@igagoths.bsky.social
The International Gothic Association is a large family of academic researchers, students, artists and writers with a shared interest in all things Gothic. www.globalgoth.org
#GothicStudies
30.01.2026 19:00 โ ๐ 2 ๐ 1 ๐ฌ 0 ๐ 0On request, the deadline for abstract submissions has been extended to 13 February, so you have two more weeks to get yours in!
hullgothic.wordpress.com/cfp/
Looking forward to speaking at the 'Trans-scriptions: Cultural Codings and the Poetics of the Body' in a couple of weeks. And what a gorgeous poster their team has come up with! #bodyhorror #conference wordpre150.wordpress.com
30.01.2026 10:53 โ ๐ 12 ๐ 3 ๐ฌ 0 ๐ 0
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 โ Walter Scottโs โmalignant and unhappy beingsโ. 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 sรฉance 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 โ 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 โcultural scriptsโ of ghost encounters (from necromancy to poltergeists) - affect and emotions: fear, grief, traumaโฆ 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.
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
Publication day! My special issue on Algernon Blackwood and the Gothic is officially out: www.euppublishing.com/toc/gothic/c...
My heartfelt thanks to all the contributors. So much in here - will cover in future posts. The issue positions B as a major force in C20th British Gothic.
Advert for assistant editor post
Gothic Studies is recruiting! We seek a new assistant editor ๐งโโ๏ธ
27.01.2026 14:45 โ ๐ 10 ๐ 16 ๐ฌ 0 ๐ 0
Planning to attend our conference in July? Donโt forget that you need an active IGA membership!
Members get a monthly newsletter, listing on our interactive Goth Map, subscription to @gothicstudies.bsky.social and more, with prices starting at just ยฃ6!
Join us: www.globalgoth.org/join/
Tomorrowโs the final day to get your abstract in for this yearโs IGA, โGothic Selves/Artificial Othersโ, to be held at the @universityofhull.bsky.social, UK from 28-31 July.
You can find more details at hullgothic.wordpress.com/cfp/
Join @gothicstudies.bsky.social as our new Assistant Editor!
Deadline Monday 9th March.
Annual honorarium of ยฃ200.
More information in attached image, via the @igagoths.bsky.social newsletter or you can message me and I can send you the text if preferred.
Enjoyed chatting #bodyhorror to @radiotimes.bsky.social on the occasion of the release of #TheBeauty. www.radiotimes.com/tv/sci-fi/ne...
26.01.2026 09:34 โ ๐ 7 ๐ 3 ๐ฌ 0 ๐ 0
Just out in the Horror Studies book series! www.uwp.co.uk/book/urban-l... #horror #horrorstudies #newbook #urbanlegends @uniwalespress.bsky.social
23.01.2026 16:02 โ ๐ 19 ๐ 11 ๐ฌ 0 ๐ 1
I'm excited to share that you can now pre-order your copy of this forthcoming intervention in the Gothic. I have a piece on the Windigo in it! @universitypress.cambridge.org @msvuenglish.bsky.social @igagoths.bsky.social
www.cambridge.org/se/universit...
Deadline for abstracts is 30 January 2026
#CallforPapers #CfP #GothicStudies #Gothic
The plenary speakers have just been announced! And a reminder that the CfP for the 18th biennial conference of the International #Gothic Association closes on the 31st of January. hullgothic.wordpress.com @igagoths.bsky.social @gothicstudies.bsky.social
22.01.2026 12:17 โ ๐ 13 ๐ 9 ๐ฌ 0 ๐ 0
The new paperback for Graveyard Gothic is 40% off at
@ManchesterUP
until 31 January. #gothic #gothicstudies #newbook manchesteruniversitypress.co.uk/gothic-studi...
Discover new paperback editions of some of our bestselling #GothicStudies books, and save *40%* in the BIG January Sale!
Don't miss out! Shop now manchesteruniversitypress.co.uk/gothic-studi...
#Gothic #GothicLiterature #GothicCinema #FilmStudies @mlhouston.bsky.social
@igagoths.bsky.social
Abstracts due in 10 days! Reposting partially to remind myself!
20.01.2026 22:05 โ ๐ 13 ๐ 5 ๐ฌ 0 ๐ 0
There are two weeks to get your abstracts in for the International Gothic Association's 18th Biennial Conference at Hull! 28th-31st July 2026 ๐ฆ hullgothic.wordpress.com/cfp/
16.01.2026 14:41 โ ๐ 5 ๐ 4 ๐ฌ 1 ๐ 0
9 years ago we lost Mark Fisher, whose work offers perhaps the best diagnosis of the situation we find ourselves in.
In his memory, we've tasked authors with using Fisher's ideas as a jumping off point for all-new horror fictions.
๐THE MONSTER, CAPITAL (Feb 26)
commapress.co.uk/books/monste...
The deadline for applications to the role of Secretary to The Allan Lloyd Smith and Justin D. Edwards Memorial Book Prizes has been extended to 19 January!
The successful applicant will receive a fee of ยฃ300.
More information and application details: www.globalgoth.org/blog/applica...
*TEN PLACES LEFT* Join me for this six-workshop online Ghost Story Writing Course, starting this January. Beginners and experienced writers alike will explore this thrilling, chilling genre and pen their own ghostly tales. Find out more...
ghoststorycourse.eventbrite.co.uk
www.globalgoth.org/blog/iga-boo... @igagoths.bsky.social
16.12.2025 11:22 โ ๐ 5 ๐ 1 ๐ฌ 0 ๐ 0Woohoo! ๐
09.10.2025 12:55 โ ๐ 2 ๐ 1 ๐ฌ 0 ๐ 0
Final CFP reminder (deadline November 30)!
PETER STRAUB: NEW CRITICAL PERSPECTIVES.
Seeking proposals (up to 500 words) on Straub's novels, stories, poetry, and essays.
More info: mikethornwrites.com/2025/11/17/p...
@igagoths.bsky.social @horrorstudies.bsky.social @scmshorrorsig.bsky.social
Excited to finally be able to share my book with the world!
Gothic Celebrity: Fame and Immortality from Lord Byron to Lady Gaga ๐โญ๏ธ
The book explores the relationship between celebrity culture and the Gothic in literature, media and popular culture.
www.bloomsbury.com/uk/gothic-ce...
Proof image of the front and back covers of Volume 27 Issue 3 of Gothic Studies Journal. The back cover lists the contents.
The cover of my upcoming special issue of @gothicstudies.bsky.social - 'Algernon Blackwood and the Gothic' - is here! Eight essays on Blackwood's fiction, delving into questions of genre, war, empathy, occultism, and much more. Full issue out soon! @edinburghup.bsky.social @igagoths.bsky.social
14.10.2025 06:56 โ ๐ 27 ๐ 11 ๐ฌ 1 ๐ 0All #Gothic researchers, check out this call for papers ๐ #CFP
02.10.2025 17:52 โ ๐ 7 ๐ 3 ๐ฌ 0 ๐ 0Wo hoo the IGA is in Yorkshire this year and there's rumoured to be a trip to Whitby. Count us in!
19.09.2025 16:13 โ ๐ 2 ๐ 1 ๐ฌ 0 ๐ 0Great theme for this, and the conference is in Yorkshire this year and includes a day trip to Whitby. What's not to like! Gothtastic. Count me in!
19.09.2025 08:46 โ ๐ 13 ๐ 1 ๐ฌ 0 ๐ 0
The next IGA conference will be at the University of Hull, England on 28-31 July 2026!
You can find the CFP and more information at hullgothic.wordpress.com
