Moniquevs

Verschrikkelijk. Het gaat maar door.
Breng Netanyahu naar Den Haag.
Crimineel dekt de lading niet.

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 all, if you are doing research on (d)evil-related histories 🗃️ I have just the thing for you: a conference in Leuven on 4 + 5 June!

Send me your abstracts in the next two weeks:

Flor de hibisco color durazno con centro rojo brillante iluminada por el sol de la mañana entre hojas verdes tropicales. Peach-colored hibiscus flower with a bright red center glowing in morning sunlight among tropical green leaves.

¡Buenas y feliz viernes! 🌱🌴💕
#naturaleza

Definitely one of the cutest owls out there, this Boreal Owl was sitting in a tree keeping an eye out for its next meal (which it did indeed find). NOTE: This video was taken at a distance with a long lens and subsequently cropped, it's important to give wildlife their space! #birds #owls

One of my great joys is taking a day off from work and heading into central London and spending an afternoon in the fantastic bookshops. The anticipation and excitement of finding occult treasures is to be savoured. Watkins, Atlantis, Daunt and Treadwells are my favoured haunts.

De bedstee! 😍

Attirement of the Bride (1940) Max Ernst The Peggy Guggenheim Collection, Venice, Italy

Attirement of the Bride (1940)
Max Ernst
The Peggy Guggenheim Collection, Venice, Italy

YouTube video by Steve Miller Band - Topic I Want To Make The World Turn Around

I Want To Make The World Turn Around · Steve Miller Band

youtu.be/DwYx-nzZwd4?...

YouTube video by Bonzai All Stars Yves Deruyter - The Rebel (Original Radio Edit)

Yves Deruyter - The Rebel

youtu.be/O9tPOCFD5BI?...

YouTube video by djcooky78 Everything But The Girl - Missing live at MTV Most Wanted (1995) HQ @EverythingButTheGirlOfficial

Everything But The Girl - Missing live at MTV Most Wanted (1995)

youtu.be/7OOBn8ilGQQ?...

Tyrants destroy the world because they cannot tolerate anyone having the peace they cannot have in their hearts.

Ludovic Alleaume - Beethoven Listening to Muse

Born #onthisday in 1475, the great Michelangelo. Read about his role in the controversy of the once lost sculpture Laocoön and His Sons, in Monique Webber's essay "Who Says Michelangelo Was Right? Conflicting Visions of the Past in Early Modern Prints" — publicdomainreview.org/essay/w...

A carved stone head in a glass. Are with reeds and a green background to either side

A carved stone face with eyes nose and mouth visible. The mouth has a hole in the upper right lip (as we look) perhaps for offerings

#findsfriday the astonishing, enigmatic Hendy Head from Anglesey now in Oriel Môn - found in a ploughed field overlooking the Menai straits and thought to be Late Iron Age. Did this Celtic god oversee the a Roman attack on the Druids and an end of the old ways? #celts #ironage #druids #anglesey

Buttercups, 1968 by Lucian Freud

Rubio: “Let me tell you, Iran is run by lunatics, religious fanatic lunatics.”

🧪🌊🦑🐳 #WhaleWednesday #AlaskaSky

ㅤ

I've never been married. 😁 Oh, and I have worked for the Dutch Airforce before making a turnaround and started working with kids. Which included children from former Yugoslavia. The war was raging at that time. It was a heartbreaking but eye-opening experience.

Op deze dag in 1512 werd Gerard Mercator geboren, een van de bekendste kaartenmakers. Tijdens zijn leven stond hij al bekend als de 'Ptolemaeus van zijn tijd'. Naast zijn kaarten en globe introduceerde Mercator ook het woord atlas en de niet meer weg te denken Mercatorprojectie

Oh ironie: VS vraagt Oekraïne om te helpen met onderscheppen van Iraanse Shahed-drones

bsky.app/profile/poli... in @financialtimes.com

A photo of a bas relief of two cats in loaf positions on Borobudur temple.

A photo of a bas relief on Borobudur Temple showing two monkeys sitting under the tree. One was sad and placing her hand on her face, the other comforted her by placing his hand on her knee.

A bas relief on Borobudur Temple showing two dogs sleeping, one places itself on top of the other. The top dog relief had its face partially missing.

A photo of bas reliefs on Borobudur Temple showing two oxen huddle together.

My favorite thing about the bas reliefs on Borobudur Temple (Magelang, Central Java) is how they incorporate animals in the stories. They can be main characters or natural parts of the environment that also show emotions and affection, like in these cats, monkeys, dogs, and oxen. 1/2 #WyrdWednesday

Seen on my walk today…

"Jonah and the Whale", Folio Probably from a Jami al-Tavarikh (Compendium of Chronicles) Persia, c. 1400 (Met Museum)

The cave entrance is surrounded by greenery, which is reflected in the water. In the extreme bottom left is the tip of a canoe.

The walls of the cave are limestone.

There are many beautiful stalagmites and stalactites (pictured here).

Colonies of bats cluster in corners of the cave.

#AlphabetChallenge
#WeekIforInteriors

Barton Creek Cave, near San Ignacio, Belize, where the Maya are said to have held rituals for the Gods of the Underworld

Zeehondenpopulatie Waddenzee krimpt, wetenschappers gaan onderzoeken hoe dat komt Er worden meer pups geboren, terwijl het aantal zeehonden afneemt.

Het gaat niet goed met zeehonden in de Waddenzee. Hoe zou dat komen? vroeg de mens die overbevist, visnetten achterlaat, overal vaart, zwemt, bouwt en heit zodat de dieren nergens rust hebben. Moet je echt weten welke activiteit precies de oorzaak is, zodat je de andere allemaal kan voortzetten?

I now have what are probably the two most important books about fairies of the 1920s (both bloody hard to get hold of) 📚

Root Project www.instagram.com/rootprojectuk

YouTube video by Robert Plant Robert Plant | 'If I Were A Carpenter' | Official Music Video [HD Upgrade]

Robert Plant - If I Were A Carpenter

youtu.be/UINidbbvGFM?...

YouTube video by No Doubt No Doubt - Just a Girl (Extraspät in Concert, March 1, 1997)

No Doubt - Just a Girl (Extraspät in Concert, March 1, 1997)

youtu.be/z7xooiRFpuU?...