*Apologies for cross posting*


*CFP: Don’t Look: Representations of Horror in the 21st Century*

*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 [log in to unmask] 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 [log in to unmask] 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.*





Kind regards,


John Lynskey

PhD Researcher (Film Studies)

School of Literatures, Languages and Cultures

University of Edinburgh




-- 
John Lynskey