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Topics - nicholasdiak

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61
Modern interpretations of classic stories are nothing new and each age creates its own monsters that it will automatically equate with like versions from the past—see the evolving versions on screen of Mr. Hyde and the Wolf Man for example.

In recent texts though, this placement of strikingly contemporary versions of monsters in historical texts has been used in ways that suggest more than just a simple act of “updating” is going on and that they are more purposely commenting on both our times and uses of the past and how that might impact on current political debates around nationalism, ethnic and sexual identity, and ideological and religious extremism.

Areas of interest within this can include more recent visions of classic monsters transposed back into historical settings. This can include narratives around mythological figures (Clash/Wrath of the Titans and 300), modern versions of vampires, werewolves, witches, devils and traditional folkloric characters placed in historical narratives (Van Helsing, Extraordinary Gentlemen, Outlander, Salem, Supernatural, Lucifer), or new creations such as zombies, aliens, and robots placed in periods in which they never existed (Dr Who, Kingdom, Stargate, Pride, Prejudice and Zombies).

Send 300 word abstracts or expressions of interest to Simon Bacon (baconetti@googlemail.com) by Sunday, May 31, 2021.

62
Whilst not a new phenomenon, horror texts from 2010 upwards abound with monsters/ghosts/demons that embody the memory of a past that is unstoppable, and consumes everybody in its path. Whether it’s zombies (Kingdom), ghosts (Oculus, The Nun), demons (Sinister, It Follows), monsters (The Silence, The Meg) or even psychopaths (The Call) the entity of evil is one that manifests a monstrous memory or traumatic history that, once released, is seemingly unstoppable and determined to kill everyone in its path until no one is left, effectively seeing the past consume the present to prevent the future.

Arguably much of this idea is seen in the religious, political and ideological extremes that are eating their way into every area of life in the 21st century trying to deny change in favour of an idealized past and traditional values. Unsurprisingly this has found expression in popular culture in general and in the horror genre in particular and so this collection will focus on how certain kinds of remembrance or toxic nostalgias take on an undead life of their own manifesting as undead creatures that find life and meaning through terror, death and destruction.

Articles are sought that discuss, but are no limited to, the following:

Theoretical framings around, and the depiction of, such monsters of undead memory.
The uses of found-footage and New Media in such narratives
Differing cultural perspectives of the types monsters created by such undead memory (Betaal, Kingdom, Cargo)
Ecological and Environmental perspectives (Creature features, contagion and plagues, monstrous plants and vegetation)
Undead memories specifically focused on ethnicity, sexuality and gender
Aliens, alternate universes, and dystopian futures that envision a return to the past and reestablishment of “traditional” values
Undead technologies that want to consume/destroy the present


Please send 300 word abstracts to Simon Bacon (baconetti@googlemail.com) by March 31st, 2021.

63
Contagion has often been associated with the appearance of monstrous or hybrid creatures that serve as agents, super-spreaders, or patient-zero’s of disease.

Vampires, werewolves, monstrous insects, animal people, enormous bats, phantom entities, reanimated corpses and even riders of the apocalypse have all been seen as vectors of contagion with their appearance simultaneously being a warning, a symptom or manifestation of godly or ecological displeasure that invites in pestilence, pollution and death.

These manifestations appear at the intersection of folklore, superstition, popular culture and even creepypasta finding form in art, literature, film, etc. Indeed recent representations such as The Thing (1951, 1982, 2011), Alien (1979–2017), Girl with All the Gifts (2016), A Quiet Place (2018), Cargo (2017), Bird Box (2018), Sweet Home (2020–), amongst many others that utilize the idea of a monstrous, cryptid other that is simultaneously an uncontrollable, deadly, infection as well as a judgement on human interference and environmental exploitation.

In similar vein recent epidemics and pandemics have created multifarious origin myths around the passing of disease between animals and humans via exotic forms of fauna such as bats, pangolins, mosquitoes and even chickens and pigs which often intentionalize and monster use them in some way.

Alongside this are notions around the idea of “patient zero” and super-spreaders that are equally superhuman yet oddly non-human in their positioning as a focus and energizer for contagion (see Cabin Fever Patient Zero (2014) and Resident Evil (2002–21)) or even the monstrous effects of the cure as seen in Mimic (1997-2003) or I Am Legend (2007).


This collection then is looking for essays providing historical, folkloric, indigenous, cross-cultural, inter-disciplinary and pop cultural perspectives on the ways in which mythical, hybrid entities have and continue to be associated with contagion and disease.

Please send 300 word abstracts or expressions of interest to Simon Bacon baconetti@googlemail.com by Friday 30th April 2021 for inclusion in a prospective collection (final essays of 6,000–7,000 words due 2023).

64
Call for Papers - Neo-medievalism

Introduction

The critical and commercial success of Peter Jackson’s Lord of the Rings trilogy ushered in a new era of fantasy-medieval and historic-medieval texts in the new Millennium. These neo-medieval texts were not restricted to the big screen, but in true transmedia fashion, exploded on the small screen, in video games, comics, and a variety of other medias as the genre became popular and hence, lucrative. Nearly twenty years later, depictions of the medieval period, be it authentic or moored in fantasy, remain a dominate component in the greater pop culture, with shows like Game of Thrones, video games like Skyrim, many fantasy-medieval books, young adult comics, and the like.

With neo-medieval texts enjoying heightened popularity, it invites an academic gaze to unearth their importance. What is it about these texts that makes them fascinating, especially considering that they are rooted in the distant past as compared to the new Millennium we are living in? What are the different approaches we can take to make sense of these films, shows, books, etc. which in turn can be used to understand not just our present world, but the future we are going into?

This anthology is looking for shorter-form essays (2.5k – 4k words in length) that aim to explore fantasy-medieval and historic medieval films, television shows, comics, video games, literature, and other works that add and expand the genre’s canon. The result would an anthology of 22-28 essays that touch upon a variety of texts with a plethora of academic lenses and approaches, grouped together to support a series of wider topics under the neo-medievalism banner.

Potential Essay Topics

The following is a list of possible (but not comprehensive) topics that contributors could submit on:

Auteur theory on filmmakers and their medieval films/TV shows (e.g. Neil Marshall, Guy Ritchie, Uwe Boll, etc.)
Adaptations of the Matter of Britain
Adaptations/portrayal of historic figures (Robert the Bruce, Robin Hood, Marco Polo, etc.)
Adaptations of fairy tales, stories, and myths
Adaptations of video games (In the Name of the King: A Dungeon Siege Tale [2007] (and its sequels), Warcraft [2016])
Blending medieval with other genres, such as horror (The Head Hunter [2018]) or sci-fi (Transformers: The Last Knight [2017])
Close readings of specific texts
Colonialism
Covid-19 and plague texts (A Plague Tale: Innocence [2019 video game], The Last Witch Hunter [2015], Black Death [2010])
Currency/economics in medieval video games (Skyrim, The Witcher, Final Fantasy) compared to current economic anxieties
Fan and fandom studies
Gender studies
History of the portrayal of medieval times from the past to the present
Intersectionality
Intertextual analysis
Medieval monsters as metaphors
Monomyth/heroes journey
Non-occidental medieval films:
Indian neo-peplum films: Baahubali: The Beginning (2015), Baahubali 2: The Conclusion (2017), and Veeram (2016 film)
Late-era Mesoamerica films: Apocalypto (2006)
Russian medieval films: Furious (2017)
Chinese historic epics: Hero (2002), Genghis Khan (2018), House of Flying Daggers (2004)
Adaptations of One Thousand and One Nights
Portrayals of religions and nationalities (Vikings, Saxons, etc.)
Portrayals of bodies (such body builders and muscular heroes)
Race portrayals (example: white characters in Eastern settings such as The Great Wall [2016])
Semiotic analysis
Surveillance/panopticon in scrying magic: Lord of the Rings films
Temporal texts (time traveling): medieval in modern times or modern times in medieval
Torture porn genre in movies with medieval torture scenes: Red Riding Hood (2011)
Vernacular film theory
And others

List of Media Texts

Below is a list of media titles (from films, TV, comics, games, etc.) that could potentially fit into the neo-medieval formula. This list is by no means complete, but it is presented to give title examples that fit within this genre and to inspire creative ideas on topics to write about. The below list contains titles that are historic-medieval, fantasy-medieval, and medieval combined with other genres.

Films

Black Death (2010)
Dragonheart: A New Beginning (2000)
Dragonheart 3: The Sorcerer’s Curse (2015)
Dragonheart: Battle for the Heartfire (2017)
Dragonheart: Vengeance (2020)
The Head Hunter (2018)
The Hobbit trilogy (2012-214)
The Huntsman: Winter’s War (2016)
King Arthur: Legend of the Sword (2017)
Last Knights (2015)
The Last Witch Hunter (2015)
Lord of the Rings trilogy (2001-2003)
Maleficent (2014)
Maleficent: Mistress of Evil (2019)
Robin Hood (2010)
Robin Hood (2018)
Snow White and the Huntsman (2012)

Television

Britannia (2018-present)
Cursed (2020)
Deus Salve o Rei (2018)
Game of Thrones (2011-2019)
The Hollow Crown (2012, 2016)
Knightfall (2017-2019)
The Last Kingdom (2015-present)
The Letter for the King (2020)
Marco Polo (2014)
Miracle Workers (season 2)
The Name of the Rose (2019)
Robin Hood (BBC) (2006-2009)
The Witcher (2019-present)

Literature

Ascendance Series (Nielsen)
Codex Alera (Butcher)
The Kingkiller Chronicle (Rothfuss)
Ranger’s Apprentice (Flanagan)
Sabbath (Mamatas)
Sands of Arawiya series (Faizal)
A Song of Fire and Ice series (Martin)
Throne of Glass series (Maas)
The Witcher series (Sapkowski)
The Wrath & the Dawn (Ahdieh)

Comics

Berserker Unbound (Dark Horse)
Birthright (Image)
Cursed (Simon & Schuster)
A Game of Thrones (Dynamite)
Lady Castle (Boom!)
Nimona (web comic)
Northlanders (Vertigo)
The Witcher (Dark Horse comics)

Video games

Assassin’s Creed series
Chivalry: Medieval Warfare (2012)
Crusader Kings series
The Cursed Crusade (2011)
Fable series
The First Templar (2011)
Game of Thrones (2012)
Game of Thrones: A Telltale Games Series (2014-2015)
Kingdom Come: Deliverance (2018)
A Plague Tale: Innocence (2019)
Stronghold series
The Witcher series from CD Projekt Red

Music

Dungeon synth music
Adventure/power metal bands like Blind Guardian and Keep of Kalessin

Again, the above list is not comprehensive, but to illustrate a general idea of titles from different media that could fit into this essay collection.

Project Timetable

This anthology has not yet procured a contract, but will be submitted for consideration to Peter Lang Publishing to be part of the Genre Fiction and Film Companions series. The following a proposed timetable to realize this project:

February 28, 2021 – Deadline for abstract submissions
March 7, 2021 – Notification of acceptance
March 14, 2021 – Submission of preliminary table of contents to Peter Lang Publishing for consideration for their Genre Fiction and Film Companions series
If rejected, submit to alternative publisher, repeat process
If accepted, distribute style guide to authors
+ Five months after publisher acceptance – Chapter drafts are due
+ Four months – Chapter revisions are due
+ One month – Submission of manuscript to publisher
Drafts and revisions are strongly encouraged to be submitted before the deadlines.

Abstract Submission Information

Please submit your abstract(s) of roughly 500 words along with your academic CV/resume and preliminary bibliography to the email address below before February 28, 2021. Please use an appropriate subject line when submitting – have it contain the phrase “medieval submission.” I will confirm each submission via email within 72 hours. I will also accept multiple abstract submissions.

This CFP is open to all academics and scholars. Underrepresented scholars researching this genre are greatly encouraged to submit.

Nicholas Diak, editor

Email: vnvdiak@gmail.com
Website: http://www.nickdiak.com

Nicholas Diak is a pop culture scholar of neo-peplum and sword and sandal films, industrial music, synthwave, exploitation films Italian genre cinema, and H. P. Lovecraft studies. He is the editor of The New Peplum: Essays on Sword and Sandal Films and Television Programs Since the 1990s (McFarland, 2018) and the co-editor of Horror Literature from Gothic to Post-Modern: Critical Essays (McFarland, 2020). Along with Michele Brittany, he co-created and co-chairs the Ann Radcliffe Academic Conference and co-hosts the H. P. Lovecast Podcast. He has contributed articles, essays, and reviews to numerous journals, academic anthologies, magazines, and websites.

65
CFPs: Visions of Death in the 21st Century: A Companion

We finished the 20th Century with the beautiful Brad Pitt playing a very human Death but in the 21st Century how has this changed? The past 20 years has seen the rise of extremist politics and religion, #MeToo, BLM, pandemics and not forgetting the recent global ramifications of Covid-19. So when the world seems in a sharp descent back into the past rather than launching into the future what face does Death, The Grim Reaper, Hel, Thanatos, La Meurte, Shinigami have when she/he/it looks at us?

Of particular interest are examples from Indigenous, Aboriginal, Latino, Indian, African American texts, films, games, music, performance, comics, and art.

The essays will be for a collection in the Genre, Literature and Film Companion series for Peter Lang, Oxford. Essays are approximately 2,500 words long (inc. notes but not bibliography), should be accessible but touch on the big ideas and take a main example as a ‘lens’ to look at the wider topic.

300 word abstracts or expression of interest should be sent to the editor Simon Bacon (baconetti@googlemail.com)  by January 30th 2021, with a view to having a completed essay by start/mid 2022.


66
CFPs: “What Music They Make”: Critical Analysis of Vampire Related Music Videos

The connection between vampires and music would seem a natural one in popular culture with the vampire Lestat awakening to become a rock god, Bauhaus’ iconic rendition of Bela Lugosi’s Dead and the never-ending pop video of Joel Schumacher’s The Lost Boys (1987). Indeed, the vampire seems to be a regular in pop videos and many other kinds of musical performances from stage shows to operas to ballets.

But what does each party bring to the table in this partnership; what characteristics of the vampire influence and inform certain songs, videos and performances, and conversely how does music/music videos influence the shape of the vampire in modern culture (the vampire being a creature/creation of technology in many senses)?

As intimated above this can involve bands, songs, music videos, films about music, rock operas, musicals, stage shows, opera, ballet, in fact any instance where music and the vampire come together in a meaningful way.

Send 300 word abstracts or expressions of interest to Simon Bacon (baconetti@googlemail.com)  by March 31, 2021, with full 7–8,000 word essays not required until early/mid-2023. The collection already has interest from University of Amsterdam Press.

67
CFPs: Zombies of the Future: The Undead in the 21st Century and Beyond

A riot gear walker in The Walking Dead TV series (2010–). Picture: Gene Page/AMCtv, TWD Productions LLC.
Zombies seemed to have shambled into something of a literal “dead end.” With something of an eternal return to similar tropes and similar readings on their way to inevitable apocalypse. But this collection wants to “breath” new life into old undead bodies and focus solely on texts from the past 10 years or those that have used the zombie in unusual and previously unconsidered ways. Consequently this collection will be focused on 4 specific areas:

The zombie beyond the zombie (post-zombie zombies)
Zombies and new media, e.g. Tik Tok, streaming, gaming etc.
Cross cultural zombies—Indigenous, Aboriginal, Indian, African, South Korea etc.
Futuristic zombies—zombie bodies in fantasy, sci-fi and visions of what’s to come.
This concerns popular culture in its widest interpretation books, films, games, comics, music, theatre, ballet, performance, art, fashion, etc.

Send 300 words abstracts or expressions of interest to Simon Bacon (baconetti@googlemail.com) by February 28th 2021, with final essays of 6-7,000 words required mid-2023. Bloomsbury Academic has expressed interest in the collection.

68
A new collection on aliens is proposed for Peter Lang.

Aliens are everywhere in contemporary culture: from sci-fi franchises such as Star Wars to religious cults, conspiracy theories, and SETI deep-space explorations. But despite a plethora of studies addressing various aspects of this phenomenon, there has never been a Companion that systematically discusses the meaning of aliens through a range of representative texts. Our collection is intended to fill this lack.

We are asking for essays of 2,500 words that frame a theoretical aspect of the aliens’ cultural role by centering on one text, whether literary or cinematic to use as a lens to look at the wider topic. The essays themselves should be accessible but address the big ideas.

The proposed Companion will be divided into several sections. The topics in each section may include but are not limited to the following:

Origins

H. G. Wells and the Scientific Romance
War of the Worlds and Victorian Invasion Literature (Chesney’s Battle of Dorking)
Aliens and other Victorian monsters (Dracula, “the little people” in Arthur Machen, Jekyll/Hyde, etc.)
Aliens and Darwinism
Aliens and the Empire (Conrad, Haggard, Wells)

The Golden Age

Aliens and the frontier/western
Aliens and the Cold War
Monstrous imagination in invasion movies
Alien infestation and the poetics of paranoia (Finney’s Invasion of Body Snatchers)
Aliens and natives

International Aliens

Aliens behind the Iron Curtain (Soviet SF; Stanislaw Lem)
Aliens in China, Japan and South Korea (Cixin Liu, manga/anime)
Aliens in India and the Middle East
Aliens and Indigenous Identity

Aliens and the Cultural Imagination

Aliens and race
Aliens and gender
Aliens and theology
Aliens and the apocalypse
Queer aliens
Aliens and the Anthropocene
Humans as Alien Invaders

Aliens in Different Genres/Media

Space opera
Art, dance, performance
Aliens in music and music videos
Fandom and cosplay
Aliens in Gaming and Roleplay
Aliens in New Media

Please send 300 word abstracts or expressions of interest to both editors Elana Gomel (egomel@tauex.tau.ac.il) and Simon Bacon (baconetti@googlemail.com) by February 28th 2021 for consideration in the collection which will be part of the Peter Lang, Oxford,  Genre, Literature and Film Companion Series.


69
Call for Papers: Religion and Horror Comics

While many genres offer the potential for theological reflection and exploration of religious issues, the nature of horror provides unique ways to wrestle with these questions. Since the EC Comics of the 1950s, horror comics have performed theological work in ways that are sometimes obvious, sometimes subtle, but frequently surprising and provocative. This volume will bring together essays covering the history of horror comics, with a focus on their engagement with religious and theological issues.

Essays have been accepted on the topics of the morality of the EC Comics, the liminality of John Constantine, cosmic indifference in the work of Junji Ito, and the reincarnated demons of the web-comic “The Devil is a Handsome Man.” We are seeking essays on a wide range of other topics, possibly including but not necessarily limited to:

Alan Moore’s Swamp Thing and Post-Humanist Theology
Religious Pluralism and The Sandman
Lucifer in the Sandman Universe
The Theological Universe of Gideon’s Fall
The Function of Islam in Infidels
Folk Religious Practices and Harrow County
The Human and the Divine in Chu
Horror as a Theological Turn in Superhero Comics (particularly how Batman and Daredevil use horror)
Cain and Abel in House of Secrets/House of Mystery
The Joker’s Theology
Seeking the Divine in Werewolf by Night
The Unseen Realities of Outcast
Concepts of Hell and damnation in Hellboy and Spawn
As there has already been a large amount of scholarship on The Walking Dead, we will not include any essays on it in this volume.

This volume is a part of the Religion and Comics series, published by Claremont Press. It will be co-edited by Brandon R. Grafius and John W. Morehead. Grafius is associate professor of biblical studies at Ecumenical Theological Seminary, whose recent books include Reading the Bible with Horror (Lexington Books/Fortress Academic) and a handbook on the film The Witch in the Devil’s Advocates Series (Auteur Publishing/Liverpool University Press). Morehead is the proprietor of TheoFantastique.com, and is a contributor, editor and co-editor to a number of books including The Undead and Theology, Joss Whedon and Religion, The Supernatural Cinema of Guillermo del Toro, and Fantastic Fan Cultures and the Sacred. Together, they have co-edited the volume Theology and Horror (Lexington Books, forthcoming), and the Oxford Handbook of Biblical Monsters (forthcoming, 2023).


Abstracts of 300-500 words with CVs should be sent to johnwmorehead@msn.com and bgrafius@etseminary.edu by December 1, 2020. The submission deadline for drafts of manuscripts of 6,000-8,000 words is scheduled for June 1, 2021.

70
The Gothic Age of Television: Edited Collection, Call for Papers

Deadline: November 1, 2020
Contact name: Aoise Stratford and Joel Hawkes
Email: gothicagetv@gmail.com
 

The last three decades have witnessed a proliferation of Gothic television programs. Some provide a platform for the Gothic’s most fantastic mode of expression, with vampires, werewolves, and zombies invading our screens. Closer to home but decidedly unheimlich, domestic spaces are haunted by uncanny secrets in programs from Twin Peaks to Top of The Lake. Still other programs, like Game of Thrones and Black Mirror, capture the Gothic’s obsession with barbaric pasts and threatening futures. Subtle elements of Gothic emerge in a wide range of non-Gothic programming, such as Mad Men and Breaking Bad, revealing the true extent of the genre’s influence.

Perhaps, just as Black Mirror’s techno-mediated future reflects – and reflects upon – the present moment, this Gothic resurgence responds to the transformations and uncertainties of our time.  In other words, we might read the Gothic, as it repeatedly has been, as a genre that re-emerges at times of cultural anxiety.

The screens, and the streaming services that play this Gothic programming might, then, themselves be read as “Gothic devices,” even more transformative than the technologies that that have inspired and shaped the Gothic narratives of past centuries.

This call for papers requests proposals that explore this resurgence in the Gothic as it is mediated through television programming, and the proliferation of screens and streaming services, at the beginning of the 21st century.

The collection looks to theorise this Gothic revival.  Papers might offer close readings of particular shows, ponder themes and tropes, trace trends in programming, consider the importance of the television medium in this revival, or examine the Gothic technologies of streaming screens and other devices.

The collection looks to be, like Frankenstein’s monster, hybridic, a composite, and larger than the sum of its parts, deploying a range of critical methodologies and lenses--including Queer theory, postmodernism, and post-human studies--and seeking to embrace some of the many different ways in which we can have conversations about Gothic Television.

Essays might examine shows such as (but not limited to),

Stranger Things, Penny Dreadful, Carnival Row, Outlander, Buffy, Angel, Vampire Diaries, True Blood, Sherlock, Twin Peaks: The Return, Sharp Objects, Mad Men, Black Mirror, Top of the Lake, Game of Thornes, Frankenstein Chronicles, The Walking Dead, American Horror Story, Supernatural, The X-Files, Bates Motel, Hannibal.

Essays might explore a number of topics, and ask and answer a variety of questions of Gothic television, such as (but not limited to),

Streaming, binging, booting, seriality, and the structure of Gothic television

How do screen mediums and consumption habits speak to a sense of the Gothic?

21st century spaces / 21st century Gothic

How is space/place/setting important to Gothic television?  What Gothic implications are there for the “space” of the streaming screen?

Twin Peaks: The Return

Why is Twin Peaks: The Return important?  How does it make use of the Gothic?

Vampires and their slayers

How does the vampire inhabit the new century, this gothic revival, and an age of streaming screens?

Dissecting 21st century monsters

What and who are the important monsters of this Gothic television revolution?

Gothic nostalgias

How do Gothic shows (re)imagine the past?  What is the relationship of the Gothic to the plethora of reboots, returns, and sequels on our screens?

Gothic futures

How do Gothic television shows imagine the future?  What kind of future is Gothic programming creating?

Gothic fantasy

How do Gothic and fantasy interact on our screens?  What has led to the rise of this important sub-genre?

Gothic marginalities

How are those on the margins important to the Gothic?  How are questions of race, gender, class, or sexuality important in terms of marginality and isolation, but also community, inclusivity, and diversity?  What is the role of the so-called “normative”?

Abstracts of 300 words and a brief bio should be sent to the editors, Aoise Stratford (Cornell University) and Joel Hawkes (University of Victoria) at gothicagetv@gmail.com

Deadline for abstracts is 1 November 2020.  (Final papers will be of about 5000 words, due end of April.)

 

71
Cine-Excess 14
Representations as Weapons: Cult Film and the Politics of Resistance
5th- 7th November 2020

Confirmed Guest of Honour: Pam Grier (Jackie Brown, Coffy, Scream Blacula Scream)

Live Streamed Interview and Q and A on Friday 6th November 2020

Organised in association with Birmingham City University and the Black Sands Educational Project

(Online conference and streamed festival and screening season)

Previous guests of honour attending Cine-Excess have included Jen & Sylvia Soska (American Mary, Rabid [2019]), Norman J. Warren (Prey, Terror), Victoria Price (Author of Vincent Price: A Daughter’s Biography), Pete Walker (Frightmare, House of the Long Shadows), Catherine Breillat (Romance, Sex is Comedy), John Landis (An American Werewolf in London, The Blues Brothers), Roger Corman (The Masque of the Red Death, The Wild Angels), Stuart Gordon (Re-Animator, King of the Ants), Brian Yuzna (Society, The Dentist), Dario Argento (Deep Red, Suspiria), Joe Dante (The Howling, Gremlins), Franco Nero (Django, Keoma, Die Hard II), Vanessa Redgrave (Blow Up, The Devils), Ruggero Deodato (Cannibal Holocaust, House on the Edge of the Park), Enzo G. Castellari (Keoma, The Inglorious Bast***s), Sergio Martino (Torso, All the Colours of the Dark), Jeff Lieberman (Squirm, Blue Sunshine) and Pat Mills (Action Magazine, 2000 AD).

Cine-Excess 14 is hosted in association with Birmingham City University and the Black Sands Educational Project. It features an online academic conference alongside film industry panels and a streamed film festival season of related UK premieres and retrospectives.*

For its 14th annual edition, Cine-Excess is presented in collaboration with the Black Sands Educational Project, which seeks to educate UK based BAME artists, filmmakers and audiences about the subversive potential that surrounds black representations in cult and marginal cinema formats. The focus of the Black Sands project helps informs this year’s conference theme: Representations as Weapons: Cult Film and the Politics of Resistance. This theme considers the extent to which the struggle for representations by various ethnicities, genders and divergent groups is enacted through a range of classic and contemporary cult film genres. This focus on representations as weapons will consider the complex issues of gender and racial diversity as embodied by the cult image, whilst also exploring a range of international traditions, directors and performers whose work can be seen as existing at the borders of cinematic excess and political struggle.

As central to this examination, we are delighted to welcome the legendary actress Pam Grier (Jackie Brown, Coffy, Scream Blacula Scream) as our Guest of Honour to Cine-Excess 14. In a career that has spanned more than thirty years, Pam Grier pioneered the representation of strong African-American heroines across a range of influential films, often appearing in pulp productions that carried prominent messages about gender and racial equality. Her body of work remains relevant to contemporary audiences, who are now even more interested in issues of diversity portrayed in these cult narratives. Pam Grier will be joining the festival for a live streamed interview and audience Q and A on Friday 6th November, when she will also receive her Cine-Excess Lifetime Achievement Award.

We therefore welcome conference submissions that deal directly with Pam Grier’s work as a performer and cultural icon. Further topics might also consider the work of classic and contemporary minority and female filmmakers, alongside those performers whose works annex social commentary with unconventional content, while issues of diaspora, disability, mental health and migration are other key topics that will be discussed by this year’s event. Proposals are invited for papers that consider cult film case-studies within a range of differing contexts that relate to this year’s theme. However, we would particularly welcome contributions that focus on the following areas:

  • From Cause Célèbre to Cultural Icon: New Readings of Pam Grier and Performativity
  • Manipulating the Mainstream: Jordan Peele and the New Politics of Race Horror
  • Between Genres and Against the Grain: Female Voices in Cult and Extreme Cinema
  • The Role of Race and Ethnicity in Horror Remakes
  • Representation as Weapons: Cult Cinema at Key Points of Historical Conflict
  • Race Re-Framed: New Readings of Blaxploitation Cinema Cycles
  • Inclusion in Excess: Using the Extreme Image in Educational and Pedagogic Practices
  • Classic and Contemporary Images of Black American Horror
  • From Diversity to Deviance: The Struggle for Sexual Identity in Marginal Film
  • Screening Diversity, Consent and Desire in Marginal Film and Digital Sex/Pornography
  • Coloniser, Colonised and Cult: Film Narratives and the Struggle for Representation
  • Bodies as Battlegrounds:  LGBTQ+ Representations and Intimacies
  • Terrifying Outsiders: Migrant Traumas and Regional Conflicts in Cult Film Narratives
  • "Gypsies", Roma and Nomads: Cult Representations of Travellers and Traveller Communities
  • Dubbed but Highly Dangerous: The Political Reception of European Radical Film Texts 
  • Transnational and Trash: Conflicted Notions of Nationhood in Pulp Cinema
  • Margins Within Margins: Black Trans-representation in Film
  • Disability, Diversity and Representation in Cult Cinema 
  • Scoring the Resistance: Cult Soundtracks as Symbols of Rebellion 
  • Screening Rights and the Battle for Embodiment: Trans and Non-Binary Voices on Screen 
  • Split: Framing Mental Health in Exploitation Cinema 
  • Framing the Forgotten: Dispossessed UK Communities on Screen
  • Bodies as Weapons: Classic and Contemporary Case-Studies of Subversive Cult Performers
  • Diverse Voices in Distribution: New Organisations and Patterns of Screen Disruption
  • Cult on Cults: Fictional Representations of Real Life Marginal Communities

Over the past 14 years Cine-Excess has developed a reputation as an inclusive and safe space in which to present new work around global cult film cultures. We welcome submissions from emerging and established and scholars, activists, film makers and community groups.

Please send a 300-word abstract and a short (one page) C.V. by Monday 21st September 2020 to:

Professor Xavier Mendik
Director of the Cine-Excess International Film Festival
Birmingham City University
xavier.mendik@cine-excess.co.uk

Dr Gemma Commane
Co-Director of the Cine-Excess International Film Festival
gemma.commane@cine-excess.co.uk

Jo Delyse-Packwood
Co-Director of the Cine-Excess International Film Festival
jo.delyse.packwood@cine-excess.co.uk

A final listing of accepted presentations will be released on Friday 25th September 2020.

Delegate fees for Cine-Excess 14 are £50/£25 (concessions) for attendance at online/streamed version of the 2020 event. This includes entrance to all conference activities, related Cine-Excess screenings and industry panels.  A selection of conference papers from the event are scheduled to be published in the Cine-Excess e-Journal.  For further information and regular updates on the event (including information on guests, keynotes and screenings) please visit  www.cine-excess.co.uk.

* Cine-Excess has and will continue to monitor the Covid 19 (coronavirus) outbreak, regularly reviewing the situation and taking necessary action. Our priority is to ensure the health and safety of our attendees, delegates, staff, and everyone we work with. Cine-Excess reserves the right to amend the conference and festival programme in the event of changes to Covid 19 restrictions and guidelines.

72
Call for Proposals: It's About Perspective Podcast

This newly launching podcast, It's About Perspective, strives to explore topics surrounding horror, gothic, scifi, fantasy, the supernatural, and other subgenres. Each season will extract a topic for analysis and discussion. The opening season will begin with the werewolf. There are no boundaries, whether it be the construction of the werewolf, an argument on the "good" vs "bad" werewolf or on anti-werewolf imagery, all engaging arguments and perspectives are welcome. This is deliberately broad to encourage a variety of contributions and keep each episode new and interesting.

Topics may include but are in now way limited to the following:

Origins
Nature and Environment
Art
Religion
Literature
Fairy Tales and mythology
Film and Television
Popular Culture
Feminist perspective
Identify

The ultimate goal of this podcast is to engage with academics, though this is not a requirement, across a range of disciplines and develop upon usual areas. Specail episodes may be developed after the season to revisit papers and speak to guests.

Please send an abstract of no more than 300 words and short bio to Chloe at itsaboutperspectivepodcast@gmail.com by Sept. 30

Proposed papers should aim to be between 15-20 min in length, if you require more time please feel free to contact the above email to discuss a two-part series.

This CFP is open to all, as it will be pre-recorded and distributed remotely.

73
Academic and Non-Fiction Publishers / Apollo Publishers
« on: September 13, 2020, 07:02:15 PM »
Apollo Publishers

Apollo Publishers is a high-concept, boutique publishing house designed with the interests of today’s readers in mind. Our vibrant, one-of-a-kind books are from authors with expertise and compelling new ideas.

Publisher's Website: https://apollopublishers.com/
Submission Information: https://apollopublishers.com/index.php/contact-2/

Apollo Publishers welcomes submissions of proposals and manuscripts.

We are exclusively publishing timely and topical nonfiction for adult trade audiences. Topics may cover a broad spectrum as long as they are relevant today and are likely to be relevant in the years to come. Our books range in length from 60,000 to 120,000 words. Please include a short book description and author bio.
Rights and rates to be determined on an individual basis, however at a minimum we seek rights in the English speaking world.

To submit your proposal or manuscript, fill in the form or send an email to submissions: submissions@apollopublishers.com

74
Call for Chapters: House of the Devil: Satanic Cultures (and Panics) from the 60s to Today

Deadline: October 15, 2020
Contact person: James Pate, Brian Santana / Shepherd University
Email: jpate@shepherd.edu

 

            From the Satanic and occult counter-cultures of the late 60s, as seen in the films of Kenneth Anger, to the Satanic Panic of the 80s, to the progressive-style Satanism of music groups like Twin Temple and organizations like The Satanic Temple, Satanism in the U.S. (both real and imagined) has long reflected the anxieties, hopes, and concerns of the culture at large.

Satan has been seen as a corrupter and a liberator, a literal being and a Romantic metaphor, and the “satanic” has long been a site for various cultural conflicts and energies. Though there have been books about specific aspects of modern Satanism, this collection will focus on how the image of Satanism has changed over the past decades.

 
Topics for chapter proposals may include, but are not limited to:

  • Satanic and occult imagery in the 60s, and its relation to 60s countercultures
  • the role movies such as The Exorcist and The Omen might have had in bringing the occult mainstream
  • Discussions on the relationship between the rise of talk shows and Satanic Panic
  • The relationship between the Satanic Panic and the rise of the Religious Right and The Moral Majority
  • The complicated relationship between neo-paganism and Satanism
  • Fashion and Satanism
  • Essays on Satanic lifestyles
  • The use of Satanic imagery in music and music videos (especially interested in musical artists who are women and/or BIPOC)

Chapter proposals should:

1. In 500 words (or less) define the focus and argument of the chapter.
2. Be submitted as a pdf or word document. Proposals should be double-spaced, with Times New Roman, 12- point font, and Chicago style citations.
3. Include a copy of the author's CV and a 50 -word biography

Proposals and questions should be sent to Dr. Brian Santana and/or Dr. James Pate at

bsantana@shepherd.edu or jpate@shephered.edu

 

75
The Fourth Annual Ann Radcliffe Academic Conference at StokerCon 2021
Abstract Submission Deadline: November 30, 2020


Conference Dates: Thursday, May 20, 2021 - Sunday, May 23, 20201
Conference Hotel: The Curtis Hotel, 1405 Curtis Street, Denver, CO 80202
Conference Website: http://stokercon2021.com

The Ann Radcliffe Academic Conference co-chairs invite all interested scholars, academics, and non-fiction writers to submit presentation abstracts related to horror studies for consideration to be presented at the fourth annual StokerCon which will be held May 20 - 23, 2021 in Denver, CO.
The Ann Radcliffe Academic Conference is an opportunity for individuals to present on completed research or work-in-progress horror studies projects that continue the dialogue of academic analysis of the horror genre.  As in prior years, we are looking for completed research or work-in-progress projects that can be presented to with the intent to expand the scholarship on various facets of horror that proliferates in:

    • Art
    • Cinema
    • Comics
    • Literature
    • Music
    • Poetry
    • Television
    • Video Games
    • Etc.

We invite papers that take an interdisciplinary approach to their subject matter and can apply a variety of lenses and frameworks, such as, but not limited to:

    • Auteur theory
    • Close textual analysis
    • Comparative analysis
    • Cultural and ethnic
    • Fandom and fan studies
    • Film studies
    • Folklore
    • Gender/LGBT studies
    • Historic analysis
    • Interpretations
    • Linguistic
    • Literature studies
    • Media and communications
    • Media Sociology
    • Modernity/Postmodernity
    • Mythological
    • Psychological
    • Racial studies
    • Semiotics
    • Theoretical (Adorno, Barthes, Baudrillard, Dyer, Gerbner, etc.)
    • Transmedia
    • And others

Conference Details

    • Please send a 250 – 300 word abstract on your intended topic, a preliminary bibliography, and your CV to AnnRadCon@gmail.com by November 30, 2020. Responses will be emailed out during the month of December. Final acceptances will require proof of StokerCon registration.
    • Presentation time consideration: 15 minute maximum to allow for a Question and Answer period. Limit of one presentation at the conference.
    • There are no honorariums for presenters.
    • In support of HWA’s Diverse Works Inclusion Committee goals, the Ann Radcliffe Academic co-chairs encourage the widest possible diverse representation to apply and present their scholarship in a safe and supportive environment. More information at: http://horror.org/category/the-seers-table/
    • Please subscribe the StokerCon’s Newsletter to keep abreast for the latest conference information. 

Organizing Co-Chairs
Michele Brittany and Nicholas Diak
Email: AnnRadCon@gmail.com

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

Membership to the Horror Writers Association is not required to submit or present, however registration to StokerCon 2021 is required for to be accepted and to present. StokerCon registration can be obtained by going to https://stokercon-uk.com/. There is no additional registration or fees for the Ann Radcliffe Academic Conference outside StokerCon registration. If interested in applying to the Horror Writer’s Association as an academic member, please see www.horror.org/about/ .
StokerCon is the annual convention hosted by the Horror Writers Association wherein the Bram Stoker Awards for superior achievement in horror writing are awarded.

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