror genre’ has been deeply transnational both in contexts of production and reception.” In “The American Horror Film? Globalization and Transnational U.S.-Asian Genres” (2013), Christina Klein observes that this transnational quality has particularly been evident most recently, as cinema as a whole continues to become increasingly transnational. For Klein, genre films such as horror lend themselves to the transnational because of their indebtedness to convention or tropes, which can be culturally portable or which, in her words, “can be combined by local filmmakers in fresh ways to carry locally specific meanings.” This accepted roundtable invites participants to interrogate the relationship between contemporary horror—understood as roughly post-1960—and the critical categories of the nation, the global, and the transnational. How do the particular conventions, tropes, and forms most associated with horror facilitate and/or complicate its relationship to the nation? Are the conventions, tropes, and forms of particular national traditions truly exportable and what are the limits of their cultural adaptability? Have recent examples of contemporary horror resisted the transnational and instead laid claim to specifically national visions of horror? By exploring these questions, this roundtable seeks not only to examine how the category of the nation and the transnational have shaped contemporary horror, but how what is still often denigrated as a marginal genre, horror itself, can help us continue to theorize the nation and the transnational as well. Participants are welcome to focus on any medium.

Please submit abstracts through the NeMLA portal, which can be accessed here: https://www.cfplist.com/nemla/Home/Login

Abstracts are due to the NeMLA portal by Sept. 30, 2018.

Please email dudley@msmary.edu with any questions.

CFP Things That Go Bump in the North: Canadian Horror Media (7/31/2018)

Seems its a good time to be studying monsters. Here's another interesting call.


Things That Go Bump in the North: Canadian Horror Media
https://call-for-papers.sas.upenn.edu/cfp/2018/06/03/things-that-go-bump-in-the-north-canadian-horror-media

deadline for submissions: July 31, 2018

full name / name of organization: UOIT

contact email: andrea.braithwaite@uoit.ca



Things That Go Bump in the North: Canadian Horror Media


Horror stories speak of our fears. In doing so, horror stories also speak of our everyday, our “normal,” as this ordinariness is quickly thrown into disarray. Things That Go Bump in the North will look at Canadian horror across media – from fiction, film, and television to games, graphic novels, and web series. This edited collection considers what Canadian horror texts can tell us about Canadian culture, media, history, and politics. Things That Go Bump in the North aims to see horror stories as stories about nation, as sites for critical reflection on the meanings and uses of “Canada” in this genre – and what we are terrified to lose, or perhaps keep.


This collection deliberately uses “Canadian” and of “horror” loosely in order to more fully explore the cultural work of horror stories. By “Canadian,” we seek texts that are by, in, and/or about Canada or Canadians; “horror” includes inflections like the gothic and the grotesque, the silly and the supernatural. We encourage diverse submissions from a range of critical approaches and research methods; we are particularly excited about work that addresses Indigenous, diasporic, and other underrepresented productions and perspectives.


Topics may include and are not limited to:


  • A specific creator or creative team
  • A singular media form, text, or series
  • Adaptations and transformations
  • Generic hybrids
  • Regional or community-specific horror stories
  • Studies of fans, audiences, and reception contexts
  • Historical horror tales and texts
  • Co-productions and international ventures
  • Alternate histories and horrifying futures
  • Industry and/or policy analysis
  • Transmedia texts and storytelling
  • True crime texts


Proposals of not more than 250 words will be due by July 31 2018. Final essays of approximately 6000-8000 words, including all notes and references in Chicago author-date style will be due by April 30 2019. Please direct inquiries and proposals to: andrea.braithwaite@uoit.ca and p.greenhill@uwinnipeg.ca.

CFP Gothic Journeys: Paths, Crossings, and Intersections Conference (8/31/2018; Australia 1/22-23-2019)


Gothic Journeys: Paths, Crossings, and Intersections
https://call-for-papers.sas.upenn.edu/cfp/2018/06/11/gothic-journeys-paths-crossings-and-intersections

deadline for submissions: August 31, 2018

full name / name of organization: The Gothic Association of New Zealand and Australia (GANZA)

contact email: conference@ganza.co.nz



The Gothic Association of New Zealand and Australia (GANZA) welcomes papers for its fourth biennial conference, to be held at the Mantra on View Hotel in Surfers Paradise, Australia, on 22-23 January 2019.

GANZA is interdisciplinary in nature, bringing together scholars, students, teachers and professionals from a number of Gothic disciplines, including literature, film, music, television, fashion, architecture, and other popular culture forms. It is the aim of the Association to not only place a focus on Australasian Gothic scholarship, but also to build international links with the wider Gothic community as a whole.

The conference invites abstracts for 20-minute presentations related to the theme of 'Gothic Journeys’.

Topics can include, but are not limited to:

  • Gothic wanderers, travellers, and explorers
  • Journeys of the mind and body
  • Gothic spaces, regionalities, and geographies
  • Death, haunting, and ‘crossing over’
  • Boundaries and transgressions
  • Monsters and the Monstrous
  • Gothic maps and migrations
  • Gothic histories and Gothic folklore
  • Horror in its various contexts
  • Displacement and identity
  • Trauma and trauma narratives
  • Movement through time, space, and digital worlds
  • Gothic forms in popular culture
  • Navigating the Gothic (from the road well-travelled to new pathways)
  • Intersections between the Gothic and other fields of study
  • Global Gothic
  • The Uncanny
  • Postcolonial Gothic
  • Travel Gothic and Gothic tourism
  • The Gothic in the past, present, and future

Please e-mail abstracts of 200 words to the attention of the conference organisers at: conference@ganza.co.nz

Abstracts should include your name, affiliation, e-mail address, the title of your proposed paper, and a short bio (100 words max). The deadline for submissions is 31st August 2018.

For more information, visit our web site: www.ganza.co.nz. Alternatively, please contact Dr Gwyneth Peaty (g.peaty@curtin.edu.au) and/or Dr Erin Mercer (e.mercer@massey.ac.nz).

CFP Re-Visions of Eden: The Idea of the Midwestern Gothic (9/1/2018)

Another great idea for a collection:

Re-Visions of Eden: The Idea of the Midwestern Gothic
https://call-for-papers.sas.upenn.edu/cfp/2018/06/14/re-visions-of-eden-the-idea-of-the-midwestern-gothic

deadline for submissions: September 1, 2018

full name / name of organization: Brandi Homan & Julia Madsen

contact email: mwgothicscholar@gmail.com



In the American cultural imagination, the Midwest embodies the “home” or “heart” of the nation associated with frontier and rural values of promise, fertility, order, and stability, according to Joanna Jacobson in “The Idea of the Midwest.” Jacobson argues that the Midwest has come to symbolize the quintessentially “American,” speaking to “the impulse to invent a myth of commonality rooted in the physical landscape at the center of the continent and for the insufficiency of that myth as a response to the conditions of urban industrial culture.” While the idea and image of the Midwest in American culture serve as resources of recovery and refuge from the ill effects of urban industrialism, it is increasingly evident that these visions of a pastoral, rural middlescape illuminate the necessity for a more comprehensive, critical view of the region. The Midwestern Gothic complicates the Midwest’s role in myths of progress, drawing attention to vital sociopolitical and economic concerns of the region, including deindustrialization and economic disparity, crime, addiction, mental illness, racism, sexism, homophobia, and isolation. In this sense, the Midwestern Gothic counterintuitively articulates the region as the “wound” of the United States, a place ravaged by the nation’s myths and ideals.


The Midwestern Gothic tradition has a vibrant lineage in American literature, including authors like Sherwood Anderson, Toni Morrison, Sinclair Lewis, Bonnie Jo Campbell, and Ander Monson. This edited volume seeks critical, academic essays on the Midwestern Gothic in American literature and culture. In particular, this edited volume looks to establish the Midwestern Gothic as genre, exploring relationships with other regional gothics and the American gothic broadly speaking. It is also interested in critical essays on particular authors or works associated with the Midwestern Gothic tradition, including Sherwood Anderson, Toby Altman’s Arcadia, Indiana, Frank Bill, Sam Shepard’s Buried Child, Bonnie Jo Campbell, Laura Ingalls Wilder, Harmony Korine’s Gummo, Denis Johnson’s Jesus’ Son, Sinclair Lewis, Edgar Lee Masters, Ander Monson, Toni Morrison, Donald Ray Pollock, C.S. Giscombe’s Prairie Style, Michael Lesy’s Wisconsin Death Trip, Laird Hunt’s Indiana, Indiana, James Wright, and others.


This edited volume is particularly interested in original contributions of between 3,000 and 6,000 words on topics including, but not limited to:


  • Intersections with other regional American gothics (e.g., the Southern Gothic, Great Plains Gothic, etc.)
  • The Midwestern Gothic and popular culture
  • Race, class, and gender politics in the Midwestern Gothic
  • Grotesque, uncanny, and abject domestic spaces in the Midwestern Gothic
  • Histories and myths of place and region
  • Community formation politics and identity politics
  • The Midwest and frontierism
  • Deindustrialization and economic disparity
  • The opioid crisis, addiction, and mental illness
  • Pastoral/post-pastoral studies
  • The decline of the Rust Belt
  • Rural studies
  • The dark side of Midwestern “niceness”
  • Current politics of the Midwest
  • Documentary and non-fiction approaches to the Midwestern Gothic
  • Visual studies in the Midwestern Gothic (film, photography, and multimedia)

Please submit abstracts of 300-500 words to Dr. Brandi Homan and Julia Madsen at mwgothicscholar@gmail.com by September 1, 2018. Selections will be made by December 1, 2018. Final essays (of 3000-6000 words) are due March 1, 2019.

Out Now: Neil Gaiman's A Study in Emerald HC


Now available from Dark Horse Comics:

Neil Gaiman's A Study in Emerald HC
https://www.darkhorse.com/Books/30-897/Neil-Gaimans-A-Study-in-Emerald-HC (click link for a multi-page preview)

This supernatural mystery set in the world of Sherlock Holmes and Lovecraft's Cthulhu Mythos features a brilliant detective and his partner as they try to solve a horrific murder.

This complex investigation takes the Baker Street investigators from the slums of Whitechapel all the way to the Queen's Palace as they attempt to find the answers to this bizarre murder of cosmic horror!

From the Hugo, Bram Stoker, Locus, World Fantasy, Nebula Award-winning, and New York Times bestselling writer Neil Gaiman comes this graphic novel adaptation with art by Eisner award-winning artist Rafael Albuquerque!


Creators
Writer:Neil Gaiman, Rafael Albuquerque, Rafael Scavone
Artist:Rafael Albuquerque, Dave Stewart
Colorist:Dave Stewart
Cover Artist:Rafael Albuquerque
Genre: Science-Fiction, Crime
 
Publication Date: June 27, 2018
Format: FC, 88 pages; HC; 6 5/8" x 10 3/16"
Price:$17.99
ISBN-10:1-50670-393-3
ISBN-13:978-1-50670-393-0

CFP Tropical Gothic (Spec Issue of eTropic) (12/30/2018)


'Tropical Gothic'
https://call-for-papers.sas.upenn.edu/cfp/2018/07/02/tropical-gothic

deadline for submissions:
December 30, 2018

full name / name of organization:
eTropic journal

contact email:
etropic@jcu.edu.au


CALL FOR PAPERS special issue ‘Tropical Gothic’


Submission Deadline: 30 December 2018



‘TROPICAL GOTHIC’

‘The Gothic’ is undergoing a resurgence in academic and popular cultures. Propelled by fears produced by globalization, the neoliberal order, networked technologies, post-truth and environmental uncertainty – tropes of ‘the gothic’ resonate. The gothic allows us to delve into the unknown. It calls up unspoken truths and secret desires.

Across the tropics, the gothic manifests in specific ways according to spaces and places, and in relation to cultures and their encounters, crossings and interminglings.

Gothic studies that provide particularly interesting arenas of analysis include: culture, ritual, mythology, film, architecture, literature, fashion, art, landscapes, places, nature, spaces, histories and spectral cities. ‘Tropical Gothic’ may include subgenres such as: imperial gothic, orientalism in gothic literature, colonial and postcolonial gothic. In contemporary society neoliberal connections with the tropics and gothic may be investigated. In popular culture, tropical aspects of gothic film, cybergoth, gothic-steampunk, gothic sci-fi, goth graphic novels, and gothic music may be explored.

The eTropic journal is indexed in Scopus, Ulrich's and DOAJ. Publication is in 2019.

Instructions for authors: https://journals.jcu.edu.au/etropic.

Equiries, please contact: etropic@jcu.edu.au.

CFP Varieties of the Monstrous Feminine in American Literature (9/30/2018; NeMLA 2019)


“Varieties of the Monstrous Feminine in American Literature”
https://call-for-papers.sas.upenn.edu/cfp/2018/07/01/%E2%80%9Cvarieties-of-the-monstrous-feminine-in-american-literature%E2%80%9D

deadline for submissions:
September 30, 2018

full name / name of organization:
Mary Balkun/Seton Hall University

contact email:
mary.balkun@shu.edu



NeMLA 2019

The monstrous female is a staple of the literary imagination. The Medusa, the witch, the Sirens, the succubus/vampire, the she-devil, the madwoman, the coquette, the cross-dresser—these are just some versions of this trope that can be identified from the earliest periods to the present day. Some figures represent the ways women have been marginalized as “other” and the impact of that designation, while others represent ways that outsider positions can become a locus of power. This roundtable will explore various manifestations of the monstrous feminine trope, specifically in American literature and culture. It will consider questions such as: Who defines monstrosity? How can it be construed as positive as well as negative? How does the monstrous feminine manifest in different time periods and locations (urban vs. rural, east vs. west vs. midwest, north vs. south)? Does the monstrous feminine always have to be female?

Proposals of 300 words should be submitted by Sept. 30, 2018 via the NeMLA portal https://www.cfplist.com/nemla/Home/CFP.

Monday, June 25, 2018

Weird Fiction Review 8


Now available from Centipede Press:

Weird Fiction Review #8
http://www.centipedepress.com/anthologies/wfreview8.html

Edited by S.T. Joshi
Artwork gallery by Erol Otus.
Lengthy interview with Patrick McGrath.
History of the small press: Shasta Press by Stefan Dziemianowicz.
Several new essays and stories.
Sewn paperback.
Nearly 400 pages.

pricing: $35, on sale for $19.

 
The Weird Fiction Review is an annual periodical devoted to the study of weird and supernatural fiction. It is edited by S.T. Joshi. This eighth issue contains fiction, poetry, and reviews from leading writers and promising newcomers. This issue features fiction by John Shirley, Flannery O’Connor, Lynne Jamneck, Michael Washburn, and others, and articles by Stefan Dziemianowicz (an illustrated history of Shasta Publishing), Michael Shuman (on horror films and garage and surf music), Adam Groves (on the golden age of speculative erotic fiction), John C. Tibbetts (on John M. Barrie), Forrest J Ackerman (on Robert Bloch), as well as verse and other essays and fiction. The feature of the issue is Chad Hensley’s terrific interview with Erol Otus, the iconic artist that did so much of the Dungeons & Dragons artwork of the late 1970s and early 1980s. The front and back cover, and inside covers, are by artist Grant Griffin. The list price on this item is $35 and it is on sale for $19.

Full contents details available by visiting Centipede Press's page for the book at http://www.centipedepress.com/anthologies/wfreview8.html.




Sunday, June 24, 2018

CFP I’m Already Dead: Essays on The CW’s iZombie and Vertigo’s iZOMBIE (Extended) (8/30/2018)


I’m Already Dead: Essays on The CW’s iZombie and Vertigo’s iZOMBIE (Extended)
https://call-for-papers.sas.upenn.edu/cfp/2018/06/14/i%E2%80%99m-already-dead-essays-on-the-cw%E2%80%99s-izombie-and-vertigo%E2%80%99s-izombie-extended

deadline for submissions:
August 30, 2018

full name / name of organization:
Weber State University

contact email:
izombiecollection@gmail.com



I’m Already Dead: Essays on The CW’s iZombie and Vertigo’s iZOMBIE

Editors

Ashley Szanter, Weber State University

Jessica K. Richards, Weber State University



Project Overview

Editors Szanter and Richards seek original essays for an edited collection on Rob Thomas’s television series iZombie as well as the show’s graphic novel source material, Roberson and Allred’s iZOMBIE. Currently under contract with McFarland Publishing, we’re requesting supplemental essays to a working collection. This particular series has begun to overhaul modern constructions of the zombie in popular culture and media. While scholarship on the television zombie is not in short supply, particularly in regards to AMC’s The Walking Dead, we believe this particular show and comic series speak to a growing trend in zombie culture whereby the zombie “passes” as human—fully assimilating into normalized society. The collection aims to explore how this new, “improved” zombie altered popular notions of the zombie monster and brought in a new group of viewers who may shy away from the blood and gore tradition of other popular zombie narratives. As each season of the series begins to take a more traditional approach to zombie narratives, we want to focus this collection on how the show tackles current power and political structures as well as asking questions about globalization and nationhood. With CW announcing that the final season will air in January, we’re looking for essays that address the entirety of the show.

Chapters we’re looking for in this collection can focus on one or more of the following categories:

  • Explorations of how these two narratives construct gender—particularly in regards to femininity and masculinity. Are the rules for gender performance different for male/female zombies as opposed to male/female humans?
  • Essays that explicitly address the graphic novel series iZOMBIE with a focus on character development across the narrative.
  • Analyze the use of hackneyed stereotypes, especially in the television show, as the consumption of brains often leads the zombies to exhibit deeply stereotypical, sometimes racist, behaviors.
  • Examinations of the place/function of romance in the show and/or comic. Relationships function as a central part of the television show in particular. How do the complications of zombie life influence or impede relationships between humans/humans, humans/zombies, zombies/zombies?
  • The CW’s iZombie as the result of genre exhaustion for both the traditional zombie genre as well as the paranormal romance genre. iZombie’s network is known for attractive characters/actors and a strong inclusion of romance and sexuality. Have we taken zombies and paranormal romance as far as they can go without expanding the new ZomRomCom to include heartthrob zombies?
  • Address iZombie or iZOMBIE and intersectionality. Of particular interest to the editors are non-binary gender and sexuality, feminism, race, “passing,” and non-traditional/deconstructed families or relationships.


Abstract Due Dates

Preference will be given to abstracts received before August 30, 2018. Abstracts should be no longer than 350 words and be accompanied by a current CV.

Contact us and send abstracts to Ashley and Jessica at izombiecollection@gmail.com

CFP Edited Collection on Young Adult Gothic Fiction (7/16/2018)


Edited Collection on Young Adult Gothic Fiction
https://call-for-papers.sas.upenn.edu/cfp/2018/05/22/edited-collection-on-young-adult-gothic-fiction

deadline for submissions: July 16, 2018

full name / name of organization: Dr Michelle Smith and Dr Kristine Moruzi

contact email: Michelle.Smith@monash.edu



Call for Papers: Edited Collection on Young Adult Gothic Fiction

The twenty-first century has seen a marked increase in the Gothic themes of liminality, monstrosity, transgression, romance, and sexuality in fiction for young adults. While Stephenie Meyer’s Twilight series (2005-2008) is the most well-known example of Gothic young adult fiction, it is part of a growing corpus of hundreds of novels published in the genre since the turn of the millennium. During this period, the Gothic itself has simultaneously undergone a transformation. The Gothic monster is increasingly presented sympathetically, especially through narration and focalisation from the “monster’s” perspective. In YA Gothic, the crossing of boundaries that is typical of the Gothic is often motivated by a heterosexual romance plot in which the human or monstrous female protagonist desires a boy who is not her “type”. In addition, as the Gothic works to define what it means to be human, particularly in relation to gender, race, and identity, contemporary shifts and flashpoints in identity politics are also being negotiated under the metaphoric cloak of monstrosity.

Yet the Gothic also operates within young adult fiction to enable discussions about fears and anxieties in relation to a variety of contemporary concerns, including environmentalism, human rights, and alienation. Catherine Spooner suggests that the Gothic takes the form of a series of revivals. In the proposed collection we seek to explain what the current Gothic revival in YA fiction signifies and call for papers engaging with any aspect of Gothic fiction published for young adults since 2000.

Potential topics include, but are not limited to:

  • The Gothic and the posthuman
  • The paranormal romance
  • The monstrous feminine
  • The adolescent body
  • The evolution of canonical monsters including the vampire, the werewolf, the witch
  • Postfeminism and the Gothic
  • The Gothic and race
  • Gothic spaces
  • Gothic historical fiction

The editors are currently preparing a proposal for a university press Gothic series, in which the publisher has already expressed preliminary interest.

Please submit abstracts of up to 300 words and a biographical note of up to 150 words to both Dr Kristine Moruzi (kristine.moruzi@deakin.edu.au) and Dr Michelle Smith (michelle.smith@monash.edu) by 16 July 2018.

Full papers of 6000 words will be due by 1 December 2018.

CFP Journal of Dracula Studies (expired for 2018 volume)

Sorry to have missed this for the year, but the journal would now be accepting for 2019:

[UPDATE] DEADLINE EXTENDED to June 1, 2018
https://call-for-papers.sas.upenn.edu/cfp/2018/05/02/update-deadline-extended-to-june-1-2018

deadline for submissions:
June 1, 2018

full name / name of organization:
Journal of Dracula Studies

contact email:
journalofdraculastudies@kutztown.edu



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 folklore, fiction, film, popular culture, and related topics.

Submissions should be sent electronically (as an e-mail attachment in .doc or .rtf). Please indicate the title of your submission in the subject line of your e-mail. Send electronic submissions to journalofdraculastudies@kutztown.edu.

Please follow the updated MLA style. 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.

CFP Theorizing Zombiism: Toward a Critical Theory Framework Conference (9/1/2018; Dublin 7/25-27/2019)


Theorizing Zombiism: Toward a Critical Theory Framework
https://call-for-papers.sas.upenn.edu/cfp/2018/04/13/theorizing-zombiism-toward-a-critical-theory-framework

deadline for submissions: September 1, 2018

full name / name of organization: University College Dublin, Ireland

contact email: theorizingzombiism@gmail.com



Theorizing Zombiism: Toward a Critical Theory Framework

University College Dublin

UCD Humanities Institute

25-27 July 2019


The rising academic interest in the zombie as an allegory for cultural and social analysis is spanning disciplines including, humanities, anthropology, economics, and political science. The zombie has been used as a metaphor for economic policy, political administrations, and cultural critique through various theoretical frameworks. The zombie has been examined as a metaphor for capitalism, geopolitics, globalism, neo-liberal markets, and even equating Zombiism to restrictive aspects of academia.


The zombie as a cultural figure has its beginnings in allegorical folk tales related to the experience of the Haitian slave. Roger Lockhurst, Zombies: A Cultural History, examines these folk tales concerned with the horrific existence of slavery as told through the enigmatic zombi, which was quickly assimilated into western film and pulp fiction. Early films such as White Zombie, mark the induction of the savage zombies into western culture. George A. Romero transformed the zombie narrative into a survival story reflecting aspects of human society. This long standing tradition of the zombie genre is the basis for the successful series The Walking Dead. However, the rise of popular forms of the Zombie narrative, I, Zombie and the Netflix Original Santa Clarita Diet shifts the focus to the first person experience of the Zombie.


The evolution of the zombie narrative in both culture and academics indicates its adaptability and viability as a distinct framework for critical theory. This conference aims to investigate the possibility of developing a singular theoretical framework to evaluate culture and society through the zombie narrative trope. Contributors are encouraged to provide discipline specific, and interdisciplinary, examinations of the zombie with the purpose of formulating an overall theoretical structure of Zombiism.


Potential Topics both discipline specific and non-discipline specific, but not limited to:

  • Nationalism through the zombie narrative films: Rec (Spain), Le Horde (France), Cockneys vs Zombies (England), Dead Meat (Ireland), Ravenous (Canada), etc.
  • Zombie phenomenology/philosophy/phsychoanalysis
  • Globalization, Refugees, and Migration.
  • Pedagogical Zombiism.
  • Gender and the Undead.
  • Zombies in Popular Culture: Re-evaluating the function of horror in society.
  • Expanding Praxis: Evaluating the expanding Zombie trope into other art forms and fields.
  • The Zombification of History: Re-telling historical events through Zombiism and other horror tropes (Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter, etc).
  • Undead digital objects and issues of digital curation/Undead archival objects.
  • Legal Zombiism: Law and Legislation that refuses to die.
  • Ecocritcal Zombiism.
  • Science/Science Fiction: The science of Zombiism/The Zombification of science.
  • Zombiism and visual culture and art history.


Send abstracts of 300 words for consideration to theorizingzombiism@gmail.com by 1 Sept, 2018.

Website: https://theorizingzombiism.wordpress.com

Conference organizers: Scott Hamilton (UCD), Conor Heffernan (UCD)