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Gothic Studies

@gothicstudies.bsky.social

The academic journal of the International Gothic Association (www.globalgoth.org), published by Edinburgh University Press and edited by Emily Alder and Jamil Mustafa. Email gothiceditors@gmail.com

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Kristof Smeyers@kristofsmeyers.bsky.social · 6mo ago

Hi everyone, I'm organising a conference in Leuven, 4-5 June, and you're all invited*! It's called 'Performing evil: the mediation and display of diabolic spectres 1700-2000' and here is the call for papers (get in touch if you'd like a pdf!). Please share widely! *to submit an abstract before 21/3

CALL FOR PAPERS: PERFORMING EVIL: the mediation and display of diabolic spectres, 1700-2000'. 4 & 5 June 2026, Leuven. This conference explores the tangled histories of supernatural, diabolic evil and all kinds of spectral apparitions in the last three centuries – Walter Scott’s ‘malignant and unhappy beings’. Specifically, it is interested in how and why ghosts, spirits and related apparitional phenomena were framed as diabolic, demonic or malign manifestations from the afterlife. Diabolic connotations of ghosts and spirits did meaningful cultural work. They were mobilised to discredit ghost beliefs and spiritual practices, to delegitimise competing beliefs, or to invest doctrinal arguments with occult authority. They could also function as tools of scepticism and ridicule as well as triggers of wonder, fear and religiosity. Put differently, the nexus of ghosts and evil is deeply historical. And it was often articulated through performative means: in gestures and expressions of (dis)belief, in visual and textual representations, in séance rooms, on the stage and on the page. Emerging from this nexus are theatrical spirits of evil, staged, embodied, and made legible through mediation and display. In this sense, every ghost is a theatrical ghost. Through the focus on the construction and staging of diabolic spirits, this conference aims to develop a methodological framework for studying historical forms of occultism and demonology more broadly in terms of performance.Exploring how the relationship of spectrality and evil has shifted in shape over time and across different cultures, the conference invites contributions that can consider a wide range of historical actors – clerics, mediums, ghost-hunters, debunkers, necromancers, stage performers, eyewitnesses. This conference aims to study cultural intersections and interactions to arrive at a more granular understanding of discursive, practical and material connections between spirits and evil. At the same time this lens zooms out, making visible broader dynamics of knowledge construction in specific historical moments. How, for instance, did hauntings and possessions shape communities and audiences? How did religious or folkloric ideas about the devil inform spectral encounters? We hope to bring together historians, art historians, theatre and literary scholars, folklorists and anthropologists from every stage in their career around the above questions. We welcome 20-minute papers on topics that include but are by no means limited to: - making spectral evil visible: performance, arts, media, technologies, popular cultures - making spectral evil invisible: popular and occult knowledge circulation - performing (un)belief: practices and rhetoric, summoning and debunking on the stage (from popular stages to the lecture hall and the laboratory) - materiality of spectres: the function of bodies and objects - diabolic spirits and (intellectual, vernacular, theological, folkloric) ideas about morality, mortality and temporality - occult performance and ‘cultural scripts’ of ghost encounters (from necromancy to poltergeists) - affect and emotions: fear, grief, trauma… and hope Send abstracts (c.250 words) and bios (c.100 words) to kristof.smeyers@kuleuven.be before 21 March 2026. Please do get in touch if you have any questions.
Dr Jen Baker@jendeavour.bsky.social · 2y ago

Pssssst! 🦇💀👻😈🧟‍♀️🧛‍♂️🎃 The @gothicstudies.bsky.social / International Gothic Association Early-Career Essay Prize 2024-25 is open to submissions! Deadline is 1st March 2025 More details at 👇👇👇 www.globalgoth.org/blog/the-int...

The International Gothic Association Early-Career Essay Prize 2024-25 - Gothic Association

The essay competition is open to postgraduate students or postdoctoral scholars who are currently in good standing as IGA members. A postgraduate may be a current or recent Masters’ student (within tw...

globalgoth.org

Dr Sam Hirst@romgothsam.bsky.social · 2y ago

Where can you get Tudor Gothic, Women's apocalyptic writing, monster-f**king, deadly dance, folklore and landscape, doppelgangers, horror theatre, grave-diggers, horror-making on a budget, Poe and Mesmerism, Gothic tourism and more all in one place? romancingthegothic.com/2025/01/20/g...

Goths for Breakfast 2025

Romancing the Gothic is running an online charity event to support Magic Breakfast, which provides school breakfasts for children who need them. The event is a day of online classes and workshops w…

romancingthegothic.com

Jimmy Packham@jfpackham.bsky.social · 2y ago

Please share, as Haunted Shores hasn’t quite made it to the new place yet! The next Haunted Shores online seminar with Dr Isabelle Gapp — on reindeer, Sámi herders, & shipboard transportation in Canada — on Thursday 5 December, 3pm (UK). Info/registration here! haunted-shores.com/2024/11/26/h...

Haunted Shores online seminar: Dr Isabelle Gapp, 5 December 2024

Haunted Shores online seminar series 3pm (UK time) 5 December 2024 Online (Zoom): link to be circulated ahead of seminar to registered attendees. We are delighted to invite you to the Haunted Shore…

haunted-shores.com

Gothic Studies@gothicstudies.bsky.social · 2y ago

Submissions are open for the IGA early-career essay prize - the deadline is 1 March 2025 and the full details are here: www.globalgoth.org/blog/the-int... Queries to the convenor @jendeavour.bsky.social

The International Gothic Association Early-Career Essay Prize 2024-25 - Gothic Association

The essay competition is open to postgraduate students or postdoctoral scholars who are currently in good standing as IGA members. A postgraduate may be a current or recent Masters’ student (within tw...

globalgoth.org