Review of the Bram Stoker International Film Festival (Friday & Saturday)

Whitby 29-31 October 2011

This is part one of a two-part review. You can see my review of Sunday and Monday here.

In October, my partner (RS) and I headed to Whitby for the Bram Stoker International Film Festival. The festival is an annual event, showcasing horror features, shorts and documentaries from around the globe. I attended last year’s festival, which featured a number of classic Hammer horror films alongside independent shorts and features. This year’s programme promised a greater focus on indie films, as well as a Vampire Ball, a couple of live performances and horror-themed stalls and merchandise. So… here’s what we thought…

We arrived in Whitby on Thursday and the festival started on Friday. RS hadn’t been to Whitby before, but I’ve been many times – I was a Gothy teenager, so it’s only to be expected. I mention this only to explain why we spent Friday morning wandering around the town, and didn’t arrive at the film festival itself until the 2.30pm screening. This was a duo of shorts, followed by a feature (all of which were allegedly premiering at the festival). First up was Zombiefication, a seven-minute short (available to watch on the YouTube). The film is a fairly fun little take on a safety instruction video, offering a guide to how to deal with a zombie outbreak in a movie theatre. Following this was the French short Cabine of the Dead (Vincent Templement). Again, this was a zombie outbreak film, with a man called Patrick trapped in a phone booth, trying desperately to call for help. The production values and acting were excellent, and the basic idea (though not completely original) was compelling.

However, this leads to my first criticism of the festival as a whole. In the course of writing this review, I happened to look up a few of the films online. I was a bit disappointed to find that the screening of Cabine of the Dead was far from being a premiere, as the short was shown at a number of other festivals prior to the Bram Stoker Festival. I suspect ‘premiere’ on the programme meant ‘UK premiere’, but it would have been better if this had been made clearer.

This session was finished off with the 2008 Chilean-American feature film Descendants – AKA Solos – directed by Jorge Olguin (again, not strictly a 'premiere'). This post-apocalyptic zombie infection movie told the story of Camille, a young girl born with an undefined genetic immunity to the ‘infection’ that is destroying humanity. Highlights included the good (and somewhat unsettling) portrayal of Camille and the development of the ‘beware of other survivors’ trope. However, the film was somewhat let down by a very odd ending involving a giant squid (which was almost entirely incomprehensible). Up to the final scene, though, RS and I thoroughly enjoyed Descendants.

The next screening was the undoubted highpoint of the festival for us. The Belgian ‘documentary’ Vampires (Vincent Lannoo) followed a family of vampires living in modern-day Belgium. George Saint-Germain, his wife Bertha and their ‘children’ Grace and Samson share their daily (or, rather, nightly) lives with a rather nervous film crew. The film was beautifully shot and acted, and very funny in places. Yet it was also creepy, sinister and, at times, really rather dark. This was without doubt our favourite film of the festival, and I can’t recommend it highly enough.



Next was a selection of short films, each retelling a story by Edgar Allen Poe. We had a black-and-white Spanish version of El Corazon Delator [The Telltale Heart], which had the feel of a much older horror film (which is not necessarily a bad thing). This was followed by The Raven, featuring a Professor Yaffle-like raven that was surprisingly sinister, then a ‘Ray Harryhausen Presents…’ retelling of The Pit and the Pendulum. Finally, we had a very dark animated version of Annabel Lee. We did disagree about which of these shorts were the best. RS preferred The Raven, in part because he has a real soft spot for this poem (and he did like the animatronic raven). But I loved Annabel Lee for its puppet Edgar Allen Poe (with nails in his eyes!) and the very creepy baby-doll angels. We were in complete agreement about The Pit and the Pendulum, though, which was a silly little short, missing most of Poe’s original story and with the feel of a kid’s cartoon rather than a horror short.

We decided to call it a night after the Poe shorts, and go for dinner. I do just want to add a word about the guesthouse we were staying in. Prospect House was clean, friendly and welcoming. But one of the highlights for us was the collection of DVDs available for guests to watch – particularly the superb selection of B-movie horror. As if we hadn’t got enough films to watch, we decided to end the night with Psycho Cop. Not exactly of the same quality as the films shown at the festival, but very, very funny.

On Saturday, we were also a bit rubbish at getting to the start of the screenings. Instead of heading straight to the festival, we spent the morning at Whitby Abbey – possibly one of my favourite places in the UK.



We got to the Pavilion at 3pm for Cassadaga (Anthony DiBlasi). This was a rather disjointed feature, telling the story of a deaf woman (Lily) who moves to Cassadaga (the ‘psychic capital of America’) following the death of her younger sister. Lily takes part in a séance, which leads to her being attacked by the ghost of a murdered woman. She decides to investigate the murder, which was apparently at the hands of a deranged psychopath attempting to build a woman-marionette. The problem with Cassadaga was that it appeared to be several different films sewn together. Lily’s story had the tone and plotting of a TV movie about coming to terms with grief; the séance storyline (complete with spiritual black woman in tribal-esque clothes) was more psychological thriller; the marionette killer felt more like Saw-inspired torture porn. Everything about these storylines was different – from the lighting and direction to the levels of violence and sexual reference. Lily’s story was by far the weakest, with way too much backstory (some of which didn’t go anywhere) and over-sentimentalization. Anyone who follows me or RS on Twitter might be aware of our recent Saw binge, so it should come as no surprised that we thought the strongest part of the film was the deranged puppet man. It’s a shame that these elements didn’t come together to create a coherent narrative.

No more films for Saturday, as we decided to go to the Vampire Ball (compered by the wonderful Rosie Lugosi).

You can read my review of Sunday and Monday here.

CFP: Current Research in Speculative Fictions 2012

Call for Papers

Monday 18th June 2012
University of Liverpool

Keynote Lectures from: Professor David Seed (University of Liverpool), Professor Fred Botting (Kingston University London)

Now in its second year, the CRSF is a one day postgraduate conference designed to promote the research of speculative fictions, including science fiction, fantasy and horror, showcasing some of the latest developments in these dynamic and evolving fields. Last year’s conference attracted an international selection of delegates and provided a platform for postgraduate students to present their current research, encouraging discussion with scholars in related subjects and the construction of crucial networks with fellow researchers, this year we are looking to continue these successes. The University of Liverpool is a leading centre for the study of speculative fiction, being home to the Science Fiction Foundation Collection, and is thus an ideal venue for fostering the next generation of scholars of the fantastic.

We are seeking abstracts relating to speculative fiction, including, but not limited to, papers on the following topics:

•Alternate History •Apocalypse •Body Horror •Eco-criticism •Gaming •(Geo) Politics •Genre •Gender and Sexuality •Graphic Novels •The Grotesque •The Heroic Tradition •Liminal Fantasy •Magic •Meta-Franchises •Morality •Monstrosity •Music and SF •Non-Anglophone SF •Otherness •The Pastoral •Politics •Post-Colonialism and Empire •Proto-SF •Quests •Realism •Slipstream •Spiritualism •Steampunk •The Supernatural •Technology •TV and Film •Psychology and Consciousness •Urban Fantasy •Utopia/Dystopia •(Virtual) Spaces and Environments •Weird Fiction •World Building •Young Adult Fiction.

Please submit an abstract of 300 words for a 20 minute paper and a 100 word biography to the conference convenors by 23rd March 2012.

For further information, email the conference team or visit the website.

Welcome to the Medieval Carnival!

It's my pleasure to host this month’s edition of Carnivalesque, showcasing the best in recent blogging on ancient and medieval history.

However, I’m actually going to start with some stories from prehistory. Something really rather 'ancient', is this piece on Quigley’s Cabinet about artefacts discovered in South Africa that point to the existence of a 100,000-year-old ochre-processing workshop. The History Blog discusses human-inflicted wounds on a 13,800-year-old mastodon skeleton, which prove that 'American hunting is 800 years older than we thought'. And something quite close to my ginger heart, The Ancient Standard tells us that the gene responsible for red hair and freckles may have been found in Neanderthals living 100,000 years ago in Europe.

Stonehenge Thoughts offers a story about a new full geological map of the UK the British Geological Survey, and how this might be of use to those interested in the 'bluestone quarry' at Rhosyfelin and the mystery of the Stonehenge bluestones.

Moving into the early Middle Ages, at Medieval History Geek, Curt Emanuel reviews Nicholas Everett’s Literacy in Lombard Italy, c. 568-774 and Michelle Ziegler discusses childhood illness and mortality in early medieval Ireland, in 'The Mortality of Children, Ireland 683-685' at Heavenfield. 'Even the Bishop of Girona doesn’t always win' writes Jonathan Jarrett at A Corner of Tenth-Century Europe. And what's this? The Staffordshire Hoard blog looks for suggestions and explanations of their 'mystery object'.

A story that has captured the attention of history bloggers this month was the 945th anniversary of the Battle of Hastings. Again, this appears on numerous blogs and websites, including the Ordnance Survey blog, Mr Brame’s Blog, Kaye Jones and E.C. Ambrose. The Historical Novel Society asks nine authors to post on the anniversary on their own sites, and collects the posts on the HNS blog.

And another piece of medieval news this month is the research done into the discovery of the UK's first fully intact Viking burial site in Scotland, discussed on Medieval News. I'm glad I can mention this story, as the co-director of the project, Dr. Hannah Cobb, is an archaeology teaching fellow at the University of Manchester (my own institution).

Perhaps one of the most popular 'medieval' stories of the past month has been the reconstruction of the 'Black Death genome', using DNA samples taken from a fourteenth-century plague pit in East Smithfield, London. I won't list all the blogs that pick up the story, as there are many, but among them are Contagions, nature.com and MIT's technology review. For Francophone readers, the story also appears on Docbuzz.

Elsewhere, King's College London's Henry III Fine Rolls project offers a week in the life of Henry III: Sunday 16 October to Saturday 25 October 1261. New York's Metropolitan Museum of Art blogs about rose hips and their significance in medieval seasonal celebrations at The Medieval Garden Enclosed. And at In the Middle, Karl Steel writes about the Canarian's Ship of Fools.

The British Museum's fabulous Treasures of Heaven Exhibition came to a close on October 9th. Over on the museum’s blog, metalworker Jamie Hall discusses medieval metalwork. The 8th October was the anniversary of the execution (or lynching?) of Cola di Rienzi (killed in Rome in 1354). ExecutedToday marks the date with Rienzi's story.

On Esmeralda’s Cumbrian History & Folklore, Diane McIlmoyle introduces us to the Cappel: Cumbria’s 'spooky black dog'. Haligweorc offers a piece by Derek Olsen on liturgical naming: 'Naming Spiritual Communities in the Sarum Rite'. And there's an introduction to medieval superstitions about revenants at Pure Medievalry.

Finally, although it's not a blog (and a little older than strictly appropriate for this Carnival), I thought this Flickr collection was worth a mention. Juliana Lees has been collecting images of pre-1200 Eastern textiles found in Western churches and cathedrals, with a particular interest in Silk Road influences.

Hope you enjoyed this tour of ancient and medieval blogging. If I've missed anything, leave a comment and let me know. Next month's Carnivalesque will be an early modern edition, hosted by Anchora.

VOTE NOW! Who's Your Favourite Female Werewolf?

Since this blog was originally intended to focus on female werewolves in popular culture, I thought it would be good to devote a whole post to our favourite she-wolves.

A little poll is in order, I think. Who is your favourite female werewolf of all time? Have a read through the nominations, and cast your vote (or nominate your own) in the comments.

1. Kelsey 'Boobs' Bornstein (in 'Boobs' by Suzy McKee Charnas)
Nominated by K.A Laity, academic, novelist and short story writer, author of Unikirja and Pelzmantel

"It's really hard to choose: I love the Ginger Snaps films and shaking my booty to Shakira's 'She Wolf' but I have to say I have a real fondness for Suzy McKee Charnas' 'Boobs' which I was lucky enough to experience the author herself reading once. 'Boobs' Bornstein is a developing teen whose developments get unwanted notice from a local bully. The trauma of her first period, despite the well-meaning kindness of her stepmother, seems poised to make adolescence a living hell - until another transformation occurs. I think what I like best about Charnas' story is the self-assurance Bornstein gains when she understands how powerful she really is - and not just because she becomes a wolf."

2. Sergeant Angua (in Terry Pratchett's Discworld series)
Nominated by Kirsty Buchanan, English student and Pratchett fan

"Delphine Angua von Uberwald, daughter of the Baron and Baroness of Uberwald and sister of Wolfgang, Elsa and Andrei, is a Captain of the Ankh Morpork City Watch. She frequently outwits both criminals and fellow watch members, and often uses her werewolf nature to solve crimes and apprehend perpetrators. Despite being entirely independent and single minded in her work she is at times conflicted about her position within the city as a whole and in particular in her relationship with the naïve Captain Carrot Ironfoundersson (who happens to be the true heir to the throne). She frequently puts herself in danger to help others both in wolf and female human form. However she is all too aware that in human form, people only see the wolf in her and while in wolf form 'people' only see the human in her. Angua exhibits loyalty to the Watch above all, stating after she's been kidnapped and Carrot fails to make chase immediately that 'personal is not the same as important'. Pratchett plays with this example of inequality in relationships and exploits the sense of loyalty felt by her wolf side to make his point. Angua states plainly in Jingo that there’s a name for wolves who live with humans, and that name is 'dog'. Angua is a many layered female werewolf who frequently forces us to examine the extent of prejudice in society, our perceptions of others and the relative value of loyalty in relationships."

3. 'Wolfgirl' (in The Company of Wolves)
Nominated by Steve Rouse, writer, learning and development trainer and stalwart of Manchester's longstanding creative writing workshop, the Monday Night Group

"A werewolf that's always stayed in my mind is the 'Wolfgirl' from Neil Jordan’s 1984 film, The Company of Wolves. I think what appeals is the tenderness with which she’s treated in the film. She emerges as a she-wolf from the underworld, is shot by a villager, then treated kindly by a priest who tends her wound; and returns to the underworld thereafter. She is a very non-aggressive werewolf, who becomes both victim and beneficiary during her brief visit to the human (male?) world. It’s a very short passage in the film (4 minutes or so) but neatly seems to summarise our nervous and contradictory relationship to the 'wild' (the Wolf Girl reminds me of so-called 'wild children' such as Kaspar Hauser) - fascinated, repelled, afraid in equal measure. And, of course, there's the whole Freudian/feminist underpinning of Company of Wolves, with its (hardly) sub-text of sexual awakening, the 'otherness' of the female, etc. The Wolf Girl was played by Danielle Dax, an experimental musician and producer."

4. Nina (in Being Human)
Nominated by Rob Shedwick, musician and songwriter with Th3 M1ss1ing and Digital Front

"My girlfriend is a big fan of Being Human (the television series, not the general state of being a human), and after explaining the premise to me of a vampire, werewolf, and ghost living together I was intrigued - soon to be marginally obsessed, insisting that we watch the first three series virtually back-to-back. My allegiance quite quickly fell on the side of George and his girlfriend Nina, mainly because of their relationship as werewolves. I can't lie, George's gnome wallpaper was also a factor. Nina initially has a fairly tough exterior, probably as a result of an abusive childhood. She hints at this when she reveals scars on her stomach, in an attempt to show George she also has secrets and to get him to open up about his own problems. Eventually she does discover what he's been hiding, unfortunately during his transformation, and he accidentally scratches her - sharing his werewolf curse. What I particularly like about Nina as a werewolf is the complication of her becoming pregnant, and the concerns and fears that brings about for her - much like any mother during her first pregnancy, she is afraid of the unknown. But, unlike most first-time parents, she has additional concerns like whether the baby will survive her transformation process each month, and whether or not the child will be a werewolf. As the foetus is developing at twice the normal rate (by the end of Series 3), I'd say there's a fairly good chance that it will be. I'm looking forward to the upcoming fourth series and the further development of Nina’s character."

5. Kitty Norville (in Carrie Vaughn's Kitty Norville books)
Nominated by Carys Crossen, PhD candidate and werewolf scholar

"First of all, who could resist a werewolf named Kitty? (The name came first, apparently). But it takes a lot more than a gimmick to produce a truly memorable female werewolf, and Kitty delivers. Vaughn's fast-thinking, fast-talking heroine is a radio DJ with a nice line in sarcasm and a penchant for trouble. Vaughn’s series charts Kitty's development from the lowest-ranking member of a dysfunctional pack to becoming the alpha of her group of werewolves, a celebrity and expert in paranormal phenomena, providing plenty of angst, adventure and one-liners along the way. Kitty herself is a refreshing change of pace – she doesn't waste time agonising over whether lycanthropy has turned her into a monster, instead choosing to spend her time fighting the good fight and playing good music to her multitude of fans."

6. Brigitte Fitzgerald (in Ginger Snaps: Unleashed)
Nominated by Andrew Quinton, writer and creator of Werewolf News

"The Ginger Snaps films are fantastic, but they're also poorly named, and I'm not talking about the tiresome pun. Granted, each film features a protagonist named Ginger whose behaviour (poor Sam, poor Fort Bailey) could be attributed to a mental 'snap', but I don't feel the films were really about her. Despite her metamorphoses she doesn't change much throughout the series – she's not even alive in Ginger Snaps 2 – and when she does act to drive the story forward, the catalyst tends to be bestial instinct rather than the growth of her character. No, despite what their titles imply, I think the Ginger Snaps films are really about Ginger's younger sister Brigitte. Pale, meek, unsmiling, forever trapped in the shadow (or haunted by the shade) of her older sister, she's constantly forced to be the strong one, to think for them both, to make all the sacrifices and bear all the consequences. In the first film, Ginger Snaps, Brigitte watches helplessly as her sister and best friend turns into a monster. While Ginger reacts to her changes first with denial and then with petulant hostility, Brigitte doesn't have the luxury of such emotional indulgences. She's forced to act as her monster -sister's caretaker – first researching the affliction, then helping develop the cure, and eventually cleaning up the carnage left by an increasingly monstrous Ginger. When her efforts fail, Brigitte's final appeal to her sister is made not with reason but with blood, and ultimately even that sacrifice is in vain. Brigitte's connection to the life she knows is irrevocably broken, and she doesn't even have the comfort of her sister's companionship to soften the blow. Yet when we meet Brigitte at the start of the second film, it's clear that while she might mourn the life she left behind, she's determined to move forward, resolute and unflinching in the faces of her ghosts. Brigitte is easily my favourite female werewolf, not because of who or what she is but what she does. Ignore her incipient lycanthropy and she’s still the character who changes the most throughout the Ginger Snaps series, endures the worst hardships, and still manages to embody some of the very finest human qualities."



7. White Fell (in Clemence Housman's The Were-Wolf)
Nominated by Carys Crossen

"Heard of Clemence Housman? No? Unsurprising – Housman has been overshadowed for decades by her more well-known brothers, poet Alfred Edward (A. E. Housman) and suffrage campaigner Laurence. This also means, sadly, that her werewolf White Fell, who is one of the central characters of her novella The Were-Wolf, has also largely fallen into undeserved obscurity. It's undeserved because White Fell is beautiful, dangerous, and deadly, and is a refreshing contrast to the rather goody-goody hero who serves as her main opponent. More than this, White Fell is arguably one of the earliest instances in which a female author has written about a female werewolf and used the figure of the werewolf to express 'the complex and antagonistic forces that constitute one soul'. Although not famous enough to be termed ground-breaking, the character of White Fell marks a significant development in the portrayal of female werewolves in literature – the moment when women authors began to utilise the figure of the female werewolf to express feminine concerns and anxieties."

8. Leah Clearwater (in Stephenie Meyer's Twilight series)
Nominated by Hannah Kate, writer, blogger and editor for Hic Dragones

"Okay, this is a somewhat controversial choice. And I would like to make it clear that I am definitively NOT a Twilight fan. I really did not enjoy the books. However, I am absolutely fascinated by the character of Leah Clearwater - the only (and unexpected) female werewolf in Meyer's books. Leah gets no choice about whether or not she gets to be a werewolf. But lycanthropy is not a curse for her - it's a sacred duty. The problem is, until Leah, this sacred duty has been reserved for strictly men only. As soon as she transforms, her outsider status is secured. The other male werewolves are horrified by the prospect of this young woman sharing their 'pack mind'. What makes the presentation of Leah so compelling is the utter cruelty of her situation. She is forced to share her entire psyche with a group of young, testosterone-fuelled men, including her ex-boyfriend who has now 'imprinted' on her cousin. Her physical development is halted (Meyer has said in interviews that she imagined the werewolf state halted Leah's menstrual cycle) and she does not know whether or not she will be able to bear children. At the end of Breaking Dawn, when every single other character is paired off for a 'happy ending', Leah is left completely on her own. How does our teenage werewolf handle this cruel life she is forced into? With bitterness, anger and angst. No lying down and losing a few months like Bella... Leah complains, grumbles and torments her male 'pack'. This is what I love about her. Who says the best female werewolves have to be brave, noble, self-sacrificing and loyal? It's an angsty and aggressive, pained and petulant anti-heroine for me every time."


Voting is now closed. View the results here!

CFP: MANCASS Postgraduate Conference: Domestic Life and Lifestyle

Manchester Anglo-Saxon Society Post Graduate Student Conference

John Rylands Library, Deansgate, Manchester, UK
March 5-6, 2012

Domestic Life and Lifestyle

What did the simple folk do? We are looking for papers on the average daily life of Anglo-Saxon people. Topics may include, but are certainly not limited to textiles, making of pottery, domestic architecture, farming, animal husbandry, wood carving, cooking, glass making, and metal working. If your topic is secular and related to the Anglo-Saxon world, it will be considered. Send abstracts to Christina Petty by 1 Jan 2012.

Further Adventures in Wonderland: The Afterlife of Alice

Registration is now open for the Hic Dragones Further Adventures in Wonderland: The Afterlife of Alice conference. See here for more details.

This one-day inter-disciplinary conference in Manchester, UK, explores the influence, interpretation and representation of Alice in Wonderland in contemporary popular culture. Dress and style, music and film - Alice is out of the rabbit hole and into our collective psyche. This conference seeks to address the perennial popularity of Lewis Carroll's creation, and to explore her most recent incarnations.

Venue: The International Anthony Burgess Foundation, Manchester

Date: Thursday 1st December 2011

Programme:

9.30-10.00 Registration

10.00-11.00 Plenary Paper
Dr. Will Brooker (Kingston University): The Further Adventures of Alice

11.00-11.30 Coffee

11.30-1.00 Panel 1: Adaptation and Literature

Laura-Jane Maher (Monash University): Taking Liberties: Adaptation and Transmedia Narrative in Frank Beddor’s The Looking Glass Wars

Hannah Priest (University of Manchester): Steampunk, Cyberpunk, Whimsy: Genre Definition and Jeff Noon’s The Automated Alice

Deidre Flynn (Mary Immaculate College, Limerick): Adventures in the Postmodern Wonderland

1.00-2.00 Lunch

2.00-4.00 Panel 2: Performing Alice

Michael Goddard (University of Salford): Alice in Radioland: Radio Alice and the Movement of 77 Through the Looking Glass

Justine Houyaux and Neil Elliott Beisson (UMONS, Belgium): Waltz in Wonderland – Tom Waits and Alice

Guilia Sandelewski (Shakespeare Institute, University of Birmingham): Behind Bars and yet in Wonderland – Alice Refracts Hamlet, Reflects Italy’s Fractured Identity

Alexander Sergeant (King’s College London): Twas Brillig! Nonsense, Play and Inconsequentiality in Paramount’s Alice in Wonderland (1933)

4.00-4.30 Coffee

4.30-6.00 Panel 3: Alice at Play

David Allen (Midland Actors Theatre): Alice In Wonderland – The Disneyland Dark Ride

Franziska Kohlt (University of Sheffield): Into the X-Box and what Alice Found There: American McGee's Alice: Madness Returns

Jennifer Hardy Williams (Calvin College): Alice Meets Lolita: Quinrose’s Alice in the Country of Hearts

To register, visit the website or email the conference convenors.

CFP: 4th Global Conference: Videogame Culture and the Future of Interactive Entertainment

Wednesday 11th July 2012 – Friday 13th July 2012

Mansfield College, Oxford, United Kingdom

Call for Papers:

This inter- and multi-disciplinary conference aims to examine, explore and critically engage with the issues and implications created by the mass use of computers and videogames for human entertainment and focus on the impact of innovative videogame titles and interfaces for human communication and ludic culture. In particular the conference will encourage equally theoretical and practical debates which surround the cultural contexts within which videogames flourish.

Papers, presentations, workshops and reports are invited on any of the following themes:

1. Videogames and Gaming

- Theories and Concepts of Gaming.
- Identifying Key Features and Issues.
- Videogames as Text. Videogames as Interactive Image.
- Multidisciplinary Approaches to Videogame Analysis.
- Film, Literary, Art Studies and Cultural Studies Approaches to the Analysis of Videogames.

2. Videogame Cultures

- Emerging Practices in Online and Offline Gaming.
- Games as Cultural Artifacts.
- Pervasive Gaming, Convergence and the Integration of Videogames.
- Videogames as Art.

3. Games and Society

- Ethical Issues in Videogames, Videogame Controversy – Rating, Violence, Sex, Morality and their relation to Maturity.
- Videogames and Politics.
- Propaganda Games.
- Censorship.

4. Games with Meaning?

- Social Impact Simulations.
- Educational Use of Videogames.
- Serious Games.
- Documentary Videogames.
- Political Issues.
- The Relationship between Game and Gamer.

5. Reception, Temporality and Videogames

- Player Generations.
- Old Originals vs. Retro games.
- Indie Games and Low-Tech Aesthetics.
- Innovations in Independent Game Movements.

6. Immersion and Embodiment

- New Forms of Interaction, Immersion and Collaboration in Videogames.
- Sound, Music, Touch, and Game Space.
- The Role of Innovative Interfaces.

7. Works in Progress

- Games in Development.
- Approaches to Game Design.
- Discussion Workshops on Games under Production.
- Best Practice and Know-How Exchange.

A presentation with a quick demo of the game and workshop proposals are strongly encouraged. We might offer 2 hour slot for 1-3 intensive workshops on design methodologies and media comparative sessions. Delegates presenting in the frame of workshops are eligible for publishing in special track of Videogames 4 ebook on methodologies.

The Steering Group particularly welcomes the submission of pre-formed panel proposals. Papers will also be considered on any related theme.

300 word abstracts should be submitted by Friday 13th January 2012.

If an abstract is accepted for the conference, a full draft paper should be submitted by Friday 11th May 2012. Abstracts should be submitted simultaneously to both Organising Chairs; abstracts may be in Word, WordPerfect, or RTF formats with the following information
and in this order:

a) author(s), b) affiliation, c) email address, d) title of abstract, e) body of abstract, f) up to 10 keywords

E-mails should be entitled: VG4 Abstract Submission.

Please use plain text (Times Roman 12) and abstain from using footnotes and any special formatting, characters or emphasis (such as bold, italics or underline). Please note that a Book of Abstracts is planned for the end of the year. We acknowledge receipt and answer to all paper proposals submitted. If you do not receive a reply from us in a week you should assume we did not receive your proposal; it might be lost in cyberspace! We suggest, then, to look for an alternative electronic route or resend.

Joint Organising Chairs

Daniel Riha
Charles University
Prague,
Czech Republic

Rob Fisher
Network Founder and Network Leader
Inter-Disciplinary.Net
Priory House, Freeland, Oxfordshire OX29 8HR
United Kingdom

The conference is part of the ‘Critical Issues’ series of research projects run by Inter-Disciplinary.Net. It aims to bring together people from different areas and interests to share ideas and explore various discussions which are innovative and challenging. All papers accepted for and presented at the conference are eligible for publication in an ISBN eBook. Selected papers may be invited to go forward for development into 20-25 page chapters for publication in a themed dialogic ISBN hard copy volume.

For further details of the project, please click here.

For further details of the conference, please click here.

Please note: Inter-Disciplinary.Net is a not-for-profit network and we are not in a position to be able to assist with conference travel or subsistence.

CFP: 3rd Global Conference: Revenge

Sunday 15th July 2012 – Tuesday 17th July 2012

Mansfield College, Oxford, United Kingdom

Call for Papers:

Revenge, so we are told, is a dish best served cold: a ‘sweet’ wreaking of vengeance on those who have – either in reality or in our minds – slighted, wronged or in some way ‘injured’ us and who are now ‘enjoying’ their just deserts by an avenging angel (or angels) on the great day of reckoning.

This inter- and multi-disciplinary research and publications project seeks to explore the multi-layered ideas, actions, and cultural traditions of vengeance or revenge. The project aims to explore the nature of revenge, its relationship with issues of justice, and its manifestation in the actions of individuals, cultures, communities and nations. The project will also consider the history of revenge, its ‘legitimacy’, the ‘scale’ of vengeful actions and whether revenge has (or should have) ‘limits’. Representations of revenge in film, literature, television, theatre and radio will be analysed; cultural ‘traditions’ of retaliation and revenge will be considered. And the role of mercy, forgiveness and pardon will be assessed.

Papers will be consider the following indicative themes:

~ philosophies of revenge

~ vengeance in history, literature, and popular culture

~ revenge cross-culturally

~ is there any proper and improper time for revenge? Can an act of revenge be carried across generations?

~ revenge, vengeance, retaliation: to avenge

~ justice and revenge; redressing the balance, just deserts

~ betrayal, humiliation, shame, resentment and revenge

~ revenge and the individual; revenge and the group; revenge and the nation

~ revenge in music and the arts

~ revenge in television, film, radio and theatre

~ relationship between revenge and mercy, forgiveness, pardon

~ revenge case-studies: individual, cultural, and historical

Papers on any other topic related to the theme will also be considered.

The Steering Group particularly welcomes the submission of pre-formed panel proposals. Papers will also be considered on any related theme.

300 word abstracts should be submitted by Friday 13th January 2012. If an abstract is accepted for the conference, a full draft paper should be submitted by Friday 11th May 2011. Abstracts should be submitted simultaneously to both Organising Chairs; abstracts may be in Word, WordPerfect, or RTF formats with the following information and in this order:

a) author(s), b) affiliation, c) email address, d) title of abstract, e) body of abstract, f) up to 10 key words

E-mails should be entitled: REV3 Abstract Submission.

Please use plain text (Times Roman 12) and abstain from using footnotes and any special formatting, characters or emphasis (such as bold, italics or underline). Please note that a Book of Abstracts is planned for the end of the year. All accepted abstracts will be included in this publication. We acknowledge receipt and answer to all paper proposals submitted. If you do not receive a reply from us in a week you should assume we did not receive your proposal; it might be lost in cyberspace! We suggest, then, to look for an alternative electronic route or resend.

Joint Organising Chairs:

Charles W. Nuckolls
Department of Anthropology,
Brigham Young University,
USA

Rob Fisher
Network Founder and Leader
Inter-Disciplinary.Net
Freeland, Oxfordshire,
United Kingdom

The conference is part of the Probing the Boundaries programme of research projects. It aims to bring together people from different areas and interests to share ideas and explore various discussions which are innovative and exciting.

All papers accepted for and presented at this conference will be eligible for publication in an ISBN eBook. Selected papers maybe invited for development for publication in a themed hard copy volume(s)

For further details of the project, please click here.

For further details of the conference, please click here.

Please note: Inter-Disciplinary.Net is a not-for-profit network and we are not in a position to be able to assist with conference travel or subsistence.

CFP: Thinking Though Time and History in Feminism Colloquium

Birkbeck, University of London, 23 March 2012

Keynote Speakers:
Rebecca Coleman (Sociology, Lancaster University) & Lynne Segal (Psychosocial Studies, Birkbeck)

There has been an emergent call within the field of gender and feminist studies to consider themes that might be broadly situated under the umbrella term of “temporality”. Nostalgic and apocalyptic narratives of feminism abound in both popular culture and academic writing, with feminism’s death or out-datedness being the dominant narrative. Countering these narratives is crucially about unravelling the logic that makes them viable as well as interrupting their production. Explorations of alternative narratives have productively emerged from work in the field of collective and personal memory, new technologies as they impact feminist organizing, and creative activism and archival practices. There is a continued political need to explore alternative mechanisms of telling feminist time, alternative relationships to be forged with the recent and historical past and alternative means for considering how feminism might forge a future for itself both in and out of the academy.

This colloquium aims to provide the opportunity for an interdisciplinary, creative and exploratory approach to time and history in feminism. We welcome contributions from academics, artist and activists working in the area. Contributions could include but are not limited to, paper presentations, digital media, photography, film, poetry and performance.

Contributions could consider, but are by no means limited to, some of the following questions:

- How does the personal, social and collective memory of the feminist past create, sustain, or challenge feminism in the present?
- How might we forge relationships between temporal periods that resist generational affects of duty or shame?
- How might remembering and forgetting occur not only within the spaces of activism and the institution, but also between them?
- How can we think critically about how, for example, citing, course building, and curating are practices of remembering and forgetting?
- How might feminist activists, artists and theorists respond to the narratives of ‘the death of feminism’ or the ‘post-feminist’ era?
- How does time, and the various ways we think of it, both enable and constrain politics?
- Is the time of activism the same as the time of the institution?
- What are the theoretical and methodological challenges of working within feminist archives?
- How can we account for the multiple and diverse voices that comprise ‘feminism’ and the relationships between these voices? How can the use of creative methodologies enable the exploration of these issues?

Please submit a 200 word abstract by 25 November 2011 to Carly Guest and Sam McBean. If you have any questions, please contact us.

CFP: Fifty Years of A Clockwork Orange

28 June - 1 July 2012
Manchester, United Kingdom

WITTY : FUNNY : SATIRIC : MUSICAL : EXCITING : BIZARRE : POLITICAL : THRILLING : FRIGHTENING : METAPHORICAL : COMIC : SARDONIC : BEETHOVEN

To mark the fiftieth anniversary of Anthony Burgess’s A Clockwork Orange (1962), the International Anthony Burgess Foundation is organising a multi-disciplinary conference to examine its profound and enduring impact on literature, film, music, theatre and society.

The conference will assess the history and reception of A Clockwork Orange in all its manifestations. Papers of 20-30 minutes in length are invited on any aspect of A Clockwork Orange and its legacy. Possible topics might include the linguistic and/or musical aspects of Burgess’s novel; invented languages; the film versions directed by Andy Warhol and Stanley Kubrick; the stage adaptations by John Godber, Anthony Burgess and Ron Daniels; translations into other languages and media; the history of book design; the political and Cold War contexts of the book and films; and the continuing influence of Burgess’s text on popular music, fashion, or other aspects of youth culture and counter-culture.

The conference will be supported by, a new Burgess/Kubrick exhibition at the John Rylands Library (in collaboration with the Stanley Kubrick Archive), a film season at the Cornerhouse cinema, new commissions of contemporary classical music, and more.

If you would like to submit a paper, please send an abstract of 200-300 words to the International Anthony Burgess Foundation.

CFP: Identity and Image

18th Annual Postgraduate Medieval Studies Conference

24th‐25th February, 2012

Centre for Medieval Studies, University of Bristol, UK

The University of Bristol hosts the longest‐running international medieval postgraduate conference in the UK. This annual event offers medievalists the opportunity to present their research and discuss ideas in an interdisciplinary setting. The conference is now in its 18th year, and proposals are invited for papers from postgraduates and early career scholars on the theme of Identity and Image.

The aim of this year’s conference is to explore how identity was formed, expressed and understood in the Middle Ages. We are interested in the way individuals and groups constructed images of themselves and others, and how identity was affected by religious, racial, political and other social factors on an international, national or local scale. The theme ‘Identity and Image’ invites consideration of how, and if, we can interpret medieval notions of identity from the textual, visual, musical and material sources that have survived to the present day. We welcome a wide range of discussion from issues of religious and artistic patronage, devotional practice, language choice and material culture to considerations of how the self or the other is presented in literary and visual culture.

Topics may include but are not limited to:
- Religious identities
- National identity
- Linguistic choice or identity
- Autobiography and biography
- Representation of outsiders
- Artistic and religious patronage
- Architecture
- Material culture
- Images of the self and others

Papers must be no more than 20 minutes long

Abstracts of 250‐300 words should be sent by email (by preference) to:
Hannah Walters or to Hannah Walters, Centre for Medieval Studies, University of Bristol, Graduate School of Arts and Humanities, 7 Woodland Road, Bristol BS8 1TB, UK

Deadline for receipt of abstracts: 10th December, 2012

Registration deadline: 21st January, 2012

For further information please visit our website.

Bursaries may be available for travel.

Review: Doctor Fantastique's Show of Wonders, Issue 1 (July 2011)

Doctor Fantastique's Show of Wonders is a new steampunk magazine, available in digital and print formats. Aimed at steampunk enthusiasts of all types, the magazine includes articles, reviews, new fiction and advertisements.

Issue One (now available here) contains reviews of Nickel Children, a film by Kevin Eslinger, and Alison DeLuca's The Night Watchman Express. I was particularly pleased to see Ren Cummins' review of Nickel Children, as I saw this short film at last year's Bram Stoker Film Festival and was pleased to see that Eslinger's work is continuing to get the attention it deserves. Cummins' review includes a brief interview with Eslinger, in which they discuss the genesis of the film and the reasons why the filmmaker chose to work within the steampunk/Weird West genre.

The articles included in this first issue of the magazine cover a number of steampunk-related topics. Adam Heine offers advice to writers on creating believable slang, and Sophie Playle offers a guide to airships. As steampunk is often criticized for its obsession with empire, colonial life and Victorian England, it is refreshing to also see articles on writing multi-cultural steampunk worlds (by Alison DeLuca) and recent offerings from an Italian publisher (by Lorenzo Davia). Davia's article was particularly interesting for its insights into Italian history, which explored the ways in which steampunk might have specific resonances with the Italian cultural psyche.

On the whole, the article content of the magazine is more geared towards the steampunk writer, rather than 'lifestyle steampunks', though I'm sure there is a crossover between the two. The inclusion of short fiction in the second half of the magazine suggests that this is more of a magazine for readers and writers than self-styled steampunks. It will be interesting to see how this balance pans out in future issues.

As noted, the magazine contains four pieces of new fiction. Two of these - Steamsteel (by Walter Shumate) and Calliope Strange's Aeryn Daring and the Scientific Detective - are the first installments of serialized novels. I felt that this was a nice touch, as serial fiction was such a staple of the Victorian literary diet, and the inclusion of these stories was a nod to the culture that inspires so many steampunks and steampunk writers. The other pieces included in Issue One are the first chapter of Alison DeLuca's The Night Watchman Express and a standalone short story, 'The Hand of Fate' (by Prof. Cayne Armand). Of the writing offered, I would say that I prefered Armand's short story; however, this is personal taste and other readers might feel differently.

If I have one criticism of this first issue of Doctor Fantastique's Show of Wonders, it would be that it is not quite varied enough in its content. This is not a reflection of the scope of the magazine, but rather its infancy as a print publication. For instance, the question of airships is a constant companion throughout this issue: not only do we have Playle's article, but three of the four pieces of fiction feature airships of some sort or another. While airships are fairly ubiquitous in steampunk fiction, they are becoming something of a cliche, and I would like to see the magazine address this in future issues. I hope, though, that as the magazine expands its 'reporter' base, and attracts submissions from the wider steampunk world, we will see less reliance on the genre standards and more innovation of ideas.

Overall, I recommend Doctor Fantastique's Show of Wonders for anyone interested in steampunk fiction and film. It's an enjoyable, informative read and well put-together. I'm looking forward to seeing future issues.

For information about subscriptions to Doctor Fantastique's Show of Wonders, please click here.

CFP: Kings and Queens: Politics, Power, Patronage and Personalities in Medieval and Early Modern Monarchy

To be held at Corsham Court in conjunction with Bath Spa University on April 19th & 20th, 2012

The institution of Monarchy was absolutely central to the political developments and events of the medieval and Early Modern world. This conference aims to celebrate monarchy in all of its various aspects, from examining the institution itself to assessing the impact of particular monarchs in their own realms and beyond. Historic Corsham Court, located just outside of Bath, is a beautiful and appropriate setting for this conference, with its origins as a summer palace for the Kings of Wessex.

We welcome papers and/or panels on any theme which connects to monarchs or monarchy in any way including (but not limited to):

Kingship/queenship/rulership
The relationship between monarchs and consorts
The relationship between monarchs and their subjects
The involvement of monarchs in politics, religion and war
The patronage and representation of monarchs
The monarch and their court

We encourage a multi-disciplinary approach including papers which draw on gender studies, art, military, political and/or cultural history. Graduate students and early career researchers are particularly invited to submit a proposal. We hope to produce a published volume of the papers generated by the conference.

Please submit a proposal of approximately 250 words for a paper OR a panel of three papers to the organizers by October 31, 2011.

CFP: 4th Global Conference: Evil, Women and the Feminine

Sunday 6th May – Tuesday 8th May 2012

Prague, Czech Republic

Call for Papers:

This inter-disciplinary conference seeks to examine issues surrounding the conjunction between evil and the feminine. In many cultures women have been long suspected as the source of sundry human miseries, however basic to society they may be. At the same time as ideals of purity and dedication to family have been exalted and feminine beauty lauded, women have been viewed as embodying sinister forces of evil. Mistrusted as seductive and beguiling, women are also often thought of as vengeful, manipulative and even malevolent. In grappling with our understanding of what it is to be ‘evil’, the project aims to shine a spotlight on this dark area of the human condition and explore the possible sources of the fear and resentment of women.

Papers, reports, work-in-progress and workshops are invited on issues related to the following themes:

~ Evil Women and Feminine Evil
~ Representing and Misrepresenting the Female
~ Motherhood; Monstrous Motherhood
~ Monstrous Births and Infanticide
~ Matriarchy / Matricide
~ Devious Sexuality and Feminine Perversions
~ Women and the Abject
~ Menstruation, Castration
~ Fears and Myths: Feminine Blood
~ Anthropological Perspectives
~ Historical Perspectives
~ The Evil Woman in Literature
~ Psychoanalytic perspectives: “Vagina Dentata” etc
~ Sexualizing the Female or Evil Objectification
~ Jezebel, Delilah, Lilith, Harpies and the Femme Fatale
~ The Bitch
~ Women and Power
~ Beauty as threatening or evil
~ Portrayals of Evil Women
~ Fantasy
~ Mythology
~ Vampires, Witches and Sirens
~ Case Studies

The Steering Group particularly welcomes the submission of pre-formed panel proposals. Papers will also be considered on any related theme. 300 word abstracts should be submitted by Friday 4th November 2011 If an abstract is accepted for the conference, a full draft paper should be submitted by Friday 9th March 2012.

300 word abstracts should be submitted simultaneously to both Organising Chairs; abstracts may be in Word, WordPerfect, or RTF formats with the following information and in this order:

a) author(s), b) affiliation, c) email address, d) title of abstract, e) body of abstract, f) up to 10 keywords.

E-mails should be entitled: EWF4 Abstract Submission.

Please use plain text (Times Roman 12) and abstain from using footnotes and any special formatting, characters or emphasis (such as bold, italics or underline). Please note that a Book of Abstracts is planned for the end of the year. All accepted abstracts will be included in this publication. We acknowledge receipt and answer to all paper proposals submitted. If you do not receive a reply from us in a week you should assume we did not receive your proposal; it might be lost in cyberspace! We suggest, then, to look for an alternative electronic route or resend.

Organising Chairs:

Natalia Kaloh Vid
University of Maribor, Slovenia

Stephen Morris
Hub Leader, Independent Scholar, New York USA

Rob Fisher
Network Founder and Leader,Inter-Disciplinary.Net,Freeland,
Oxfordshire, United Kingdom

The conference is part of the At the Interface programme of research projects. It aims to bring together people from different areas and interests to share ideas and explore various discussions which are innovative and exciting. All papers accepted for and presented at the conference will be eligible for publication in an ISBN eBook. Selected papers may be developed for publication in a themed hard copy volume(s).

For further details of the project, please click here.

For further details of the conference, please click here.

Please note: Inter-Disciplinary.Net is a not-for-profit network and we are not in a position to be able to assist with conference travel or subsistence.

CFP: 10th Global Conference: Violence

Sunday 13th May – Tuesday 15th May 2012

Prague, Czech Republic

Call for Papers:

This conference is one of a continuing series that aims to bring together people from a wide range of disciplines to focus on Violence. Our intention is to contribute to the body of thought which seeks to understand the nature and causes of this endemic feature of society. Such a complex phenomenon has many faces, a multitude of contexts (real or imagined), and many possible explanations in relation to causation and to the role Violence has played and still plays in societies all over the world and at every stage of development. Perpetrators may be states, political or religious factions within states, military groups, state or private institutions, communities, gangs, families or individuals. The range of possible victims is equally diverse and possible explanations range across historical, cultural, political, ethical, literary, functional, psychological, criminological, sociological, biological and economic sources. We therefore invite contributions from any and all of these disciplinary areas.

Our inter-disciplinary and multi-disciplinary approach seeks to do justice to the richness of this theme at a conference where fruitful dialogue between and across disciplines is highly valued.

The Steering Group particularly welcomes the submission of pre-formed panel proposals. 300 word abstracts should be submitted by Friday 4th November 2011. If an abstract is accepted for the conference, a full draft paper should be submitted by Friday 9th March 2012.

300 word abstracts should be submitted simultaneously to both Organising Chairs; abstracts may be in Word, WordPerfect, or RTF formats with the following information and in this order:

a) author(s), b) affiliation, c) email address, d) title of abstract, e) body of abstract, f) up to 10 keywords.

E-mails should be entitled: Violence Abstract Submission.

Please use plain text (Times Roman 12) and abstain from using footnotes and any special formatting, characters or emphasis (such as bold, italics or underline). Please note that a Book of Abstracts is planned for the end of the year. All accepted abstracts will be included in this publication. We acknowledge receipt and answer to all paper proposals submitted. If you do not receive a reply from us in a week you should assume we did not receive your proposal; it might be lost in cyberspace! We suggest, then, to look for an alternative electronic route or resend.

Joint Organising Chairs:

Diana Medlicott
Independent Scholar
London, United Kingdom

Rob Fisher
Network Founder and Leader
Inter-Disciplinary.Net
Freeland, Oxfordshire,
United Kingdom

The conference is part of the Probing the Boundaries programme of research projects. It aims to bring together people from different areas and interests to share ideas and explore various discussions which are innovative and exciting.

The first Diversity within Unity was held in Prague in 1999 and focused on the theme of Human Community and Civil Society. The second conference was held in Oxford in 2000 and focused on the theme of Culture, Conflict, and Belonging. Subsequent conferences have met in Prague and Budapest and looked at the general theme of the Cultures of Violence.

Multiple eBooks and volumes of themed papers have been published or are in press from the previous conference meetings of this project. All papers accepted for and presented at the conference will be eligible for publication in an ISBN eBook. Selected papers may be developed for publication in a themed hard copy volume.

For further details of the project, please click here.

For further details of the conference, please click here.

Please note: Inter-Disciplinary.Net is a not-for-profit network and we are not in a position to be able to assist with conference travel or subsistence.

CFP: 2nd Global Conference: Femininities & Masculinities

Thursday 3rd May – Saturday 5th May 2012

Prague, Czech Republic

Call for Papers:

Gender studies is an interdisciplinary field of academic study on the issues of gender in its social and cultural contexts. Since its emergence from feminism, gender studies have become one of the most deliberated disciplines. The following project aims at an interdisciplinary exchange of ideas and perspectives on the issues of femininity and masculinity in the 21st century. It invites ground-breaking research on a plethora of topics connected with gender, to propose an interdisciplinary view of the frontiers and to stake out new territories in the study of femininity and masculinity.

Papers, presentations, workshops and pre-formed panels are invited on issues related to any of the following themes:

1. Representations of Femininity and Masculinity

~ Femininity and masculinity in history and the history of gender
~ The representation of gender in culture, art, film, literature
~ The representation of gender in popular culture and media
~ Gender in the relation to politics, law and social studies

2. Gender Borders and Transgressions

~ Performativity of gender
~Female masculinities / male femininities
~ Androgyny
~ Transgender issues
~ The body and its transgressions

3. New Directions in Femininity and Masculinity Studies

~ New perspectives in masculinity and boyhood studies
~ Men in feminism
~ Third wave feminism, womanism
~ Postfeminism, post-feminism and postfemininity
~ Lesbian feminism
~ Eco-feminism
~ Cyberfeminism
~ Individual feminism
~ Feminist disability studies

4. Global and Regional Perspectives on Gender

~ Gender and race
~ Gender and nationality
~ Gender and (post)colonialism
~ Case studies of gender issues in local/regional/national perspectives
~ Global masculinity/ femininity

5. Gender in Relationships

~ Motherhood/fatherhood
~ Gender and family
~ Matriarchy/ patriarchy
~ Sororophobia and matrophobia
~ Misogyny and misandry
~ Female genealogy
~ Gender and maturity

6. Gender in Experience

~ gender in visual and performance arts
~ gender in advertisement
~ gender mainstreaming
~ gender in psychotherapy
~ gender equality education
~ gender in religion
~ gender and NGOs

Papers will also be considered on any related theme. 300 word abstracts should be submitted by Friday 4th November 2011. If an abstract is accepted for the conference, a full draft paper should be submitted by Friday 9th March 2012.

300 word abstracts should be submitted simultaneously to both Organising Chairs; abstracts may be in Word, WordPerfect, or RTF formats with the following information and in this order:

a) author(s), b) affiliation, c) email address, d) title of abstract, e) body of abstract, f) up to 10 key words

E-mails should be entitled: FM Abstract Submission.

Please use plain text (Times Roman 12) and abstain from using footnotes and any special formatting, characters or emphasis (such as bold, italics or underline). Please note that a Book of Abstracts is planned for the end of the year. All accepted abstracts will be included in this publication. We acknowledge receipt and answer to all paper proposals submitted. If you do not receive a reply from us in a week you should assume we did not receive your proposal; it might be lost in cyberspace! We suggest, then, to look for an alternative electronic route or resend.

Organising Chairs:

Barbara Braid
English Department,
University of Szczecin,
Szczecin, Poland

Rob Fisher
Network Founder and Network Leader,
Inter-Disciplinary.Net, Oxfordshire, United Kingdom.

The conference is part of the At the Interface programme of research projects. It aims to bring together people from different areas and interests to share ideas and explore various discussions which are innovative and exciting. All papers accepted for and presented at the conference will be eligible for publication in an ISBN eBook. Selected papers may be developed for publication in a themed hard copy volume(s).

For further details of the project, please click here.

For further details of the conference, please click here.

Please note: Inter-Disciplinary.Net is a not-for-profit network and we are not in a position to be able to assist with conference travel or subsistence.

CFP: Sensualising Deformity: Communication and Construction of Monstrous Embodiment

The University of Edinburgh

June 15-16, 2012

Confirmed Plenary Speakers:

Prof. Jeffrey Jerome Cohen
George Washington University

Dr. Peter Hutchings
Northumbria University

“Although he was already repellent enough, there arose from the fungous skin-growth with which he was almost covered a very sickening stench which was hard to tolerate... with the use of the [daily] bath the unpleasant odour... ceased to be noticeable”
~ Sir Frederick Treves

The prominent surgeon Frederic Treves’s description of Joseph Merrick, the Elephant Man, exposes a body which is simultaneously an assault on the senses and one which has traditionally been de-sensualised. Deformity is sanitised and fitted into a structure of normality. The academy tends to obscure the complexity of the sensuous/sensual/sensed body of the deformed subject, and of the questions, anxieties, and denials which surround deformity when it is located within a continuum of sense.

From freak exhibitions and fairs, medical examinations and discoveries to various portrayals in arts and literature, images of deformity (or monstrosity, used separately or interchangeably depending on context) have captivated us for centuries. The result is a significant body of critical and artistic works where these bodies are dissected, politicized, exhibited, objectified or even beatified. Nonetheless, there remains a gap, an unexplored, unspoken or neglected aspect of this complex field of study which needs further consideration. This two-day interdisciplinary conference aims to bring the senses and the sensuous back to the monstrous or deformed body from the early modern period through to the mid-twentieth century, and seeks to explore its implications in diverse academic fields.

We hope to bring together scholars and students from a wide range of disciplines to engage in a constructive dialogue, network, and exchange ideas and experiences, connecting a community of researchers who share a fascination with deformity, monstrosity, and freakery.

Possible topics may include (but are not limited to):

● Spectacle/fetishisation of monstrosity and deformity; monstrous sexuality/eroticisation
● The monster as a catalyst of progression/ historical perspectives
● Monstrous symbolism, prodigality, or beatification
● The racialised body; exoticising difference
● Monstrosity in medical literature; disability narratives
● Monstrous becoming; the ‘sensed’ body
● Deformed aesthetics; monstrosity in the visual arts
● (De) gendering the deformed body; humanisation vs objectification

We welcome proposals for 20-minute presentations from established scholars, postdoctoral researchers and postgraduate students from various teratological backgrounds, e.g. in literature, history, media and art studies, philosophy, religious studies, history of science,medical humanities, and critical and cultural theory. Proposals should be no more than 300 words, in .doc format, and should include a brief 50-word biography.

Please submit your abstracts no later than 31 January 2012 to the conference organisers:

Dr. Karin Sellberg (The University of Edinburgh)
Ally Crockford (The University of Edinburgh)
Maja Milatovic (The University of Edinburgh)

CFP: 1st Global Conference: Storytelling: Global Reflections on Narrative

Sunday 13th May – Tuesday 15th May 2012

Prague, Czech Republic

Call for Papers:

Human life is conducted through story, which comes naturally to us. Sharing stories is arguably the most important way we have of communicating with others about who we are and what we believe; about what we are doing and have done; about our hopes and fears; about what we value and what we don’t. We learn about and make sense of our lives by telling the stories that we live; and we learn about other lives by listening to the stories told by others. Sometimes, under the influence of the culture in which we are immersed, we live our lives in ways that try to create the stories we want to be able to tell about them.

Members of many professions, including medicine, nursing, teaching, the law, psychotherapy and counseling, spend a great deal of their time listening to and communicating through stories. Story is a powerful tool for teachers, because it is a good way of enabling students and other learners to integrate what they are learning with what they already know, and of placing what is learned in a context that makes it easy to recall. Story plays an important role in academic disciplines like philosophy, theology, anthropology, archaeology, history as well as literature Narrative methods for the collection of data are increasingly used in research in the social sciences and humanities, where the value of getting to know people in a more intimate and less distant way – almost as if we are getting to know them from the inside, begins to be viewed as having some value. Some academics have begun to realise the value of storytelling as a model for academic writing.

Most of us have lots of experience of relating to other lives through narrative forms, including the nursery stories we encounter as children; the books we read and the movies we watch. When we are moved by a play or a film or by a novel, we are moved because we begin imaginatively to live the lives of the characters that inhabit them. If we are lucky we will encounter as we grow up, fictional stories that stay with us like old friends, throughout our lives that we will revisit again and again as a way coming to terms with and responding to experiences in our own lives.

Storytelling: global reflections on narrative, will provide a space in which stories about story can be told, and in which the use of stories in the widest possible range of aspects of human life, can be reported. Abstracts are invited for individual contributions and for symposia of three closely related papers. They may address any aspect of story or narrative, including, for example:

* Story as a pedagogical tool in academic disciplines such as history; anthropology, psychology, theology, cultural theory, medicine, law, philosophy, education, and archaeology.

* Narrative and the gathering of stories of lived experience, as a research approach in any area of academic, professional and public life.

* The place of story and storytelling in the practice of journalism; PR advertising; conflict resolution; architecture; religion; tourism, politics and the law, and in clinical contexts such as medicine, psychotherapy, nursing and counselling.

* Finally abstracts may feature storytelling in any aspect of culture, including music (from opera to heavy metal, folk and sacred music); fine art; theatre; literature; cinema and digital
storytelling.

Alongside traditional conference papers, participants are invited to propose presentations of other kinds including, for example, theatrical performance or song, or workshops aimed at engaging participants in active learning about story and its possibilities.

The Steering Group particularly welcomes the submission of pre-formed panel proposals. Papers will also be considered on any related theme.

300 word abstracts should be submitted by Friday 4th November 2011. If an abstract is accepted for the conference, a full draft paper should be submitted by Friday 9th March 2012. Abstracts should be submitted simultaneously to both Organising Chairs; abstracts may be in Word, WordPerfect, or RTF formats with the following information and in this order:

a) author(s), b) affiliation, c) email address, d) title of abstract, e) body of abstract, f) up to 10 keywords.

E-mails should be entitled: STORY Abstract Submission.

Please use plain text (Times Roman 12) and abstain from using footnotes and any special formatting, characters or emphasis (such as bold, italics or underline). Please note that a Book of Abstracts is planned for the end of the year. All accepted abstracts will be included in this publication. We acknowledge receipt and answer to all paper proposals submitted. If you do not receive a reply from us in a week you should assume we did not receive your proposal; it might be lost in cyberspace! We suggest, then, to look for an alternative electronic route or resend.

Organising Chairs

Gavin J Fairbairn
Professor of Ethics and Language
Leeds Metropolitan University
Leeds
United Kingdom

Rob Fisher
Inter-Disciplinary.Net
Priory House, Wroslyn Road
Freeland, Oxfordshire OX29 8HR

The conference is part of the Persons series of ongoing research and publications projects conferences, run within the Probing the Boundaries domain which aims to bring together people from different areas and interests to share ideas and explore innovative and challenging routes of intellectual and academic exploration.

All papers accepted for and presented at the conference will be eligible for publication in an ISBN eBook. Selected papers may be developed for publication in a themed hard copy volume.

For further details of the project, please click here.

For further details of the conference, please click here.

Please note: Inter-Disciplinary.Net is a not-for-profit network and we are not in a position to be able to assist with conference travel or subsistence.

A Journey Through Wonderland: Alice in Multi-Media

An exhibition of books, pictures, videos and more

The Portico Library, Manchester M2 3HY
7th October - 30th November 2011
Preview on Thursday 6th October

Lewis Carroll created, in Alice, one of the most enduring and endearing characters in literature. An escape from boredom plunges this easily distracted child into a surreal and fantastical Wonderland at once exciting and frightening as she meets, along the way, such whimsical, yet sinister, characters as the White Rabbit, the Mad Hatter and the Duchess. Carroll had already imagined their appearance and John Tenniel, already an established illustrator, was given clear instructions on their depiction for the first edition of Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland followed by her return to a dream-land in Through the Looking Glass.

Since its first publication in 1867 Alice has continued to inspire illustration, theatre, films, cartoons, toys and more. Walt Disney, Salvador Dali, Jonathan Miller are just three of the innumerable people who got the Alice bug and were inspired to produce their interpretation of one of the most fascinating and mind-boggling children’s stories ever.

This exhibition, curated by Emma Marigliano and Lynne Allan, for The Portico Library, seeks to capture some of the magic of the tale through a range of books, comics, pop-ups, artworks, film and other media along with a programme of events throughout October and November.

• The exhibition will launch at the preview on 6th October and will be opened by none other than Vanessa St Clair, great-granddaughter of Alice Liddell, the real little girl who was Carroll’s inspiration for his made-up Alice

• Leah Moore and John Reppion will delight graphic novel fans with a talk on their production of The Complete Alice on 12th of October

• From Hat Works Hat Museum, Stockport, Howard Green, will reveal the reason behind the Mad-Hatter’s insanity in his talk, Top Hats and Mercury on 25th October
This event is part of Manchester Science Festival; a programme of over 150 events, shows, debates, installations and more across Greater Manchester from 22 – 30 October 2011.

• Disney fans will be enchanted with Robin Allan’s talk, on 12th November, about Europe’s influence on Walt Disney

• Alan Shelston will talk about the grotesque in the Alice illustrations near the end of the exhibition on 29th November.

• In between there will be film/video showings, children’s activities and more. Look out for the full programme on our website and our Portico Quarterly newsletter.

All events begin at 6.30 and cost £7 per person, including wine and nibbles and may be booked by email, telephone or post.

Alice has been enjoying attention throughout the year in exhibitions and performances in the UK. The Portico will be linking in to some of those that will be taking place in the North West.

• Tate Liverpool launches a major exhibition of Alice with Lewis Carroll manuscripts and drawings as well as paintings and drawings from well-known artists and illustrators - from 4th November to 4th January

• A one-day inter-disciplinary conference - Further Adventures in Wonderland; the Afterlife of Alice - will be held at the International Anthony Burgess Foundation, Manchester, on 1st December. The conference is organised by Dr Hannah Priest, founder of Hic Dragones, a creative writing and literature organisation based in Manchester.

We are most grateful for permission to use illustrations for publicity and promotion and for loans of books and artworks to the exhibition from the following (placed in no particular order):

Bryan Talbot, Manchester Metropolitan University Library Special Collections, Leah Moore and John Reppion, David Blamires, Walker Books for Anthony Browne’s illustrations, Rodney Matthews for his illustrations, Chris Beetles Gallery, Bryan Haworth, Robin Allan, Viv Doyle and the two curators Lynne Allan and Emma Marigliano

We are also grateful for the support of (in no particular order):

The Lewis Carroll Society, Vanessa St Clair, Manchester Science Festival, Manchester Children’s Book Festival, The Portico Library Trust, Dr Hannah Priest

For further information please contact Emma Marigliano, Librarian, telephone 0161-236 6785

CFP: 6th Global Conference: Ethics, Evil and the State

Sunday 6th May – Tuesday 8th May 2012

Prague, Czech Republic

Call for Papers:

Ethics, evil and the state is an interdisciplinary project that seeks to interrogate issues surrounding the relationship between the state, the concept of evil and alternative ways of thinking about the state, including challenging the very idea of its existence. The idea of the state is continuously open to question and challenge: what alternatives might be put into practice? What is the relationship of the idea of the state and that of government? Perhaps the idea of linking the concept of evil with the state is problematic, yet the capacity for power to corrupt and the promotion of sovereign self-interest over that of a community is frequently encountered in many forms of government. Does it make sense to speak of the state as a force for evil? Are there better ways of conceiving of social organisation beyond statist conceptions of politics, considering the possibility of its abolition, or a move to regionalisation and localisation? Perspectives are sought from those engaged in any field relevant to the study of political science communication, journalism, critical media, policy, history, legal studies, philosophy, theology, cultural theory, media studies, sociology, peace studies, government, law/legal studies, justice, psychology and other areas. Contributions are also encouraged that look to alternative and experimental ideas concerning the state, in the form of short abstracts for presentations or proposals for action-workshop sessions.

Papers, reports, work-in-progress and workshops are invited on issues relating, but not restricted to the following themes:

- Is the state a necessary construction?
- Is the state necessarily evil? Is the state a power for good?
- The legitimisation of authority.
- The state and elitism.
- The state and policing.
- Is federalism the answer to the dissolution of the nation-state?
- Anarchism as a viable solution.
- Legitimate and illegitimate protest.
- Rioting, looting and banking
- The state and oppression
- Alternative forms of government.
- The ‘Arab Spring’
- Real communities.
- The state and violence.

Papers will also be considered on any related theme. 300 word abstracts should be submitted by Friday 4th November 2011. If an abstract is accepted for the conference, a full draft paper should be submitted by Friday 9th March 2012.

300 word abstracts should be submitted simultaneously to both Organising Chairs; abstracts may be in Word, WordPerfect, or RTF formats with the following information and in this order:

a) author(s), b) affiliation, c) email address, d) title of abstract, e) body of abstract, f) up to 10 keywords.

E-mails should be entitled: Ethical Living Abstract Submission.

Please use plain text (Times Roman 12) and abstain from using footnotes and any special formatting, characters or emphasis (such as bold, italics or underline). Please note that a Book of Abstracts is planned for the end of the year.

All accepted abstracts will be included in this publication. We acknowledge receipt and answer to all paper proposals submitted. If you do not receive a reply from us in a week you should assume we did not receive your proposal; it might be lost in cyberspace! We suggest, then, to look for an alternative electronic route or resend.

Organising Chairs

Niall Scott
International School for Communities Rights and Inclusions,
Philosophy Section
University of Central Lancashire
Preston, United Kingdom

Rob Fisher
Network Founder and Leader
Inter-Disciplinary.Net
Freeland, Oxfordshire,
United Kingdom

The conference is part of the At the Interface programme of research projects. It aims to bring together people from different areas and interests to share ideas and explore various discussions which are innovative and exciting. All papers accepted for and presented at the conference will be eligible for publication in an ISBN eBook. Selected papers may be developed for publication in a themed hard copy volume(s).

For further details of the project, please click here.

For further details of the conference, please click here.

Please note: Inter-Disciplinary.Net is a not-for-profit network and we are not in a position to be able to assist with conference travel or subsistence.