International Association for the Fantastic in the Arts

We are now calling for papers for The Tolkien Society Seminar 2018, which will be held on Sunday 1 July in Leeds at the Hilton Leeds City. The theme is Tolkien the Pagan? Reading Middle-earth through a Spiritual Lens.

Call for Papers

Tolkien the Pagan? Reading Middle-earth through a Spiritual Lens

The Tolkien Society invites individuals from both scholarly and non-academic backgrounds who have an interest in Tolkien to apply.

Papers may consider, but are not limited to, the following topics:

• Characters’ faith and devotion within Tolkien’s narratives
• Non-Christian readings of Tolkien’s fiction
• Neo-pagan movements based on Tolkien’s mythology
• Invented religions in fantasy fiction

Considering the nature of the conference’s topic, delegates are encouraged to exercise restraint and be mindful of the individual beliefs of their fellow conference-goers.

We are now accepting proposals for 20-minute papers, followed by questions. Prospective speakers are invited to send abstracts of no more than 300 words, along with a short biography, by Friday 6 April.

Submit your abstract online here.

About the Seminar

The Tolkien Society Seminar is a one-day conference of academic of talks and panel discussions on a specific theme. Held most years since 1986, the date and venue used to vary each time, but it is now held in Leeds on the Sunday before the start of the International Medieval Congress (IMC).

There will be six Tolkien-related sessions at the IMC in 2018:

• Memory in Tolkien’s Medievalism, I (Monday 2 July, 11:15–12:45)
• Memory in Tolkien’s Medievalism, II (Monday 2 July, 14:15–15:45)
• ‘New’ Tolkien: Expanding the Canon (Monday 2 July, 16:30–18:00)
• Tolkien: Medieval Roots and Modern Branches, I (Tuesday 3 July, 14:15–15:45)
• Medieval Roots and Modern Branches, II (Tuesday 3 July, 16:30–18:00)
• Tolkien in Context(s): A Round Table Discussion (Tuesday 3 July, 19:00–20:00)

Visit Dr Dimitra Fimi’s blog for more information.

Registration

Registration is now open.

Registration costs £25 for members and £30 for non-members, and includes refreshments throughout the day, catered breaks and sandwiches for lunch.

CFP: SYMPOSIUM “DON’T LOOK: REPRESENTATIONS OF HORROR IN THE 21ST CENTURY”. APRIL 28, 2018 @ UNIVERSITY OF EDINBURG. DEADLINE: FEB 7, 2018.

One Day Symposium, 28th April 2018, University of Edinburgh

Keynote Speaker: Dr. Sorcha Ní Fhlainn (Manchester Metropolitan University)

We live in scary, uncertain times. In recent years, we have witnessed the rise of hard-line nationalism, the ascendency of racist alt-right politics and attacks on the increasingly fragile-looking institution of democracy. We contend, daily, with the threat of seemingly inevitable ecological catastrophe. The Horror genre has always been understood as a potent mirror and bellwether, able to digest the socio-cultural and political currents of a given moment and feed them back to us in uncompromising and disturbing ways. This conference seeks to consider how representations of horror are changing in our own contemporary moment, where the line between fiction and reality, truth and lies appears to be fraying beyond recognition.

Recent academic scholarship on horror has diverged towards topics such as: fear and the appearance of reality within found footage horror; the multisensory perception of horror in video games, television and theme parks; and the rise of concepts such as ‘The Horror of Philosophy’. There has also been a focus towards contemporary studies of Queer Horror and appropriation, audience participation, and changing tastes in horror fandom. This one-day multidisciplinary conference seeks to analyse representations of horror since 2000, with particular emphasis on current trends and cycles, and the ways in which horror can be said to reflect contemporary anxieties and fears. We are specifically interested in determining some of the ways in which these aesthetics have changed and why. We would especially welcome research that addresses the causes of some of these changes in representations of horror across media and academic disciplines.

PAPERS
(for 20-minute presentations)

Topics might include (but are not limited to):

Contemporary Representations of Body Horror
Generic Mutations
New Horror Television (American Horror Story, The Walking Dead, Stranger Things, Hannibal, etc.)
Abjection and Transgression
Horror and Trauma
Experimental/Avant-Garde/Underground Horror: Film, Art and Literature
Horror and Nostalgia
Transmutation/Metamorphosis
News Media Representations of Horror
Virtual Reality (VR) horror
Horror and Disability
Contemporary Cult Horror
New Genres, Subgenres and Hybrids
Horror and the Senses
Queer Horror and Performance
Horror Fandom and Audiences
Literary Horror Adaptations
Shudder, Chiller and Contemporary Horror Networks and Viewing Platforms
WORK IN PROGRESS
As a postgraduate led conference, we also welcome submissions from Masters and PhD students to present work-in-progress papers, which will be 15 minutes in length (as opposed to the usual 20 minutes). We believe these work-in-progress panels will be useful for gaining helpful feedback from peers on ongoing research.

SUBMITTING ABSTRACTS
Please submit proposals of 200-250 words, along with a short biographical note (100 words) to dontlookconference@gmail.com by Wednesday 7th February 2018. Accepted presentations should be 20 minutes in length (15 min for work in progress).

We also welcome video essay proposals. Contributors should upload their video to Vimeo, preferably to a password protected page, then email the relevant URL and password, along with a 200-word proposal and a short biographical note (100 words) to dontlookconference@gmail.com by Wednesday 7th February 2018. PLEASE NOTE: We ask that video essays be no longer than 10 minutes in length, to allow sufficient time to make a formal presentation after the video is screened.

Applicants will be notified of the outcome by Monday 19th February 2018.

Artificial Life: Debating Medical Modernity (April 19-21, UC Riverside)

To debate our medical modernity means to historicize, criticize, and question the comforting narrative of society’s improving health by exploring accounts of marginalized knowledge and criticisms of the modern medical paradigm. We invite questions about the subjects of medical practice as the line between human and nonhuman, even that between organic and inorganic, is being challenged by diverse fields of scholarship. We are especially interested in papers that explore how life is being reimagined and reinvented by practices such as genetic engineering, medical prosthesis, and biochemical interventions into the body. This conference explores what it means to think of medicine and modernity under three rubrics: historical practice, the relationship between varied biomedical and non-biomedical practices, and the role of prosthetics in medicine. Topics may include:

The historical construction of health

The possibilities and limits of prosthetic interventions

The evolving definitions of life

The boundaries between physician/healer and patient

The commercialization of health

“Hacking” the body through various therapies

The role of narrative in medical outcomes

The disciplinary futures of health humanities

Please send 200-word abstracts due by February 9, 2018 to sherryl.vint@gmail.com. Notifications will be made by March 1, 2018.

Call for Papers
Deadline: February 5, 2018

Academic Track at the 76th World Science Fiction Convention — August 16-20, 2018
San José McEnery Convention Center (San José, California)

Science fiction always plays a part in recreating our world and directing civilization’s progress. While much SF takes place in a hypothetical “future,” the entire body of speculative literature influences and interacts with our world—suggesting potentialities, solutions, organizational methods, alternative cultures, and paths to follow or avoid. In that spirit, the 76th World Science Fiction Convention (Worldcon) in San José, California has chosen “Make the Future” for its overarching theme.

The Academic Track Committee welcomes proposals for scholarly presentations, especially those that study content tied to our “Make the Future” convention theme, such as the following examples:
* Any and all utopian or futurist novels, short stories, comic books, or other media
* Classic SF works that changed the direction of their era
* Dystopian novels, comic books, and other media that portray catastrophic scenarios to prevent them from happening in reality (1984, The Handmaid’s Tale, The Water Knife, Bitch Planet, etc.)
* SF groups as progressive communities (“slan shacks,” writers’ colonies, online communities, etc.)
* Ties between SF literature and socio-political movements
* Ties between maker culture and science fiction, including DIY art and music, steampunk, dieselpunk, and any other design aesthetics
* Major movements in the SF genre’s history

Additionally, we are interested in proposals incorporating Worldcon visiting authors, timely content, or regional interest (such as California/Western authors or settings). Such topics might include:
* Guests of Honor Spider Robinson and Chelsea Quinn Yarbro, or Ghost of Honor Edgar Pangborn
* Other authors planning to attend Worldcon 76
* Silicon Valley in SF
* Science fiction in Wild West dime novels and pulps
* Mill Valley and San Francisco in Invasion of the Body Snatchers (book and/or films)
* Philip K. Dick’s writing during his years living in Point Reyes Station
* Kim Stanley Robinson’s “Three Californias” trilogy and related works
* Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein at its 200th anniversary

As part of Worldcon programming, academic-track audiences often include a blend of scholars, writers, artists, readers, and fans. Presentations should be academically rigorous, but also accessible to a wide variety of interests and backgrounds. We welcome papers from scholars at all stages of their research careers, including advanced undergraduate students and independent scholars. Panels or roundtables that include SF creators (writers, directors, game designers, etc.) are highly encouraged as well.

In many ways, Worldcon’s academic track offers an ideal opportunity for scholars to reach audiences they might not see at exclusively academic conferences.

The committee is seeking three kinds of proposals:
* Paper – one 20-minute long presentation
* Panel – a group of 3 to 4 related presentations of 15- to 20-minute length each
* Roundtable – a group of speakers on a specific topic moderated by one individual for an hour plus question/answer period

WHAT TO SUBMIT:

For INDIVIDUAL PAPERS, include the following items (clearly labeled) in a single document:
1. Your name and contact information
2. Maximum 300-word abstract summarizing the focus and concept of your presentation
3. Maximum 100-word biographical note including academic affiliation (if applicable), sample prior publications/presentations, and any other connections to SF community

For PANELS, include the following items (clearly labeled) in a single document:
1. Name and contact information of panel’s chair
2. Title of panel and a maximum 200-word statement describing its focus
3. Maximum 300-word abstract summarizing the focus and concept of each presenter’s paper
4. Maximum 100-word biographical note for each speaker, including academic affiliation (if applicable), sample prior publications/presentations, and any other connections to SF community

For ROUNDTABLES, include the following items (clearly labeled) in a single document:
1. Name and contact information of roundtable’s organizer and moderator
2. Title of roundtable, its topic, and a maximum 300-word statement describing its focus
3. Short list of sample discussion topics
4. Maximum 100-word biographical note for each speaker, including academic affiliation (if applicable), sample prior publications/presentations, and other connections to SF community
We will accept only one presentation per scholar, although presenters are welcome to moderate or chair one other session.

HOW TO SUBMIT:

All proposals should be sent as Word or PDF email attachments to callforpapers@worldcon76.org by midnight PST, February 5, 2018. Please provide a subject line that identifies the type of presentation you’re proposing using this format: “[Panel or Paper or Roundtable] Proposal: [your title]

Example: Paper Proposal: Invasion of the Body Snatchers and the Bay Area

Note: All selected speakers will be responsible for their own Worldcon membership, travel, and all related expenses. For more information on purchasing membership, see the Worldcon 76 convention website. Membership includes access to the entire convention, not just the academic track.

For more on the Worldcon’s history and theme, visit http://www.worldcon76.org/about-worldcon

NEW JOURNAL: Gothic Nature: New Directions in Eco-horror and the EcoGothic

deadline for submissions:
April 15, 2018

full name / name of organization:
Gothic Nature: New Directions in Eco-horror and the EcoGothic

contact email:
gothicnaturejournal@gmail.com

We are seeking submissions for our new Gothic Nature journal, due out in 2018.

Further to the success of the November 2017 conference Gothic Nature: New Directions in Eco-horror and the EcoGothic, we will be producing a peer-reviewed journal devoted to the same themes.

The editorial board so far includes Dr Elizabeth Parker, Emily Bourke, Professor Simon C. Estok, Professor Andrew Smith, Professor Dawn Keetley, Professor Matthew Wynn Sivils, and Dr Stacy Alaimo. The inaugural issue will also feature an opening essay on eco-horror and the ecoGothic from Dr Tom J. Hillard.

______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

‘Horror is becoming the environmental norm.’ —Sara L. Crosby

Gothic and horror fictions have long functioned as vivid reflections of contemporary cultural fears. Wood argues that horror is ‘the struggle for recognition of all that our society represses or oppresses’, and Newman puts forward the idea that it ‘actively eliminates and exorcises our fears by allowing them to be relegated to the imaginary realm of fiction’. Now, more than ever, the environment has become a locus of those fears for many people, and this conference seeks to investigate the wide range of Gothic- and horror-inflected texts that tackle the darker side of nature.

As we inch ever closer toward an anthropogenic ecological crisis, this type of fiction demands our attention. In 2009, Simon C. Estok highlighted the importance of ‘ecophobia’ in representations of nature, emphasising the need for ecocriticism to acknowledge the ‘irrational and groundless hatred of the natural world’ present in contemporary society. Tom J. Hillard responded to Estok’s call ‘to talk about how fear of the natural world is a definable and recognizable discourse’, suggesting that ‘we need look no further than the rich and varied vein of critical approaches used to investigate fear in literature.’ What happens, he asks, ‘when we bring the critical tools associated with Gothic fiction to bear on writing about nature?’

Gothic Nature seeks to address this question, interrogating the place of non-human nature in horror and the Gothic today, and showcasing the most exciting and innovative research currently being conducted in the field. We are especially interested for our inaugural issue in articles which address ecocritical theory and endeavour to define and discern the distinctions between ‘eco-horror’ and ‘ecoGothic’. We welcome academic articles from a variety of different subject backgrounds, as well as interdisciplinary work.

Subjects may include, but are by no means limited to:

1. Eco-horror and the ecoGothic: theory and distinctions

2. Ecocriticism and horror literature/ media

3. Ecocriticism and Gothic literature/ media

4. Gothic nature/ecophobia

5. Global eco-horror/global ecoGothic

6. Environmental activism and horror/ the Gothic

7. Human nature vs. nonhuman nature

8. Rural Gothic

9. Landscapes of fear

10. Legends of haunted nature/Gothic nature and mythology

11. Monsters in nature/natural spectres

12. Climate change and Gothic nature

13. Environmental apocalypse

14. Animal horror

15. Gothic nature in art through the ages

If you are interested in submitting a piece for our inaugural issue, please send an article of 6-8,000 words (Harvard referencing), along with a brief biography to gothicnaturejournal@gmail.com by April 15th, 2018. Please feel free to contact either Elizabeth Parker (parkereh@tcd.ie) or Emily Bourke (bourkee2@tcd.ie) with any informal queries you may have.

Please do get in touch, too, if you are interested in serving on the editorial board or contributing to the work on our website.

Fantasy and Myth in the Anthropocene International Conference October 3-5, 2018

Masaryk University in Brno, Czech Republic

“The relationship between myth and fantasy is a particularly convoluted one. … [B]oth words have so many meanings and applications that they can be synonyms or direct contraries.”
(Brian Attebery, Stories about Stories)

“The Anthropocene is a belief that humanity has already changed the living world beyond repair … [and that] the destiny of the planet is to be completely overtaken and ruled by humanity. … Like most mistaken philosophies, the Anthropocene worldview is largely a product of well-intentioned ignorance.”
(Edward O. Wilson, Half-Earth: Our Planet’s Fight for Life)

Myth and fantasy have always been forms of collective dreaming. They offer metaphorical grounding in existing reality but inspire imagination to conceive of a world that is different. Humanity has used myth and fantasy as vehicles for exploring the notions of heroism, group identity, power and destiny; for asking questions about the meaning of life, ethics, and happiness; for expressing social criticism and speculating about the supernatural. What do these questions mean at a time when human activity has been altering the planet in game-changing ways? How can myth and fantasy be used for hopeful dreaming that is not escapist? Can they point a way to restoring the connection with the natural rather than the supernatural? Can they articulate a vision of non-anthropocentric life, in which humans are part of rather than rulers of the biosphere?

This conference aims to explore the challenges and opportunities for myth and fantasy that have arisen out of highly contested debates over climate change, pollution, habitat extinction, mass pauperization and migrations, and other effects of global capitalism’s assault on the natural and human world—an assault otherwise known as “growth and development.” If myth and fantasy remain relevant vehicles for hopeful dreaming, how do they operate in the Anthropocene? Do they accept, ignore, or challenge the Anthropocene’s assumptions? Whose visions of change do they express or sanction and whose visions do they exclude? Most of all, can fantasy and myth help us rethink what it means to be human at the time Amitav Gosh has dubbed “The Great Derangement”?

We invite scholars, graduate students, artists and independent researchers from all fields across the humanities, education, and social sciences. We also welcome submissions from undergraduate students. Proposals may range, but are not limited to, comparative literary studies, linguistics, film and game studies, cognitive science, art, religious studies, philosophy, education, popular culture, music, material culture, and related fields. Across this broad spectrum, we invite participants to examine, interpret and explore the various aspects of fantasy and myth in the Anthropocene. Presentations on the theme are encouraged but not required.

Relevant topics may include:

• The Anthropocene as represented in fantasy, including fantasy art
• How fantasy engages with, or avoids the Anthropocene’s moral, ethical, and political challenges
• Anthropocene as a myth or myths for the Anthropocene
• Myth and fantasy on stories about humanity’s ultimate triumph or inevitable end
• Magical beliefs about the Anthropocene
• Science and Fake News about the Anthropocene as part of the fantasy spectrum
• Indigenous and global fantasy vs the Anthropocene
• Fantasy, myth, and new humanism (or posthumanism)
• Fantasy as a modern form of mythmaking
• Fantasy, ecopoetics, and the ethos of “greenness”
• Films, cartoons, video games, picturebooks, comics, graphic novels and other (multimodal) formats as representing the new(?) relationship between humans and nature
• Ecocritical and/or Anthropocene readings of myth and fantasy
• Fantasy, myth, and the apocalypse
• Fantasy of survival or resetting of the current civilization
• Work of Ursula K Le Guin, N. K. Jemisin, and other writers dealing with the Anthropocene

Presentations need not be limited to the above topics or one mode of delivery. We encourage prospective participants to submit proposals for papers, panels, forums, workshops, multimedia events or propose new presentation formats. If unsure, direct questions to Tereza Dědinová [fantastikabrno@gmail.com]

Confirmed keynote speakers:
Brian Attebery, Idaho State University
Marek Oziewicz, University of Minnesota

Conference website: fantastika.phil.muni.cz

Proposals may be submitted in English, Czech or Slovak. Send an abstract of no more than 500 words accompanied by a short biographical note to fantastikabrno@gmail.com. The deadline for proposal submissions is February 28, 2018. Authors will be notified of acceptance by March 15. Except for the keynotes, all conference presentations will have to be delivered in 20 minutes. Conference Registration fee, payable by April 30, is €65. Authors of selected presentations may be invited to submit their essays for a peer-reviewed collection.

On behalf of the organizers,
Dr. Tereza Dědinová

Department of Czech Literature and Library Studies
Faculty of Arts Masaryk University
Údolní 53 602 00 Brno
Czech Republic

The Dark Arts Journal is pleased to announce the call for papers of issue 4.1, for the topic of “Transgression and Contemporary Gothic” We invite innovative, challenging and original submissions on any aspect of Gothic studies and the notion of transgression, with particular emphasis on contemporary Gothic and/or contemporary issues read in a Gothic context.

***

Transgression, ‘so pure and so complicated’ (Foucault: 1977, p.35) is a contentious issue, with many critics to-date strongly questioning the effect of the oversaturation of violence and misdemeanor in contemporary subjective, cultural and political life, and the extent to which transgression is now exhausted. The critical engagement with transgression has thrived in past few decades with numerous critical studies emerging. To a certain extent, the contemporary engagement began with Stallybrass and White (1986) who revised transgression as a politically charged gesture that challenges the social and political classification of high/low culture. For some, transgression is an antagonistic and cynical response to contemporary discontent, corresponding to a fatalistic inability to engage with contemporary culture/society except in terms of nihilistic or discordant inertia or refusal. Others have argued that transgression is an aesthetic mode of subversion, potently questioning of artistic, political and moral boundaries. In this way, transgression not only articulates limits but goes excessively beyond them, forcing the transgressor to reassess their moral/ethical coordinates.

If transgression stages the crossing and/or annihilation of limits then the Gothic, which undermines unstable distinctions between reality and unreality, as well as laws/prohibitions and limits, is a productive frame against which to read and critique transgression. As critics of contemporary Gothic, we are attuned to questions regarding a similar fascination with Gothic terror, horror and monstrous, and the extent to which they are increasingly co-opted as commodities and “exhausted” as some detractors would profess, corresponding in a decline of the mode’s effectiveness. Re-engaging with transgression, its forms and the philosophies that inform it, through the Gothic lens seems a natural and productive enterprise in order to readdress the validity and strength of both concerns in the contemporary era.

***

This journal welcomes all submissions with an emphasis on transgression and the contemporary Gothic, in all its forms.

Possible topics may cover, but are in no way limited to the following:

*Gothic studies and philosophy or literary studies

*New and contemporary approaches to the Gothic canon

*Contemporary Gothic Film, TV, Literature, Music, Art, Culture, etc.

*Contemporary Horror

*Gothic and Transgression

– Violence

– Nihilism

– The Grotesque

– The Carnivalesque

– Psychopathology

– Suicide

– Terror(ism)

– Resistance

– Post-capitalism / Neoliberalism

– Contemporary Philosophy

All Submissions should be emailed to darkartsjournal@gmail.com for the attention of the editor with the subject line “Dark Arts 4.1 Submission.” Papers should be between 4,000—5,000 words and use MHRA style guide for referencing and footnotes. As always, we welcome contributions from scholars at any stage of their careers and particularly from postgraduates and early career researchers.

Deadline for submission is February 28th, 2018

https://thedarkartsjournal.wordpress.com/