CFP Horror and Comics Edited Collection (9/1/21)

Missed this earlier:

Horror and Comics Edited Collection

deadline for submissions: September 1, 2021

full name / name of organization: Julia Round

contact email: jround@bournemouth.ac.uk

source: https://call-for-papers.sas.upenn.edu/cfp/2021/07/16/horror-and-comics-edited-collection

 

Call for Papers: Edited Collection

Proposals due 1 September 2021

Horror and Comics

Edited by Julia Round, Kom Kunyosying and Barbara Chamberlin

Horror and comics have a long history that stretches from the earliest woodcuts, scrolls, penny dreadfuls and pulp magazines, to today’s monthly titles, graphic novels, webcomics, and dedicated imprints from both mainstream and small press publishers. Horror comics have dominated at various points in comics history, and reactions to extreme content have shaped the industry. Horror also underpins other comics genres: many of the most famous characters and titles rely on violence or fear of some kind. As a visual medium that relies on reader input, comics storytelling is uniquely positioned to oscillate between terror (through omission) and explicit horror (in drawn panels), while the multimodal language of comics allows stylized art to vividly evoke the sublime and the grotesque and encourages affective responses from audiences.

We invite proposals for chapters for a forthcoming volume. This collection will explore the development of horror within comics and graphic novels, combining close analyses of indicative texts with wider discussions of the development of archetypes, themes, formats, and subgenres. It will be genre-defining and global in scope, and so we particularly encourage submissions that go beyond the UK and US comics industries and/or engage with diverse perspectives and texts. University of Wales Press has expressed interest as part of their Horror Studies series, subject to successful peer review.
Papers may investigate the intersections of comics and horror in historical, thematic, cultural, structural, formalist, or other terms. 

Suggested themes might include (but are not limited to) the following:

• Histories and development of cultural traditions (e.g. fumetti neri, horror manga, EC New Trend, etc.)
• Discussions of key global developments (e.g. texts, publishers, authors, series, etc.)
• Horror comics and social anxieties (e.g. history, politics, public health, etc.)
• Intersectional analyses (e.g. gender, ethnicity, class, sexuality, religion, dis/abilities, etc.)
• Subgenres of horror in comics (e.g. body horror, psychological horror, eco horror, comedy horror, folk horror, supernatural horror, etc.)
• Horror archetypes (e.g. witches, vampires, zombies, ghosts, etc.)
• Acts of censorship and transgression
• Horror and ethnicity (e.g. horror as metaphor for racial trauma, the horror of being perceived as other, etc.)
• Horror and national / transnational identities (e.g. national vs global, local vs rural, etc.)
• Affect and the comics medium (e.g. the depiction and responses of fear, disgust, outrage, etc.)
• Visual iconography and aesthetics (e.g. the grotesque, artistic style, colour and shading, etc.)
• Comics adaptations of older horror (e.g. myth, legend, folktales, etc.) or contemporary horror (e.g. adaptation from television, film, literature, etc.)
• The presence of horror or its signifiers in other comics genres (e.g. superheroes, graphic medicine, autobiography, etc.)
• Horror readers and audiences (e.g. horror comics and childhood, reader engagement and affect, interactivity, fan cultures, cosplay, etc.)

Please send detailed proposals of 500 words and a 100 word biography to jround@bournemouth.ac.uk, kkunyosy@gmail.com, and b.j.chamberlin@brighton.ac.uk with the header ‘Horror Comics Collection’ by 1 September 2021. Informal enquiries may also be sent to the editors at these addresses.

Contributors will be notified of the outcome by 1 November 2021. The deadline for submission of completed draft essays (c.6000 words) will be 1 November 2022.

Last updated July 19, 2021

CFP Critical Companion to Wes Craven (12/20/21)

 A Critical Companion to Wes Craven

deadline for submissions: December 20, 2021

full name / name of organization: Fernando Gabriel Pagnoni Berns

contact email: wescraven1939@yahoo.com

source: https://call-for-papers.sas.upenn.edu/cfp/2021/09/14/a-critical-companion-to-wes-craven

A Critical Companion to Wes Craven
edited by Fernando Gabriel Pagnoni Berns and John Darowski

 
Part of the Critical Companion to Popular Directors series edited by Adam Barkman and Antonio Sanna
 
With Scream 5 (Matt Bettinelli-Olpin) ready to open in the first weeks of 2022, the figure of Wes Craven is more relevant than ever. He was the creator of the Scream franchise (five films) which grossed over $608 million in worldwide box-office receipts. Yet, the honor of reviving the agonizing horror genre is what should be emphasized when talking about this particular film. Indeed, the first Scream opened in 1996, with the first half of the decade being witness of the death of the horror genre. Not even the Oscar won by Silence of the Lambs (Jonathan Demme, 1991) was enough to give a new impulse to a genre that was exhausted after the gore excesses of the 1980s. Neither Craven’s beautiful reimagining of the Nightmare on Elm Street franchise, Wes Craven's New Nightmare (1996), was able to get the box office attention it deserved. The global-wide success of the first Scream, however, saved the horror genre from oblivion, producing a healthy annual output of horror films that continues today.
The director’s various works on the horror genre can now being considered American classics, many of them being taught in any course on the history of the genre, while many others deserving a critical reexamination. Craven’s rich career fluctuated between the commercial and the authorial voice. This anthology seeks previously unpublished essays that explore Wes Craven’s entire body of work. We are open to submissions on the Scream franchise, on the Nightmare on Elm Street series and contemporary classics such as The Last House on the Left (1972) and The Hill Have Eyes (1977) but we will particularly welcome interdisciplinary approaches that can illuminate overlooked Craven films such as Deadly Blessing (1981), Swamp Thing (1982), The Serpent and the Rainbow (1988), Shocker (1989), The People Under the Stairs (1991), Vampire in Brooklyn (1995), Cursed (1995), Red Eye (1995) or My Soul to Take (2010), including his non-horror efforts Music of the Heart (1999) and his segment for the anthology film Paris, je t'aime (2006). Close readings on Craven TV’s work are also welcome, including Stranger in Our House (1978), Invitation to Hell (1984), Chiller (1985) and his episodes for the revival of The Twilight Zone (1985-1986) and Nightmare Café (1992).

This volume will be interdisciplinary in scope, including approaches from philosophy, literary studies, film studies, gender studies, history, psychology, hauntology, ecology, etc. The chapters will be peer-reviewed, scholarly, and written at a high academic level.

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

• Thematic and structural analysis of one or more films

• Visual style                                      

• Villains and notions of evil

• Photography and cinematography 

• The supernatural

• Craven as an auteur

• Craven and franchises

• Soundscapes and music

• Visions of religions

• TV work

• The American family

• Film as philosophy/philosophy in film

• Failed parenthood

• Film genres besides horror (comedy, drama, mystery)

• Social and cultural contexts

• American youth

• Influences

• Landscapes as sites of horror

• Fairy tale storytelling

• Irony and humour 

• Exploration of dreams and the subconscious  

• Class, sexuality, gender and queer readings 

• Fan fiction made on his work

 
This anthology will be organized into thematic sections around these topics and others that emerge from submissions. We are open to works that focus on other topics as well. Potential authors are encouraged to contact the editor with any questions, including topics not listed above. Please share this announcement with anyone you believe would be interested in contributing to this volume. Please submit a 300-500 word abstract of your proposed chapter contribution, a brief CV / bio, current position, affiliation, and complete contact information to Fernando Gabriel Pagnoni Berns and John Darowski at wescraven1939@yahoo.com by 20 December 2021. Full chapters of 6,000-7,000 words are likely due in May 2022 after signing a contract with the publisher (we expect this to be a volume in the ongoing Critical Companion to Popular Directors series edited by Adam Barkman and Antonio Sanna and published with Lexington Books at Roman & Littlefield).
 
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 has authored a book about Spanish horror TV series Historias para no Dormir (Universidad de Cádiz, 2020) and has edited a book on Frankenstein bicentennial (Universidad de Buenos Aires), one on director James Wan (McFarland, 2021) and one on the Italian giallo film (University of Mississippi Press). Currently editing a book on horror comics for Routledge.
 
http://artes.filo.uba.ar/pagnoni-berns-gabriel
 
John Darowski is a PhD candidate in comparative humanities at the University of Louisville. He has authored Adapting Superman: Essays on the Transmedia Man of Steel (McFarland) and is currently editing a book on horror comics for Routledge.

Last updated September 16, 2021

CFP Inklings and Horror: Fantasy's Dark Corners (11/15/2021; Zoom February 2022)

Online Winter Seminar
The Inklings and Horror: Fantasy's Dark Corners 

https://www.mythsoc.org/mythcon/ows-2022.htm

February 4-5, 2022 (Friday evening, Saturday all day)

Via Zoom and Discord 

Online Winter Seminar
The Inklings and Horror: Fantasy's Dark Corners

Registration: ($20 fee, see the website)

Sponsored by The Writers of the Rohirrim, a Mythopoeic Society Discussion Group, we invite you to embrace the darkness of those long winter nights and participate in The Inklings and Horror: Fantasy's Dark Corners.

Tentative Schedule:

Friday evening, 5 pm or later, we will have Discord chats, gaming, possibly a digital break-out room, and other ideas that we can come up with. Then papers occur on Saturday with closing activities in the evening.

CALL FOR PAPERS

Downloadable PDF

The Mythopoeic Society invites paper submissions for an online conference that focuses on the connections between and among Inkling authors and the literary tropes of the horror sub-genre of speculative fiction, to be held through Zoom and Discord February 4-5, 2022. Aspects of this topic might include any of the following as well as other approaches not mentioned here: 

• the utopian and dystopian dimensions of fantasy worlds, including those of the Inklings, that include horrific elements
• the role of fear in idealized world building, including the works of the Inklings
• the demonic and the angelic, with reference to the works of one or more of the Inklings
• monstrosity, gore, and/or body horror (possibly contrasted with otherness and/or beauty)
• the redeemable and the unredeemable
• the appeal of dread in Inkling fantasy and in horror examples
• the horrific within the fantastic and the fantastic within the horrific, including in the works of the Inklings
• the horror of otherness within the sameness of the fantastic
• horrific race and/or gender elements in fantastic narratives, including those of the Inklings
• horror as the despoliation of the fantastic
  

Papers from a variety of critical perspectives and disciplines are welcome.

Each paper will receive a 50-minute slot to allow time for questions, but individual papers should be timed for oral presentation in 40 minutes maximum. Two or three presenters who wish to present short, related papers may also share a one-hour slot. Participants are encouraged to submit papers chosen for presentation at the conference to Mythlore, the refereed journal of the Mythopoeic Society. All papers should conform to the MLA Style Manual current edition.

Paper abstracts (250 word maximum), along with contact information, should be sent to the Papers Coordinator, Online Winter Seminar, at the following email address by 15 November, 2021: mythiccircle@mythsoc.org. Please include your AV requests and the projected time needed for your presentation.

CFP Stranger Worlds: H. G. Wells, Transgression and the Gothic (8/15/21, virtual UK 11/13/21)

2021 Conference Call for Papers

Call for Papers

Stranger Worlds: H. G. Wells, Transgression and the Gothic 

Saturday, 13 November 2021  

Source: http://hgwellssociety.com/statementofobjects/2021-conference-call-for-papers/

There you touch the inmost mystery of these dreamers, these men of vision and the imagination. We see our world fair and common … By our daylight standard he walked out of security into darkness, danger and death. But did he see like that?

H.G. Wells, The Door in the Wall

This year marks the seventy-fifth anniversary of Wells’s death. In a career that spanned fifty years and over a hundred books, Wells invited his readers to step across the threshold of human consciousness and to venture into realms beyond space, time and morality. His scientific romances expose the fragility of the human body and the thinness of humanity’s separation from the animal (The Time Machine, The Island of Doctor Moreau). A reviewer of The Time Machine felt that Wells’s imagination was ‘as gruesome as that of Poe’ and his short stories often dramatize gothic transgressions between the living and the dead. Later works such as The Croquet Player and The Camford Visitation see consciousness slipping its moorings and inhabiting or possessing other bodies.     

Once considered an annexe or niche in literary studies, the Gothic is now firmly established as a key mode of understanding research in, and the enormous global popularity of, genres such as horror, science fiction and fantasy. We invite applications for papers that consider the importance of the Gothic in the work of H. G. Wells. Papers need not be exclusively confined to Wells, but may also consider Wells’s gothic afterlife, reception and influence.  

Presentations will take the form of 20-minute papers, given via Zoom.   

Topics may include, but are not limited to:  

• Wells and Gothic genres and his relationship to his Gothic predecessors including Edgar Allan Poe, Nathaniel Hawthorne and Mary Shelley 
• Wells’s use of horror and terror in for instance, The War of the Worlds
• Gothic bodies; the Gothic across species  
• Gothic geographies  
• Returns from the dead; buried secrets; Gothic histories  
• Ghosts, monsters, apparitions and vampires  
• Transgressive behaviour and crime in Wells’s work
• Wellsian afterlives in science fiction, the graphic novel, cinema, TV, and computer games  

Please send a 250-word abstract to Dr Emelyne Godfrey juststruckone@hotmail.com by 15 August 2021.

Members: Free

Non-members: £10 Applicants will be notified by 31 August 2021. We encourage attendees to become members of the H.G. Wells Society and look forward to seeing you there.   

CFP Multimedia Craft of Wonder: Forming and Performing Marvels in Medieval and Early Modern Worlds, 1200-1600 (8/1/21; Cambridge, Eng. 12/1/21)

 Call for Papers – The Multimedia Craft of Wonder: Forming and Performing Marvels in Medieval and Early Modern Worlds, 1200-1600

Posted on July 9, 2021 by Chris

Source: http://www.themedievalacademyblog.org/call-for-papers-the-multimedia-craft-of-wonder-forming-and-performing-marvels-in-medieval-and-early-modern-worlds-1200-1600/

The Multimedia Craft of Wonder: Forming and Performing Marvels in Medieval and Early Modern Worlds, 1200-1600

1st December 2021, Churchill College, University of Cambridge (in person)

This conference, funded by the interdisciplinary Cambridge centre CRASSH and the Faculty of English, will explore the relationship between wonder, translation, and multimodality in medieval and early modern worlds.

In recent years, renewed critical attention has been paid to wonders and spectacles as wide-ranging as mechanical clocks, printing presses, royal displays, alchemical writings, and professional theatres. This conference will build upon that scholarship by focusing attention onto the dynamics of representing wonder (and wonders) in, across, and between media: in written genres such as chronicles, poetry, letters, handbills, and songs, how were physical marvels recorded, described, or reconstructed through language and literary form? Conversely, how did language shape physical processes of performance, craft, and construction in playscripts, alchemical writings, and books of secrets? What risks and opportunities did translation between media, modes, and genres present?

The conference will take a broad approach to the definition of a ‘marvel’, recognising that the line between human, natural, and supernatural wonders was often indistinct or contested. Papers might address topics such as:

• The encoding of wonder through specific linguistic devices (e.g. narrative, allegory)
• Textual reconstructions and dramatic uses of mechanical marvels (e.g. clocks, automata)
• Representations of natural and demonic magic in text and/or performance
• Depictions of alchemy and other scientific marvels in written and visual media
• Medieval and early modern drama, magic within the theatre, and its written inscription
• Performance contexts and logistics for the staging of wonders
• Written or visual commemorations of royal and civic pageantry
• Depictions of, and instructions for, creating wonders in craft manuals and household recipe books
• Relations between wonder, music, and sound

The keynote address will be delivered by Dr Anke Bernau, Senior Lecturer in Medieval English Literature at the University of Manchester.

We hope to attract submissions from a wide range of disciplines including (but not limited to) literary studies, history of science and technology, music, philosophy, and drama.

Papers should be 20 minutes each. Abstracts of 250 words accompanied by a short biographical statement should be sent (along with any queries) to craftofwonder2021@gmail.com by 1st August 2021.  Check out our website too at https://craftofwonder.crassh.cam.ac.uk/.

CFP: Dracones in Mundo: Dragons in Literature, Film, and Pop Culture: A Series of Edited Volumes UPDATE/EXTENDED DEADLINE (7/25/21)

Dracones in Mundo: Dragons in Literature, Film, and Pop Culture: A Series of Edited Volumes UPDATE/EXTENDED DEADLINE

Source: https://call-for-papers.sas.upenn.edu/cfp/2021/06/28/dracones-in-mundo-dragons-in-literature-film-and-pop-culture-a-series-of-edited

deadline for submissions: 

July 25, 2021

full name / name of organization: 

University of Southern Mississippi

contact email: 

rachel.carazo@snhu.edu

Dracones in Mundo: Dragons in Literature, Film, and Pop Culture: A Series of Edited Volumes UPDATE/EXTENDED DEADLINE

deadline for submissions:
July 25, 2021

full name / name of organization:
St. Thomas University

contact email:
rachel.carazo@snhu.edu

I received a great response to the last call for papers regarding the volumes on dragons. As a result, I have been better able to refine and divide results.

Below are the new details for the updated call for papers:
As the popularity of mythical creatures in films and literature grows, there is one creature that remains prominent: the dragon. Dragons have become most visible recently in the cinematic versions of The Hobbit and in George R.R. Martin’s A Song of Ice and Fire (Game of Thrones Series). However, there are other films, such as Dragonslayer (1981), Reign of Fire (2002), Dragonheart (1996), and the How to Train Your Dragon series (2010-2019), and numerous adult and children’s literature series that feature dragons.

This call for papers will result in several themed volumes under each of these main headings:

---

 FULL VOLUME(S)

1) Wings, Wonders, and Warriors: Dragons in Children’s Literature and Graphic Novels

 

--

SEMI-FULL VOLUMES (Needing 5-8 essays)

The following two volumes need a few more essays to be considered full:

2) Dragons in Mythology 

*Working Title: Flights of the Imagination: Dragons in Mythology and Folklore

3) Dragons in Film and Television

*Working title: Heroes and Villains on 'Silver' Wings: Representations of Dragons in Film and Television

---

OPEN VOLUMES (Needing between 8-10 essays)

4) Dragons in Fiction* [due to the plethora of romance fiction with dragons/shapeshifters, I would be interested also in a separate study or at least a section of the volume about these romantic works]
5) Dragon Games and Online Culture [video games/card games etc]
6) Dragons, Posthumanism, and Animality [since the idea of the posthuman seeks to question the dominating humanistic and anthropocentric perspective upon the nonhuman world, these essays are meant to use this framework to highlight innovations or non-anthropocentric observations on dragons in literature, film, and pop culture]. Topics may include shapeshifters, corporality, affectivity, and the relationship(s) between humans and dragons.
7) The Landscapes of Dragons [these essays seek to investigate ways in which dragons are specifically tied to landscapes, images of the idyll, or images of devastation]
8) Dragons and Ecocriticism [these essays seek ways in which works with dragons remark on the environment in political and critical ways, or how dragon-related narrative can enhance valuable reflections in dialogue with current debates on ecology]
9) Dragon Riders: [even though there is a volume on general fiction, there is a specific genre built around dragon riders as well, so I encourage essays on these topics to show specific intersections between works and relationships within specific works on aspects of riding dragons]
10) Dragons in Fairy Tales/Dragons and Fairy Tale Tropes: [this volume seeks to find aspects of fairy tales or entire tales that relate to dragons/dragon lore in innovative ways/ the editor already has an essay (based on a fairy tale) related to Wings of Fire in process, but all other topics are currently open]
11) Dragons and Pop Culture: Music, Coats of Arms, Dragon Symbols, and Miscellany [this volume seeks to cover media and topics that do not easily fit into the other categories]
12) Dragons in Internet Memes: essays on memes from single films or other themes.

The scope of the present call is still broad. All topics regarding the themes and impact of dragons in film, literature, games, and online culture will be considered. Possible topics include (non-comprehensive list):
• Dragons as non-human animals
• Dragons and the environment
• Dragon symbolism
• The intersections of childhood, gender, race, and ethnicity with dragons
• Changes in the representations of dragons over time
• Visual aspects and attributes of dragons
• Representations of good and evil in connection with dragons
Deadline for proposals: July 25, 2021
Deadline for first drafts: September 25, 2021* [this deadline may be extended for volumes outside of the first depending on how many abstracts are received and which volumes are completed first]

How to submit your proposal
I will have a co-editor for three volumes: *Posthumanism, *Landscapes, and *Ecocriticism with Stefano Rozzoni (PhD Candidate, University of Bergamo), so proposals regarding those topics should be emailed to both rachel.carazo@snhu.edu and stefano.rozzoni@unibg.it
Please send all other abstracts, a short biographical note, and the name of the volume that the paper is for to Rachel L. Carazo at rachel.carazo@snhu.edu

Last updated June 28, 2021

CFP Monsters of Beowulf (8/1/2021; NEPCA 10/21-23/21)

 

Monsters of Beowulf: Past, Present, Future

Session Proposed for the 2021 Conference of the Northeast Popular Culture/American Culture Association

Sponsored by the Monsters & the Monstrous Area

Virtual event, Thursday, 21 October, through Saturday, 23 October 2021.

Proposals due by 1 August 2021.

 

The Northeast Popular Culture/American Culture Association (a.k.a. NEPCA) prides itself on holding conferences that emphasize sharing ideas in a non-competitive and supportive environment. We welcome proposals for presentations of 15-20 minutes in length, from researchers at all levels, including undergraduate and graduate students, junior faculty, and senior scholars, as well as independent scholars. NEPCA conferences offer intimate and nurturing sessions in which new ideas and works-in-progress can be aired, as well as completed projects.

For this session, we’re looking for papers that explore and highlight the reception and representation of the monsters of Beowulf in popular culture.

 

If you are interested in joining this session, please submit the following information into NEPCA’s online form at http://bit.ly/PopCFP2021.

·         Proposal Type (Single Presentation or Panel)

·         Subject Area (select the “Monsters and the Monstrous” from the list)

·         Working Title

·         Abstract (250 words)

·         Short bio (50-200 words)

Address any inquiries to the area chairs: Michael A. Torregrossa at popular.preternaturaliana@gmail.com.

Presenters are also required to become members of NEPCA for the year.

 

CFP MAPACA: Gothic Studies (7/15/21; MAPACA virtual 11/10-13/2021)

MAPACA: Gothic Studies

Source: https://call-for-papers.sas.upenn.edu/cfp/2021/05/05/mapaca-gothic-studies

deadline for submissions:
July 15, 2021


full name / name of organization:
Mid-Atlantic Popular & American Culture Association: Gothic Studies


contact email:
wsmcmasters@gmail.com




The Mid-Atlantic Popular and American Culture Association is accepting proposals until July 15 for their 2021 virtual conference, Nov 10 - 13. Please consider submitting to the newly founded Gothic Studies area: https://mapaca.net/areas/gothic-studies The Gothic Studies area invites proposals which engage with the genre and culture of the Gothic as it is represented in film, television, literature, art, and society. We are especially interested in ways that the Gothic aesthetic defines itself against other predominate modes, or genres, of storytelling or culture. We also invite proposals concerned with subgenres of the Gothic across media, like the American Gothic, southern Gothic, feminine Gothic, the “weird tale,” and the ecoGothic as represented film, television, literature, music, fashion, art, and culture.
 

Last updated May 15, 2021 

 

CFP Journal of Dracula Studies [DEADLINE EXTENDED to 6/1/21]

Journal of Dracula Studies [DEADLINE EXTENDED to 6/1/21]

source: https://call-for-papers.sas.upenn.edu/cfp/2021/01/19/journal-of-dracula-studies-deadline-extended-to-6121

deadline for submissions:
June 1, 2021


full name / name of organization:
Anne DeLong/Curt Herr/ 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.
Please follow 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, 2021, in order to be considered for the Fall 2021 issue.
Send electronic submissions to journalofdraculastudies@kutztown.edu
Contact: Dr. Anne DeLong or Dr. Curt Herr 

Last updated May 2, 2021 

 

RIP Billie Hayes

Many performers have helped solidify the idea of the wicked witch in popular culture. Most might think of Margaret Hamilton from the Wizard of Oz or the Evil Queen from Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, but others have also made an impact on the world.

One of these was Billie Hayes who passed away this week. (See her obituary from Variety.)

She was, perhaps, best known for her role as Witchiepoo in the Sid and Marty Krofft show H. R. Puffnstuff, entertaining generations of fans with her comic antics.

But Hayes also portrayed other witches over the years, including one on an episode of Bewitched. 

CFP Dracones in Mundo: Dragons in Literature, Film, and Pop Culture: A Series of Edited Volumes (7/25/2021)

My thanks to Kristine Larsen for the heads up on this:

Dracones in Mundo: Dragons in Literature, Film, and Pop Culture: A Series of Edited Volumes UPDATE/EXTENDED DEADLINE

Source: https://call-for-papers.sas.upenn.edu/cfp/2021/01/03/dracones-in-mundo-dragons-in-literature-film-and-pop-culture-a-series-of-edited

deadline for submissions: July 25, 2021

full name / name of organization: St. Thomas University

contact email: rachel.carazo@snhu.edu



Dracones in Mundo: Dragons in Literature, Film, and Pop Culture: A Series of Edited Volumes UPDATE/EXTENDED DEADLINE

deadline for submissions:
July 25, 2021

full name / name of organization:
St. Thomas University

contact email:
rachel.carazo@snhu.edu

I received a great response to the last call for papers regarding the volumes on dragons. As a result, I have been better able to refine and divide results.

Below are the new details for the updated call for papers:
As the popularity of mythical creatures in films and literature grows, there is one creature that remains prominent: the dragon. Dragons have become most visible recently in the cinematic versions of The Hobbit and in George R.R. Martin’s A Song of Ice and Fire (Game of Thrones Series). However, there are other films, such as Dragonslayer (1981), Reign of Fire (2002), Dragonheart (1996), and the How to Train Your Dragon series (2010-2019), and numerous adult and children’s literature series that feature dragons.

This call for papers will result in several themed volumes under each of these main headings:

---

FULL VOLUME(S)

1) Wings, Wonders, and Warriors: Dragons in Children’s Literature and Graphic Novels



--

SEMI-FULL VOLUMES (Needing 5-8 essays)

The following two volumes need a few more essays to be considered full:

2) Dragons in Mythology

*Working Title: Flights of the Imagination: Dragons in Mythology and Folklore

3) Dragons in Film and Television

*Working title: Heroes and Villains on 'Silver' Wings: Representations of Dragons in Film and Television

---

OPEN VOLUMES (Needing between 8-10 essays)

4) Dragons in Fiction* [due to the plethora of romance fiction with dragons/shapeshifters, I would be interested also in a separate study or at least a section of the volume about these romantic works]
5) Dragon Games and Online Culture [video games/card games etc]
6) Dragons, Posthumanism, and Animality [since the idea of the posthuman seeks to question the dominating humanistic and anthropocentric perspective upon the nonhuman world, these essays are meant to use this framework to highlight innovations or non-anthropocentric observations on dragons in literature, film, and pop culture]. Topics may include shapeshifters, corporality, affectivity, and the relationship(s) between humans and dragons.
7) The Landscapes of Dragons [these essays seek to investigate ways in which dragons are specifically tied to landscapes, images of the idyll, or images of devastation]
8) Dragons and Ecocriticism [these essays seek ways in which works with dragons remark on the environment in political and critical ways, or how dragon-related narrative can enhance valuable reflections in dialogue with current debates on ecology]
9) Dragon Riders: [even though there is a volume on general fiction, there is a specific genre built around dragon riders as well, so I encourage essays on these topics to show specific intersections between works and relationships within specific works on aspects of riding dragons]
10) Dragons in Fairy Tales/Dragons and Fairy Tale Tropes: [this volume seeks to find aspects of fairy tales or entire tales that relate to dragons/dragon lore in innovative ways/ the editor already has an essay (based on a fairy tale) related to Wings of Fire in process, but all other topics are currently open]
11) Dragons and Pop Culture: Music, Coats of Arms, Dragon Symbols, and Miscellany [this volume seeks to cover media and topics that do not easily fit into the other categories]
12) Dragons in Internet Memes: essays on memes from single films or other themes.

The scope of the present call is still broad. All topics regarding the themes and impact of dragons in film, literature, games, and online culture will be considered. Possible topics include (non-comprehensive list):

• Dragons as non-human animals
• Dragons and the environment
• Dragon symbolism
• The intersections of childhood, gender, race, and ethnicity with dragons
• Changes in the representations of dragons over time
• Visual aspects and attributes of dragons
• Representations of good and evil in connection with dragons

Deadline for proposals: July 25, 2021

Deadline for first drafts: September 25, 2021* [this deadline may be extended for volumes outside of the first depending on how many abstracts are received and which volumes are completed first]

How to submit your proposal
I will have a co-editor for three volumes: *Posthumanism, *Landscapes, and *Ecocriticism with Stefano Rozzoni (PhD Candidate, University of Bergamo), so proposals regarding those topics should be emailed to both rachel.carazo@snhu.edu and stefano.rozzoni@unibg.it
Please send all other abstracts, a short biographical note, and the name of the volume that the paper is for to Rachel L. Carazo at rachel.carazo@snhu.edu



rachel.carazo@snhu.edu

Rachel Carazo



Last updated April 7, 2021
This CFP has been viewed 200 times.

CFP Studies in the Fantastic General Call and Focus on HBO's Lovecraft Country (6/1/2021)

Studies in the Fantastic

Source: https://utampapress.org/studies-in-the-fantastic/sitf-current-cfp

Current CFP

HBO’s recent series Lovecraft Country takes up the monsters of H. P. Lovecraft’s universe, but flips the script to make the heroes an African-American cast battling various demons in the Jim Crow era. Arguably, the show aimed at a re-appropriation or détournement of the pulp legend’s troubling racism, but critics seem divided on the show’s success. In Dr. Kinitra Brooks’s writings on the series for The Root, she situated it as “a part of the contemporary arts movement that media professor John Jennings coined as ‘Racecraftian,’ inspired by Karen and Barbara Fields in their 2014 book, Racecraft: The Soul of Inequality in American Life.” Therein, racecraft is defined as a practice: racism produces the illusion of race, and Jennings adopted the term (thinking specifically of its homology with Lovecraft’s name) to signify horror narratives that engage with critical race studies for the purpose of dismantling constructions of race. As an adaptation of Lovecraft’s universe, the HBO series would seem to be speaking back to the pulp legend.

Studies in the Fantastic, a journal founded by Lovecraft scholar S.T. Joshi, seeks submissions for a special issue on any aspect of the show, but we are especially interested in essays that delve into this debate, the works of H.P. Lovecraft, Lovecraft Country, and the Racecraftian turn. Acknowledging that the series is new and that many conferences this year are cancelled due to the pandemic, we are accepting shorter essays (3500-6000 words) driven by scene analyses for this collection that seeks to gather together scholars’ “First Thoughts on Lovecraft Country.” Submissions for this special issue should be received by June 1, 2021. Send to the editor at fantastic@ut.edu

Studies in the Fantastic is a journal publishing refereed essays, informed by scholarly criticism and theory on both fantastic texts and their social function. Although grounded in literary studies, we are especially interested in articles examining genres and media that have been underrepresented in humanistic scholarship. Subjects may include, but are not limited to, weird fiction, science/speculative fiction, fantasy, videogames, science writing, futurism, and technocracy. Electronic access to Studies in the Fantastic is available via Project Muse. Follow us on twitter: @study_fantastic

Studies in the Fantastic requests submissions for our biannually published peer-reviewed academic journal. As always, essays examining the fantastic from a variety of scholarly perspectives are welcome.

Studies in the Fantastic has recently launched a reviews section. We publish reviews of scholarly works pertaining to the field but may also be open to scholarly reviews on works of fiction, film, or (video)games. (See issues 8, 9 for examples.) Pitches may be sent to the reviews editor at fantastic_reviews@ut.edu.

 

CFP Jounal of Dracula Studies 2021 (5/1/2021)

Apologies for having missed this earlier:

Journal of Dracula Studies

Source: https://call-for-papers.sas.upenn.edu/cfp/2021/01/19/journal-of-dracula-studies

deadline for submissions: May 1, 2021


full name / name of organization: Anne DeLong/Curt Herr/ 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.

Please follow 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, 2021, in order to be considered for the Fall 2021 issue.

Send electronic submissions to journalofdraculastudies@kutztown.edu
Contact: Dr. Anne DeLong or Dr. Curt Herr

Last updated January 21, 2021

Buffy+

Following the recent/ongoing controversy over Josh Whedon, there's an inspiring post on the Facebook of the Whedon Studies Association regarding their evolution as a group and of their rebranded mission and journal, now to be titled Slayage: The International Journal of Buffy+. 

I'll update links to their sites as soon as the name changes are effective,

CFP Northeastern Monsters (8/1/21; NEPCA virtual 10/21-23/21)

Here's the second special call for NEPCA 2021:


Northeastern Monsters

Session Proposed for the 2021 Conference of the Northeast Popular Culture/American Culture Association

Sponsored by the Monsters & the Monstrous Area

Virtual event, Thursday, 21 October, through Saturday, 23 October 2021.

Proposals due by 1 August 2021.



The Northeast Popular Culture/American Culture Association (a.k.a. NEPCA) prides itself on holding conferences that emphasize sharing ideas in a non-competitive and supportive environment. We welcome proposals for presentations of 15-20 minutes in length, from researchers at all levels, including undergraduate and graduate students, junior faculty, and senior scholars, as well as independent scholars. NEPCA conferences offer intimate and nurturing sessions in which new ideas and works-in-progress can be aired, as well as completed projects.

For this session, we’re looking for papers that explore and highlight the Northeast’s contributions to monster lore, including authors, events, individuals, locations, and, of course, monsters.



If you are interested in joining this session, please submit the following information into NEPCA’s online form at http://bit.ly/PopCFP2021.

• Proposal Type (Single Presentation or Panel
• Subject Area (select the “Monsters and the Monstrous” from the list)
• Working Title
• Abstract (250 words)
• Short bio (50-200 words)

Address any inquiries to the area chairs: Michael A. Torregrossa at popular.preternaturaliana@gmail.com.

Presenters are also required to become members of NEPCA for the year.

CFP The Mouse’s Monsters: Monsters and the Monstrous in the Worlds of Disney (8/1/21; NEPCA virtual 10/21-23/21)

The first of two special calls for NEPCA 2021:

The Mouse’s Monsters: Monsters and the Monstrous in the Worlds of Disney

Joint Session Proposed for the 2021 Conference of the Northeast Popular Culture/American Culture Association

Sponsored by the Monsters & the Monstrous Area and the Disney Studies Area.

Virtual event, Thursday, 21 October, through Saturday, 23 October 2021.

Proposals due by 1 August 2021.



The Northeast Popular Culture/American Culture Association (a.k.a. NEPCA) prides itself on holding conferences that emphasize sharing ideas in a non-competitive and supportive environment. We welcome proposals for presentations of 15-20 minutes in length, from researchers at all levels, including undergraduate and graduate students, junior faculty, and senior scholars, as well as independent scholars. NEPCA conferences offer intimate and nurturing sessions in which new ideas and works-in-progress can be aired, as well as completed projects.

For this session, at present, we’re most interested in proposals related to representations of monsters and the monstrous in the traditional Disney brand and to Pixar. Submissions related to more recent properties and acquisitions (for example the Muppets, ABC, ABC Family/Freeform, Saban Entertainment, Marvel, Lucasfilm, Twentieth Century Fox, and Hulu) might be set on an alternate panel. All submissions will also be considered for inclusion in a collection of essays based on the topic.



Potential topics might include the following:

• Adaptations of classic monster stories.
• Aliens.
• Animals as monsters.
• Attractions.
• Bad dreams.
• Communities of monsters.
• Constructs.
• Cryptids.
• Curses.
• Dinosaurs.
• Disguises.
• Disney as monstrous.
• Disney Villains.
• Gargoyles.
• Ghosts.
• Halloween.
• Halloween-themed productions.
• Horror-themed productions.
• Human “monsters”.
• Imaginary creatures.
• Legendary creatures.
• Magical creatures.
• Magic-users.
• Othered individuals.
• Reanimated dead.
• Shape-shifters.
• Technology and monsters.
• Undead/zombies.
• Underworld and other realms of the dead.
• Vampires.
• Weather-related monsters.

If you are interested in joining this session, please submit the following information into NEPCA’s online form at http://bit.ly/PopCFP2021.

• Proposal Type (Single Presentation or Panel)
• Subject Area (select the “Monsters/Disney (Joint Session)” at the bottom of the list)
• Working Title
• Abstract (250 words)
• Short bio (50-200 words)

Address any inquiries to the area chairs: Michael A. Torregrossa (Monsters & the Monstrous) at popular.preternaturaliana@gmail.com and Priscilla Hobbs (Disney Studies) at p.hobbs-penn@snhu.edu.

Presenters are also required to become members of NEPCA for the year.

CFP Poe Studies Association at MLA 2022 (3/17/21; Washington DC 1/6-9/22)

 More from the Poe Studies Association's website:

Modern Language Association Annual Convention
Washington, D.C., 2022

Poe scholars and Poe aficionados are always talking about Poe and always reading and rereading his works. He is ubiquitous—in print, film, popular culture, and all over the internet. His online presence increased even more in the late winter and early spring of 2020 as the world wrestled with the COVID-19 pandemic. For those of us who teach Poe and those of us who write about him, doing so in 2020 and 2021 seems more timely than ever, but it also feels different.

Why should we read or teach Poe “now”? How is or isn’t Poe relevant in the midst/wake of a global pandemic and serious social conflict? Is his work timely, timeless, both, neither? Submit 250-word proposals and 1-page CVs to emronesplin@gmail.com by Wednesday, March 17.

Depending on the number and quality of submissions, this session will either run as a 3-4 person panel or as a roundtable including several participants.

CFP Poe Tales Boston Conference (6/15/21; Boston 4/7-10/21)

From the Poe Studies Association's website. I included the call below.

Poe Takes Boston

The Fifth International Edgar Allan Poe Conference

Boston, MA April 7-10, 2022

The Fifth International Edgar Allan Poe Conference will take place at the historic Omni Parker House Hotel in Boston. For more information, see the attached call for papers and flyer.

CFP Romancing the Gothic (3/31/21)

Came acoss this a while ago but forgot to post it. My apologies.

Romancing the Gothic 

Source: https://call-for-papers.sas.upenn.edu/cfp/2020/12/04/romancing-the-gothic


deadline for submissions: March 31, 2021


full name / name of organization: Romancing the Gothic Project


contact email: hollyhirst84@gmail.com




Romancing the Gothic is online education project which offers free classes on the Gothic, horror, folklore, queer literature, romance and hidden histories. We are an interdiscplinary project with scholars taking part from many different fields and from all over the world. We have a regular audience as well as open sign-ups. To find out more about the project - see the website - https://romancingthegothic.com



We are looking to put together our 2021 schedule for Saturday Classes/Talks, Sunday Talks and Monthly Writing and Creative workshops. We are looking for scholars willing to submit on a variety of topics including: Horror and Gothic film and literature, National Traditions of Supernatural Literature, Demonologies, Intersections of Medicine and Literature, Queer Gothic and Horror. For a full list of requested talks see the website - https://romancingthegothic.wordpress.com/2020/12/05/call-for-talks-class...



This is an opportunity to engage with an international audience and interact with a growing network of scholars from all areas of academic life. It is also a good opportunity for both experienced and inexperienced presenters and speakers as full support is offered prior to the talk being given.



Please follow the link provided above for further details. Send a title and abstract (100-300 words) to sam@romancingthegothic.com


Last updated January 17, 2021 

 

CFP Nightmare Before Christmas Essay Collection (5/3/2021)

Sorry to have missed this earlier.

CFP: Nightmare Before Christmas (Key Films/Filmmakers in Animation series, Bloomsbury)

Source: https://fanstudies.org/2021/01/28/cfp-nightmare-before-christmas-key-films-filmmakers-in-animation-series-bloomsbury/


This edited collection will consider Nightmare Before Christmas as a milestone in animation and film history as well as a key cultural object with lasting impact. The book will be inserted in Bloomsbury’s Key Film/Filmmakers in Animation series.

In the thirty years since its release, Nightmare Before Christmas has drawn repeated academic attention. Many of these contributions have seen the film as an entry point to larger arguments about Tim Burton’s work, whether in terms of its animation (Cuthill 2017), representations of gender (Mitchell 2017), and use of fairy tales (Burger 2017). Less often, Nightmare Before Christmas has been considered in relation to other frameworks, such as its presence beyond the film industry, in theme parks (Williams 2020a, 2020b), and the way it negotiated changing cultural expectations of children’s media and horror (Antunes 2020). Though this literature has shed light on several aspects of the film’s significance, there is to date no sustained scholarly inquiry that brings these insights together and examines the historical and cultural significance specifically of Nightmare Before Christmas. This edited collection seeks to address this gap, considering the different layers of meanings and history of Nightmare Before Christmas from pre-production to the present day.

Nightmare Before Christmas was released quietly in 1993 under Disney’s Touchstone banner and sold primarily on the art-house appeal of its animation technique, amid fears that a close association with child audiences would harm Disney’s reputation. But the film was an immediate success and has since been reclaimed by Disney as one of its most beloved family titles. Growing into a cult phenomenon, Nightmare Before Christmas still cultivates a dedicated fandom across the globe today with an array of merchandise, tie-in products, and other media.

Nightmare Before Christmas marks an important moment of technological development in stop-motion animation, and the technique has continued to have a key presence in the industry, particularly associated with horror- and gothic-inspired narratives (Selick’s Coraline and ParaNoman, or Burton’s Corpse Bride and Frankenweenie), where it blurs questions of suitability for child audiences and continues to fuel debates about the art of animated films and its target audiences. Indeed, the specific combination of stop-motion and children’s horror in Nightmare Before Christmas is key to how the film has negotiated genre, suitability, and other cultural categories in its original and retrospective reception, questions which often become tangled with ideas of nostalgia.

More recently, Nightmare Before Christmas continues to serve as a point of reference for negotiations of genre and of the boundaries between mainstream and niche cultures, both on screen and in spaces of fandom. Its many afterlives expand well beyond the film industry, occupying manga and comic books , board games, and other paraphernalia, as well as physical rooted localities through events such as the live-staged musical, theme parks, and in exhibits (Hicks 2013), as well as through the fan practices that the film has inspired, such as fan fashion (Cuthill 2017) and makeup, cosplay, textual production, and transcultural fandom.

How can we best understand Nightmare Before Christmas and its significance in the history of film and animation? What is Nightmare Before Christmas’ legacy thirty years on, and how does it continue to challenge and delight audiences, scholars, and industry today?

This book aims to collect diverse and original insights into the meanings and impacts of Nightmare Before Christmas from a range of disciplinary perspectives and methods. Some suggested topics include:

• Nightmare Before Christmas in animation and film history;
• animation and genre (musicals/fairy tales/horror/family/etc);
• narrative structure in Nightmare Before Christmas and the audience;
• stop-motion as animation technique and cultural object;
• animation and branding practices;
• Nightmare Before Christmas as seasonal media (Christmas/Halloween);
• suitability, animation, and young audiences;
• children’s horror animation before and after Nightmare Before Christmas;
• animation and nostalgia;
• animation, technology, and art;
• the music of Nightmare Before Christmas (songs, covers, re-releases, etc.);
• the politics of representation in Nightmare Before Christmas;
• childhood in Nightmare Before Christmas and its associated texts and practices;
• authorship and associated debates (Burton/Selick/Elfman/Disney), including the links between Nightmare Before Christmas and other works;
• franchises and franchising relationships;
• live and experiential events linked to the film (live musicals, theme park attractions, the Beetle House restaurants in New York and Los Angeles, Tim Burton exhibitions, etc.);
• transmedia and merchandise (Funko figures, action figures, board games, clothing and make-up, cookbooks, etc.);
• transnational critical and audience/fan reception;
• fandom, subcultures (Goth/emo), and fan practices, including transformative works (fan animation, fanfiction, fan videos,…);
• cosplay and the body in Nightmare Before Christmas fandom.

JQuestions and informal discussion can be directed at any of the three co-editors: Filipa Antunes (a.antunes@uea.ac.uk), Brittany Eldridge (brittany.eldridge.18@ucl.ac.uk), and Rebecca Williams (rebecca.williams@southwales.ac.uk). Formal proposals (under 300 words) and short bio should be emailed to Rebecca Williams by 3 May 2021.