@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
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 — 👍 16 🔁 9 💬 0 📌 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 – 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.
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
Advert for assistant editor post
Gothic Studies is recruiting! We seek a new assistant editor 🧛♂️
27.01.2026 14:45 — 👍 19 🔁 25 💬 0 📌 0
It's very exciting to say that Coastal Gothic, 1719–2020 has just been published in @universitypress.cambridge.org's Elements in the Gothic series – and it's currently open access and *free* to download until the end of December!
doi.org/10.1017/9781...
www.globalgoth.org/blog/iga-boo... @igagoths.bsky.social
16.12.2025 11:22 — 👍 5 🔁 1 💬 0 📌 0
TOC:
13.11.2025 13:06 — 👍 5 🔁 2 💬 0 📌 0Latest issue of Gothic Studies now out!
13.11.2025 13:12 — 👍 6 🔁 1 💬 0 📌 0
Check out the programme for Unquiet Shores here haunted-shores.com/unquiet-shor... You can join us online or in person. Register by 2 June 🌊👻
25.05.2025 08:09 — 👍 16 🔁 11 💬 0 📌 2
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...
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...
Unquiet Shores CFP is staying open until Mon 17 February 🌊🎶💃
10.02.2025 11:32 — 👍 5 🔁 6 💬 0 📌 0
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...
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
Excited to share a glimpse of our next issue - a special issue on Gothic and Ageing
03.12.2024 14:11 — 👍 15 🔁 3 💬 0 📌 3