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Messages - MicheleBrittany

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1
Poe and Hawthorne Conference--Kyoto, Japan

Deadline for submissions: August 1, 2017
Name of organization: Sandy Hughes, Nathaniel Hawthorne Society and Poe Studies Association
Contact email: sandy.hughes@wku.edu

Poe & Hawthorne Conference

Kyoto Garden Palace Hotel—Kyoto, Japan

The Poe Studies Association, The Poe Society of Japan, The Nathaniel Hawthorne Society, and The Nathaniel Hawthorne Society of Japan invite paper and session proposals for a joint conference to be held in Kyoto, Japan on June 21-24, 2018. Our banquet speaker will be Michael J. Colacurcio, and our plenary speaker will be Takayuki Tatsumi. Some travel grants will be available. Contact Sandra Hughes at hawthornepoekyoto@gmail.com for details.

All topics related to these two authors, together or separately, are welcome. Please send 250-word proposals to Philip Edward Phillips, Program Committee Chair, at Philip.Phillips@mtsu.edu by August 1, 2017. Any requests for A/V equipment must accompany the proposal.

Session proposals of up to 1,000 words, also due by August 1, 2017, should include organizer and speaker names and affiliations, as well as paper titles and abstracts.  Slots for papers will be twenty minutes apiece.

Possible topics include:

Poe/Hawthorne and Asia

Poe/Hawthorne and Japan

The (Mutual) Influence of Poe and Hawthorne

Poe and/or Hawthorne, reception and reputation

Teaching Poe and/or Hawthorne

Interpreting Poe and/or Hawthorne

Poe, Hawthorne, and the visual or performing arts

Poe and/or Hawthorne and science (or pseudo-science)

The Gothic in Poe and/or Hawthorne

Allegory in Poe and/or Hawthorne

Poe and/or Hawthorne at home and/or abroad

Biographies of Poe and/or Hawthorne

Poe and/or Hawthorne and the Digital Humanities

Literary, philosophical, scientific, or cultural influences on Poe or Hawthorne

Literary influence of Poe and/or Hawthorne

Poe, Hawthorne, and literary theory

Poe, Hawthorne, and the supernatural

Poe and/or Hawthorne and race, class, gender, or sexuality

Poe and/or Hawthorne and politics

Poe and/or Hawthorne and transatlantic, transpacific, or global studies

Poe and/or Hawthorne, aesthetics and genre

Poe and/or Hawthorne in cinema, or other popular media (graphic novels, television, video games, etc.)

Poe and/or Hawthorne in translation

Poe and/or Hawthorne and language

All those whose proposals are accepted for the conference must become members of one of the four sponsoring organizations to present.

2
In Frankenstein's Wake

Deadline for submissions: January 29, 2018
Name of Foundation: The International Review of Science Fiction
Contact email: journaleditor@sf-foundation.org

To mark the 200th anniversary, in 2018, of Mary Shelley’s novel, we invite articles for a special issue, examining the impact of Shelley’s creation on the development of sf. Following Brian Aldiss’ critical intervention in Billion Year Spree (1973), this is a relationship that has often been explored, so we would like to encourage contributions that investigate the afterlives of Shelley’s novel within the sf genre in new and innovative ways.

Topics may include (but are not confined to) the following areas:

* Critical and historiographical reassessments of the relationship between Frankenstein and sf
* Re-workings/rewritings of the Frankenstein myth within contemporary sf
* Performing Frankenstein on screen, stage and in music
* The Frankenstein legend and contemporary portrayals of scientists
* The Frankenstein myth and the popular communication of science
* Adapting the Frankenstein story to new media – graphic novels, videogames, etc.
* New and contemporary theoretical approaches to the Frankenstein myth
* Mary Shelley and her creation in contemporary women’s sf
 
Articles should be approximately 6000 words long and written in accordance with the style sheet available at the SF Foundation website.

3
The New Urban Gothic

Deadline for submissions: August 30, 2017
Name of organization: Holly-Gale Millette, Southampton University, Ruth Heholt, Falmouth University
Contact email: h.millette@soton.ac.uk

Urban Gothic is a subgenre of Gothic fiction, Gothic crime fiction, and television whose narratives spring from discourse on industrial and post-industrial urban society. Often dystopic, it was pioneered in the mid-19th century in Britain and the United States and developed in serialisations such as R. L. Stevenson’s The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (1886); into novels such as Oscar Wilde’s The Picture of Dorian Gray (1890). Much has been written on 19th century Anglo-centred Urban Gothic fiction and vampiristic, monstrous Urban Gothic, but less has been written on the 21st century reimagining and re-serialisation of the Urban Gothic in mechanised, altered, disabled, and dystopic states of being. Nor has writing on the Urban Gothic departed from the canonical London location or considered the Urban Gothic as the prime progenitor of the genre of Crime Fiction. The intention, therefore, is for The New Urban Gothic to explore the resurgence in serialised and grotesque narratives of degeneration, ecological and economic ruin, dystopia, mechanised future inequality, and crime narrative as evidenced in literature and new forms of media in an international context. Submissions are welcomed that address the historic specificities of urban difference and Gothic traditions, as well as inter-disciplinary studies and contemporary texts that link urban crime fiction and the Gothic.

Topics may include (but are not bound by):

Industrialization, Mechanisation and future dystopia in the Urban Gothic

New serializations of the Urban Gothic (Dickens – Netflix, etc.)

Outsiders (Gender, Race, or the Orient) in the New Urban Gothic

Identity and Belonging in the New Urban Gothic

Dark Tourism and the New Urban Gothic

Political Aesthetics (Grotesque) of the New Urban Gothic

LGBTQi and the New Urban Gothic

Disability and Mental Health in the New Urban Gothic

Sci-Fi and the New Urban Gothic in Space.

Gaming and the New Urban Gothic (X-Box, PS 3, Wii, PC, etc.)

Graphic Novels and the New Urban Gothic (Alan Moore, Neil Gaiman, Frank Miller, etc.)

Regional New Urban Gothic (Sheffield, New Orleans, Ontario, etc.)

Dockside New Urban Gothic (Limehouse, Hong Kong, Gdansk, Liverpool, Vancouver, etc.)

Japanese New Urban Gothic (or Korean, Chinese, Indian, Canadian etc)

4
Call for Proposals and Manuscripts

Deadline for submissions: September 30, 2017
Name of organization: Aporetic Press
Contact email: aporeticpress@gmail.com
Aporetic Press is committed to publishing works that do not fall comfortably into accepted categories and established genres.

We are particularly interested in subjects which are not in vogue but nonetheless represent cutting edge thought, dynamic scholarship (including para-academic work) and unconventional creativity. We are willing to publish on the neglected and the niche providing the work is creative and original in approach.

We are inviting the submission of proposals for edited collections, scholarly monographs in the fields of literary criticism, philosophy, media and cultural studies, as well as fiction and poetry related to the Gothic, horror, weird, speculative, cyberpunk and science fiction. In the case of literary works a complete manuscript is preferred in lieu of a proposal.

Please send your proposals to aporeticpress@gmail.com

Aporetic Press – because your questions matter.

5
70 Years of Shirley Jackson's "The Lottery"

Deadline for submissions: September 30, 2017
Conference: Northeast Modern Language Association (Pittsburgh, 2018)
Conference Location: Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
Conference Dates: April 12 -5, 2018

Contact email:  rlaist@goodwin.edu

In June of 1948, Shirley Jackson’s short story “The Lottery” appeared in The New Yorker. Jackson’s story juxtaposed a nostalgic depiction of rural America with a jarringly brutal ending, causing outraged readers to cancel their New Yorker subscriptions and to deluge Jackson with hate mail. In the 70 years since then, “The Lottery” has become a staple of short story anthologies and American literature curricula, as well as having been adapted into a radio play, two television movies, a popular educational film, an opera, a ballet, a one-act play, and an episode of South Park. The diversity of these adaptations suggests the shape-shifting, multi-faceted nature of Jackson’s story, as well as its ability to convey new meanings to successive generations of readers.

This panel seeks to examine the enduring appeal and relevance of Jackson’s enigmatic parable. Proposed papers may consider the story in either its original historical context in the wake of World War II, or its impact on readers who encounter it for the first time against a contemporary background of high-tech surveillance, hyper-partisan tensions, and various forms of fanaticism and fundamentalism that influence the cultural dynamics of our global village in the twenty-first century. Textual analyses of the story’s literary elements are also welcomed, along with any other scholarship devoted to enriching our understanding of “The Lottery.”

Selected papers will be included in the 2018 NeMLA conference, which will be held in Pittsburgh, April 12-15, 2018.

Submit 300-word abstracts by Sept 30, 2017, using the NeMLA online submission system: https://www.cfplist.com/nemla/Home/S/16760

If you have any questions, please contact Randy Laist at rlaist@goodwin.edu.

6
Call for Papers: Oh, The Horror--The 1980s

Deadline for submissions: August 1, 2017
Name of organization: Kevin M. Scott (Albany State University) and Connor M. Scott (Georgia State University)
Contact email: ohthehorror80s@gmail.com

In the 1980s, a decade significantly known for Ronald Reagan, the Moral Majority, and the ascendance of the corporation as an aesthetic, Hollywood recovered from and reacted to the director-centric 1970s by reasserting studio control over mainstream cinema. With notable exceptions, the films of the 1980s were constructive—supporting a neater and more optimistic view of history and American culture—as opposed to the deconstructive films of the prior decade, challenging and, often, fatalistic. A simple review of Oscar nominees for the 1980s, compared to those of the 1970s, demonstrates that the capitalistic desires of the studios aligned neatly with an increasingly self-congratulatory culture and the fantasy of a return to an earlier, simpler, more conservative, whiter, United States.

By nature, however, the horror genre retains a bleaker view of society. In the 1980s, horror subverted corporate influences more often that other mainstream genres and did so both in covert support and critique of politics and values of the era. Because horror films were (and remain) lower budget productions and, hence, lower risk for studios, filmmakers enjoyed a greater degree of freedom. Some filmmakers used that freedom to reify “Reagan-era values” in violent and bloody ways (through figures like Jason Voorhees, Michael Myers, and other slashers) while others offered dark critiques of the politics of the decade—the anti-militarism of George Romero’s Day of the Dead (1985) or the deconstruction of the nuclear family in Joseph Rubin’s The Stepfather (1987).

The editors are developing a new collection of essays with McFarland Books and seek essays investigating the ways horror films during the 1980s responded to the cultural, social, and governmental politics of the decade. We welcome essays from a variety of critical stances (theoretical, psychological, formal, and so forth), but the volume’s purpose is to explore how horror films functioned as a site of political, cultural, and social engagement and/or critique.

We especially welcome essay proposals that take these approaches:

* Close readings of individual films and their engagement with the politics and culture of the era.
* Studies of particular filmmakers and the development of ongoing critiques or concerns within their films.
* Investigations of particular cultural and political themes (poverty, Barbara Creed’s idea of the “monstrous feminine,” the power of corporations, and so forth) in multiple films.
* The evolution within a subgenre over the decade (the slasher, religious/occult horror, and so forth) and how those changes reflected developments in American society.
* Discussions of how horror filmmakers interacted with the film industry and with American culture on an industry level.

This list is not intended to be complete. Other approaches are welcome. While the horror genre thrived in other countries, this volume is primarily interested in American films, films that were prominent for American moviegoers, and films that addressed American political and cultural concerns. While David Cronenberg’s Videodrome (1983, Canadian) fulfills this role, Dario Argento’s Italian films are less likely to do so. However, the inclusion of discussion of foreign films or films outside the decade in order to contrast “American” films of the 1980s or to highlight American political and/or cultural trends may be productive.

The editors seek essays of about 6,000 words.

The audience for this volume is undergraduates through active scholars, though books on this topic will attract an audience among fans of the genre.

Please submit abstracts of 500 words or less to Kevin M. Scott and Connor M. Scott (ohthehorror80s@gmail.com) by August 1, 2017. Abstracts should be accompanied by a short biography. Notification of acceptance will be given by August 15, 2017. Completed essays will be expected by December 15, 2017. And please email us if you have any questions.

Below, find a short list of films we would be especially interested in seeing discussed in essays for the volume. The list is certainly not meant to be exclusive, and we welcome any productive discussion of other films.

1980

* Alligator
* Altered States
* Cannibal Holocaust
* Demented
* Friday the 13th
* The Fog
* Maniac
* Motel Hell
* Mother’s Day
* The Watcher in the Woods

1981

* An American Werewolf in London
* The Entity
* The Evil Dead
* Friday the 13th PT 2
* The Fun House
* Graduation Day
* Halloween II
* Hell Night
* The Howling
* The Incubus
* Inseminoid
* My Bloody Valentine
* Night School
* Omen III: The Final Conflict
* Wolfen

1982

* The Aftermath
* Alone in the Dark
* Basket Case
* Cat People
* Creepshow
* Curse of the Cannibal Confederates
* Friday the 13th Part III
* Halloween III: Season of the Witch
* The Last Horror Film
* Poltergeist
* The Thing

1983

* Christine
* Cujo
* Eyes of Fire
* House on Sorority Row
* The Hunger
* Something Wicked This Way Comes
* Videodrome

1984

* C.H.U.D.
* Children of the Corn
* Gremlins
* A Nightmare on Elm Street
* Silent Night, Deadly Night

1985

* Day of the Dead
* Fright Night
* The Hills Have Eyes Part II
* Lifeforce
* A Nightmare on Elm Street 2: Freddy's Revenge
* The Return of the Living Dead

1986

* Aliens
* Class of Nuke 'Em High
* The Fly
* The Hitcher
* Little Shop of Horrors
* The Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2

1987

* Dark Tower
* Evil Dead II
* Killing Spree
* The Lost Boys
* Near Dark
* Predator
* Prince of Darkness
* Hellraiser
* Stepfather

1988

* The Blob
* Killer Klowns from Outer Space
* Maniac Cop
* Pumpkinhead

1989

* Dr. Caligari
* A Nightmare on Elm Street 5: The Dream Child

7
"
  • ther worlds than these": The Multi-Media Multi-verse of Adapting Stephen King


Conference: Northwest Modern Language Association
Conference Location: Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
Conference Dates: April 12-15, 2018

Deadline for submissions: September 30, 2017
Contact email: Abigail Montgomery, montgomerya@brcc.edu

“‘Go then. There are other worlds than these’” (King, Gunslinger, 266). These are the final words of one of Jake Chambers’s lifetimes in Stephen King’s 1982 novel The Gunslinger, Volume I in his Dark Tower series. Throughout the subsequent seven volumes—and other novels—King has continued to develop this “other worlds” concept, also described as “many levels . . . [of] the Tower of all existence” (King, Insomnia, 576). Recently, the metaphor may apply as well to adaptations of King’s work as to the multi-verse of the novels and stories themselves.

King’s fiction has been adapted for film and television for decades, with results from B-horror films to Oscar winners. In recent years, King adaptations have expanded into graphic novels and long-form streaming service television series. An interesting turn, exemplified by the releasing-in-2017 IT and The Dark Tower films and The Mist TV series (as well as by 2000s television series Haven and The Dead Zone), has involved adaptations that actively change or add to narratives—new locations, characters, and events; marked time shifts; cross-racial casting—doing something substantively different from standard novel-to-film changes.

This session invites papers examining a particular King work or series—not limited to those listed—and its adaptation into another medium or media. Papers may consider specific interpretive questions—what are the implications of moving IT forward 30 years, or of treating the Dark Tower film as a series sequel?—or more theoretical and structural ones—what happens to canonicity and authoritativeness when one work has a novel, multiple film adaptations, and several graphic novels? These and other questions specific to multi-media King adaptations are encouraged. Literature, film, popular culture, and media studies scholars and all critical approaches are welcome.

Please contact Abigail Montgomery (montgomerya@brcc.edu) with any questions.

Submission deadline is September 30; notifications will be made by October 15.

Submissions must be made electronically at https://www.cfplist.com/nemla/Home/S/17080

8
CFP: Horror is Where the Heart Is: Representations of Home in the Horror Genre

Conference: 2017 Film & History Conference
Conference Location: The Hilton Milwaukee City Center, Milwaukee, WI (USA)
Conference Dates: November 1-5, 2017

Deadline for submissions: August 1, 2017
Name of organization: Film & History
Contact email: skerns@colum.edu


The horror genre is no stranger to images of home, as even the earliest slasher film, Alfred Hitchcock’s Psycho, interrogates relationships between the maternal, the adult son, and both permanent and temporary home spaces. Carol Clover notes that most horror occurs within a “terrible place,” often a space that represents home, and many horror films further play to fears of how supernatural histories affect one’s home space and its comforts.

How do our understandings of home shift within the horror genre when “home” might mean a host’s body, a coffin, a sideshow, a hotel, another country, a tent, a mall, or any space that provides security during, say, a zombie apocalypse or vampire attack. What happens to notions of home when it is the site of physical or psychological violence or contamination? This area seeks to engage with the spectrum of these representations of home within the horror genre.

Papers might explore topics including but not limited to:

* Haunted Houses in horror films
* Psychological states projected onto home spaces
* The womb as horrific home
* Familial relationships in horror
* Cultural differences in the construction of home spaces within the genre
* The hotel or hostel as a transitory home site
* Invasive species as threats to the home
* How the idea of home blurs seemingly well-defined lines or disrupts traditions or constructions of power within homes
* Gendered or racially defined home spaces as liminal spaces within the genre
* Class relationships as they inform home and horror
* How sites become “home” in relationship to horrific events and their aftermath
* How emotions or bodily responses inform relationships between home and screen
* Historical representations of home and how readings of home may shift over time
 
Proposals for complete panels (three related presentations) are also welcome, but they must include an abstract and contact information, including an e-mail address, for each presenter. For updates and registration information about the upcoming meeting, see the Film & History website (www.filmandhistory.org).

Please e-mail your 200-word proposal to the area chair: Susan Kerns, Columbia College Chicago, skerns@colum.edu

9
CFP: NeMLA 2018 Pittsburgh - Creature Re-Feature: Frankenstein at 200

Conference: NeMLA
Conference Location: Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
Deadline for submissions: September 30, 2017
Name of organization: Rikk Mulligan / Carnegie Mellon University
Contact email: rikk@cmu.edu

2018 marks the bicentennial of the publication of Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein. The 1818 edition was the first of three distinct publications (1818, 1823, and 1831), with the differences between the first and last made visible through the framed collation available in The Pennsylvania Electronic Edition [http://knarf.english.upenn.edu/], painstakingly edited by Stuart Curran during the 1990s. The differences between the 1818 and 1831 editions are the most dramatic, offering material for the ongoing debates over the editorial influence of William Godwin, Shelley’s father, and her husband, Percy Bysshe Shelley, as well as the Mary’s degree of creative control. Beyond points of style, authorship, and creative control, the depictions of the creature and Victor Frankenstein also vary, with those of Victor the most. Never referred to as “Dr.Frankenstein” in the novel, Victor as the “mad doctor” has become almost as iconic as the creature himself.     

In Frankenstein: A Cultural History (2007), Susan Tyler Hitchcock argues that the central myth of Mary Shelley’s novel is one of “claiming long-forbidden knowledge and facing the consequences” (4). The result of Frankenstein’s experiments—the creature—has become a metaphor for hubris, overreach, and scientific testing or discovery divorced from humanity; it is also an argument for ethical creation. Over the past two hundred years as science and technology have evolved, this metaphor has been applied to atomic weapons and power, cloning, genetic modification, and artificial intelligence among other pursuits. The novel has been adapted for stage, screen, graphic novels, and even video games, using new settings and often reimagining and adding characters, yet leaving others relatively untouched. However, it is only in a few cases and relatively recently that those inspired by Shelley’s novel have chosen to transform and evolve both the creature and Victor Frankenstein, bringing contemporary psychological and scientific theories to bear on their place in the modern world.

This session, for the 2018 NEMLA conference, to be held in Pittsburgh, PA, seeks papers that explore the ways in which the iconic figures of Victor Frankenstein and his creation have been transformed in the early 21st century.

Papers proposed to the panel might explore recent film, television or novels including but not limited to:

* Dean Koontz’s Frankenstein quadrilogy (2005-2010)

* Frankenstein (BBC, 2007)

* Peter Ackroyd’s The Casebook of Victor Frankenstein (2008)

* The Frankenstein Theory (2013)

* I, Frankenstein (2014)

* Penny Dreadful (Showtime, 2014-2016)

* Victor Frankenstein (2015)

* The Frankenstein Chronicles (BBC TV, 2015)

* Second Chance (Fox, 2016)

* Doc Frankenstein (comic series, Burlyman Entertainment, 6 issues, 2004-2016)

* Frankenstein, Agent of S.H.A.D.E. (DC Comics, 17 issues, 2011-2013)


Submit abstract to NeMLA web site <https://www.cfplist.com/nemla/Home/S/16974> by September 30, 2017 deadline.

Send questions to Dr. Rikk Mulligan at Carnegie Mellon University: <rikkj@cmu.edu>

10
Call for Papers: Silent Horror

Conference: Society for Cinema and Media Studies (SCMS)
Conference Location: Sheraton Centre, Toronto, Ontario
Conference Dates: March 14-18, 2018
Conference Website: http://cmstudies.site-ym.com/?page=conference
Deadline for submissions: August 7, 2017
Name of organization: Murray Leeder/University of Calgary
Contact email: murray.leeder@ucalgary.ca

With the term “horror film” not entering widespread use until the early 1930s, “silent horror” is perhaps an inherently anachronistic concept. And yet few would deny that the fundamentals of the horror film were established in the silent era. We are accustomed to thinking of many of the important works of German Expressionism (Das Cabinet des Dr. Caligari/The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari (1920) and Nosferatu (1922), Orlacs Hände/The Hands of Orlac (1924), Der Golem, wie er in die Welt kam/The Golem: How He Came Into The World (1920) and more) as horror films. From the United States, the cycles about deformity (many starring Lon Chaney and directed by Tod Browning) and the largely theatre-derived comic horror film, emblematized by The Bat (1926) and The Cat and the Canary (1927) became part of the emerging paradigm of the horror film. Other parts of the world saw other productions that would come to be claimed as horror, notably Häxan/Witchcraft Through the Ages (1922) and Kurutta Ippēji/A Page of Madness (1926).

This panel seeks a variety of papers on the history, aesthetics and themes of the silent horror film, exploring multiple facets of a fascinating, neglected topic.

-- Definitional challenges – when did the horror film begin and how far can this generic label be usefully extended. (for example, can/should certain of early cinema’s trick films be include under the heading “horror film)?

-- Different national traditions of silent horror

-- The relationship of silent horror to other genres (comedy, melodrama, the Western, fantasy, science fiction, romance, etc.)

-- The relationship of screen horror to theatre (especially in the U.S. in the 1920s).

-- Griffith and horror (The Avenging Conscience (1914), One Exciting Night (1922))

-- Adaptations and cultural respectability (Poe, Shelley, Stevenson, Hugo, etc.)

-- Individual monsters and horror themes (vampires, lycanthropes, apes, the Devil, disfigured persons, ghosts, etc.)

-- Horror and the avant-garde

-- Post-silent era silent horror, and the role of silent era pastiche in later films (Guy Maddin, William Castle’s Shanks (1974), The Call of Cthulhu (2005))

-- Key figures, both famous (Chaney, Browning, Paul Leni, F.W. Murnau, Fritz Lang, Karl Freund, etc.) and neglected

Please send 300-word abstract, 200-word biography, and 3-5 citations to Murray Leeder (murray.leeder@ucalgary.ca) by August 7, 2017.

11
Special Issue of the European Journal of American Culture: American Horror Story

Deadline for submissions: September 10, 2017
Name of organization: Harriet Earle, Sheffield Hallam University, UK and Jessica Clark, University of Suffolk, UK
Contact email: AHSspecialissue@gmail.com

Guest Editors:

Harriet Earle, Sheffield Hallam University, UK

Jessica Clark, University of Suffolk, UK

This call for papers seeks submissions that engage with the television series American Horror Story (produced by Ryan Murphy and Brad Falchuk) as part of a Special Issue for the European Journal of American Culture. Over six seasons (so far), American Horror Story has received massive popular and academic interest for its bold and often apposite reworkings of a wide range of cultural tropes and folk stories, set against uniquely American backgrounds and played out through a distinct cast of characters.

Papers should be between 6000-8000 words and the deadline for submission of abstracts is 10th September 2017 and invited full papers are due by 31st January 2018.

Papers should be submitted to the Special Guest Editors Harriet Earle and Jessica Clark via AHSspecialissue@gmail.com.

Submissions to this journal could include, but are not limited to, critical interrogations of:

* Horror, supernatural and the gothic

* Fame and celebrity culture

* The development of American popular culture (i.e. television)

* Intersectionality, imagery and representation: femininity, masculinity, sexuality, disability, ethnicity, class, age, etc.

* Colonisation and Colonialism

* Immigration and the Melting Pot

* Madness and mad politics

* Emotion and affect

* Violence and/or sexual violence

* Queer bodies, identities and selves

* American Institutions and Institutionalisation

* Sex, sexual bodies and sexual pleasure/desire

* The American family

* Producing television: production, editing, soundtrack and aesthetics.

* Audience reception, review and fan production

The list is by no means exhaustive and we are happy to consider any piece which works with some/all of the current six series of American Horror Story or those which cross series boundaries with a strong thematic focus at their centre.

Please consult the European Journal of American Culture website (see: https://www.intellectbooks.co.uk/journals/view-Journal,id=138/view,page=2/) for more information about the journal and its formatting guidelines. This special issue follows the ethos of the European Journal of American Culture as a whole: we aim to reflect the interdisciplinary and international nature of contemporary studies of American Culture.

All authors are welcome to submit abstracts: from PhD candidates and early career researchers, to established academics. We look forward to receiving abstracts for consideration.


Publication schedule:

Submission of abstracts: 10th September 2017

Notification of abstract acceptance: 24th September 2017

Submission of full posts: 31st January 2018

Publication date: June 2018

12
CFP Medieval Monsters and Their Afterlives (9/15/17; Kalamazoo 5/10-13/18)

Conference: 53rd International Congress on Medieval Studies
Conference Location: Western Michigan University, Kalamazoo, Michigan
Conference Dates: May, 10-13, 2018
Deadline for proposal: September 15, 2017
Full name / name of organization: Michael A Torregrossa / Association for the Advancement of Scholarship and Teaching of the Medieval in Popular Culture
Contact email: MedievalStudiesonScreen@gmail.com

"Past, Present, Future: Medieval Monsters and Their Afterlives"

The year 2018 marks the two-hundredth anniversary of the publication of Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, and, while this is certainly an important event, to celebrate it outside of its larger context is to ignore the rich history of the monstrous in Western tradition that underlies much of Shelley’s representation of the creature brought to life by Victor Frankenstein. Medieval texts, in particular, abound with monsters, and, like the creation of young Frankenstein, many of these remain prevalent in the minds (and, perhaps, fears) of modern-day audiences. Still, while Monster Studies has grown phenomenally as a discipline in recent decades, few have explored how medieval monsters, like their more modern counterparts, exist as part of an ongoing tradition from their point of origin in the medieval past to their most recent depiction in popular culture.

In furtherance of the goals of The Association for the Advancement of Scholarship and Teaching of the Medieval in Popular Culture, we seek in this panel to unite Medieval Studies, Medievalism Studies, Monster Studies, and Popular Culture Studies to highlight points of contact between medieval monsters and their post-medieval representations. We hope to explore both continuity and change in addressing how these figures have been portrayed and to extrapolate from these trends to suggest how these monsters may be employed in future texts.   

Presentations will be limited to 10-15 minutes depending on panel size. If presenters are willing, The Association for the Advancement of Scholarship and Teaching of the Medieval in Popular Culture hopes that accepted presenters might submit their completed papers for publication on the Medieval Studies on Screen site (https://medievalstudiesonscreen.blogspot.com/) prior to the conference to allow maximum dissemination of their ideas.

Interested individuals should submit, no later than 15 September 2017, (1) an abstract of approximately 500 words, (2) a 500-word academic biographical narrative, and (3) a completed Participant Information Form (accessible at https://wmich.edu/medievalcongress/submissions) to the organizers at MedievalStudiesonScreen@gmail.com using “Medieval Monsters and Their Afterlives” as their subject heading.

In planning your proposal, please be aware of the policies of the Congress (available at https://wmich.edu/medievalcongress/policies). 

13
CFP: Stephen King Area-PCA Conference (3/28/18-3/31/18)

Deadline for submissions: October 1, 2017
Full name / name of organization: Stephen King Area-Popular Culture Association National Conference
Contact email: stephenkingpca@gmail.com

Stephen King Area

2018 PCA/ACA Annual National Conference

Indianapolis: Wednesday, March 28th—Saturday, March 31st 

The co-chairs of the Stephen King Area—Philip Simpson of Eastern Florida State College and Patrick McAleer of Inver Hills Community College—are soliciting papers, presentations, panels and roundtable discussions which cover any aspect of Stephen King’s fiction and film for the Annual National Joint Popular Culture Association/American Culture Association Conference to be held in Indianapolis from March 28th—March 31st, 2017.  Papers, presentations, and panels can cover King’s experimentation with medium (e-books, graphic novels, TV series), his more recent fictions, including his Dark Tower series or the Bill Hodges trilogy, and anything in between (particularly adaptations of King’s work). Indeed, feel free to view past programs of the PCA/ACA conference at www.pcaaca.org to see what has been covered during recent conferences.

To have your proposal/abstract considered for presentation, please submit your proposal/abstract of approximately 250 words through the PCA/ACA Database—http://ncp.pcaaca.org/ — by October 1st, 2017.  Here you will submit your paper proposal/abstract and also provide your name, institutional affiliation, and contact information.  Responses/decisions regarding your proposals will be provided within two weeks of your submission to ensure timely replies.  Of course, should you have any questions specific to the Stephen King Area, please send an e-mail to stephenkingpca@gmail.com and we will be happy to assist you.

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

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Call for Papers: Horror Studies

Conference: 2018 National Conference, PCA/ACA
Conference Dates: March 28-31, 2018
Conference Location: J.W. Marriott, Indianapolis, Indiana
Submission Deadline: October 1, 2017

All Proposals & Abstracts Must Be Submitted Through The PCA Conference Submission page (see: https://conference.pcaaca.org)
Please submit a proposal to only one area at a time. For exceptions and rules (see: http://pcaaca.org/national-conference/proposing-a-presentation-at-the-conference/rules-exceptions-for-presenting/)

The Horror Area co-chairs of the Popular Culture Association invite interested scholars to submit proposals for papers or complete panels on any aspect of horror in fiction, cinema, television, gaming, theory and culture.

Your paper proposal should include:

1) 100- to 250-word abstract, including paper title;
2) a notification of any audio-visual needs.

Your panel or roundtable proposal should include:

1) suggested panel/roundtable title;
2) 100- to 250-word abstract identifying the theoretical framework, or guiding questions and thesis of your panel/roundtable;
3) 100- to 250-word abstracts, including titles, for each of your presenters’ papers;
4) a list of presenters and their affiliations;
5) a notification of any audio-visual needs.

Please note that proposals that are overly general are difficult to review; accordingly, your abstract should outline your main argument or research questions, your thesis and main points, and your projected conclusions.

Submitting the same or various proposals to different subject areas of the PCA is not allowed. Presenters are, however, permitted to submit proposals for both a roundtable discussion and a panel presentation. Acceptance of your paper obligates you to present the paper at the conference. You must also be present at the conference to present your own work—no “readings by proxy” are allowed.

PCA/ACA Endowment Grants: PCA/ACA offers 54 travel grants to the conference as well as research and collections grants. The deadline for submitting applications for grants is January 7, 2012. For an overview of, and application forms for each grant go to: http://www.pcaaca.org/grant/overview.php.

Important: All presenters 1) must be registered members of the PCA or ACA and 2) must register for the conference.  Information on how to access membership and registration forms will be sent to you upon acceptance of your presentation. Or, go now to the PCA/ACA website: http://pcaaca.org/national-conference-2/instructions-for-the-submission-database/.

Please send all inquires to:

Jim Iaccino, The Chicago School of Prof. Psychology
pcahorror@gmail.com

Kristopher Woofter, Concordia University
pcahorror@gmail.com

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2017 MPCA/ACA: CFP: Humor *and* Horror/SF/Fantasy - St Louis - 2017.10.18-22

Deadline: August 29, 2017
Conference Dates: October 18-22, 2017
Location of Conference: St. Louise, Missouri, United States
Subject Fields: Film and Film History, Popular Culture Studies, Psychology, Sociology, Theatre & Performance History / Studies

ATTENTION, PLEASE!
Humor ... and ... Horror, Science Fiction, Fantasy Scholars:

In case you didn't know it, today is your lucky day!

You just got invited to submit to the Midwest Popular Culture Association / American Culture Association annual meetings being held in St. Louis, MO, at the beautiful Hyatt Regency St. Louis at the Arch, Wednesday-Sunday, 18-22 October 2017. More details about the conference, membership, travel matters, the hotel and its rates, and the city and the whole enchilada can be found at the MPCA/ACA website <http://www.mpcaaca.org/>. I'll wait while you go buy a lottery ticket.

I would like to try something a bit different this year and try to focus more on moments in media that are simultaneously comedic and “art-horror.” (A moment I call sLaughter [“SLOFF-ter.”]) Not simply genre-blenders like “horror-comedy,” or “cringe” or “comedy of cruelty” - though those are certainly relevant - but moments where it’s not funny unless it’s horrific and not horrific unless it’s funny. As far as I’m concerned, going too far may actually be considered a good starting point. (Patton Oswalt: A forty year old man and a ten year old boy are walking into the woods at night, and the little kid says, “Mister, I’m scared.” And the forty year old man says, “You’re scared? I gotta walk outta here alone!”)

Challenge accepted? Sweet. Start by reading Noël Carroll’s “Horror and Humor” in The Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism, Vol. 57, No. 2, Aesthetics and Popular Culture (Spring, 1999), pp. 145-160 <http://www.jstor.org/stable/432309> (access JSTOR through your library or other institution). As if you hadn't already read that one, right? Meantime, just remember nothing good is off-limits; you don’t have to limit yourself to sLaughter if it’s just not your thing.

In any case, make us shiver in delight. Make us laugh. But for the love of the holy, make us think.

Told you it was your lucky day!

(Remember, it's all right here.... <https://msu.edu/user/jdowell/MPCA/MPCA-2017CFP-HumorHorror.pdf>)

Contact Info:
SUBMISSIONS GO HERE: http://submissions.mpcaaca.org (Seriously: that's the only way to submit your proposal/paper to the Midwest Popular Culture Association / Midwest American Culture Association!)

Contact Email: jdowell@msu.edu
URL: https://msu.edu/user/jdowell/MPCA/MPCA-2017CFP-HumorHorror.pdf

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