Saints English Graduate Conference 2025 at the University of St Andrews 

Theme: Obsession

Dates: 11th - 12th April, 2025
Location: St Andrews, Scotland (UK) 

‘Without obsession life is nothing’ — John Waters

As a site of pilgrimage and devotion since the twelfth century, St Andrews has long been a locus of obsession. The cathedral looming over the town evokes the area’s rich heritage of devotional practices, intellectual pursuits, and artistic endeavours. The castle and cathedral were once sites of religious and political fanaticism; now, their ruined states commemorate persecution, power, and siege, the last of which is the etymological root of today’s modern term ‘obsession’.

From the Petrarchan sonnet to modern-day fanfiction, medieval manuscript illumination to Kashmiri kani weaving, obsession has always been at the core of literary and artistic traditions. Today we invite postgraduate scholars working across all disciplines and time periods to make their own pilgrimage to St Andrews to share their obsessions. We encourage papers that broaden and complicate our understanding of ‘obsession’ beyond its purely negative connotations.

Can we imagine alternative ways to understand obsession other than through its pathology? When is obsession accepted and when is it stigmatised? Are there ways of resisting the gendering of so-called obsessive behaviours? Is obsession driven by a need to control or a lack of self-control? Is obsession a demonstration of love or its undoing? 

Responses might encompass, but are not limited to: 

• Devotion (relics, contemplative and ‘mystical’ traditions, penitential practices, pilgrimage, place, vocation, apprenticeship, cults, familial bonds, discipline, sacrifice)

• Psychology (paranoia, madness, lunacy, addiction, phobias, narcissism, neurosis, compulsion, paraphilia)

• Control (surveillance, personalisation algorithms, hegemony, supremacy, Encyclopaedism, perfectionism, ‘self-optimisation’)

• Inspiration and Influence (muses, artistic calling, mythology, nostalgia, commemoration, memorialisation, recurrent memory or dreams, superstition,apocalypse)

• Emotions and Affect (History of Emotions, love, limerence, infatuation, nostalgia, memorialisation, grief, mourning, melancholia, hatred, prejudice, bigotry)

• Subcultures and online cultures (fandoms, fanfiction, adaptations/covers, crazes, parasocial relationships, conspiracy theories, gaming and sports, gossip, celebrity culture)

• Form (repetition, poetic forms, ritual, handicrafts)

• Genre (crime fiction, the Gothic, polemic, epic, love poetry like sonnets, blasons, and ghazals)

• Motifs and Tropes (readers, scholars, artists, mad scientists, monstrosity, haunting, stalking, possession, mania) 

• Indifference (as opposite to obsession: apathy, nonchalance, disinterest)

We welcome submissions for academic research or creative practice research papers on this themeacross disciplines and periods, as well as joint submissions for three-person panels. Please submit abstracts for 20-minute presentations of 250 to 300 words, along with brief biographical notes (about 50 words) to this form no later than 30th November. 

From creative practice researchers, we welcome presentations of your creative practice in addition to your research—artistic, interactive, and experimental engagements with the theme, including creative writing, photography, sculpture, dance, music, painting, needlework, etc. In addition to the abstract and biographical notes, please feel free to submit a brief sample of your creative work according to instructions in the submissions guidelines.

We especially encourage queer, BIPOC, disabled, working class, and other marginalised scholars to apply. Notifications of acceptance will be sent by the 20th of December. Please see the attached guidelines for further details about what to include in your proposal. Please note that attendance at this conference will be  in-person ONLY.

Submit your proposal via the form below:

SUBMISSION GUIDELINES 

Saints English Graduate Conference 11-12th April 2025

• Abstracts should contain a description of your argument (for academic research) or focus (for creative practice research), brief contextual background on your chosen topic, and how your submission relates to the conference theme

• Please also list up to five keywords after your abstract text

• Submit a short biography, written in third person, of up to 50 words including your institutional affiliation, name, and pronouns

• Please see the attached example abstract of an academic research paperfrom the 2024 conference for some further guidance

FOR ACADEMIC RESEARCH PAPERS:

• Abstract of between 250 and 300 words for a 20-minute paper

• Please note that critical papers will be presented in panels followed by a Q&A section 

FOR CREATIVE PRACTICE RESEARCH PAPERS/PRESENTATIONS:

• Abstract of between 250 and 300 words for a 20-minute paper/presentation

• Please note that papers on creative practice research will be presented in panels followed by a Q&A section 

• If an aspect of creative practice is involved in the presentation, feel free to submit a portion of the creative work, such as three to five pages of creative writing, up to five images, or three to five minutes of video or audio content showcasing the work

• With enough interest, there may be an opportunity to present creative work: please note that the audience for each panel is likely to be between 15 and 40 people

Eligibility: Submissions are open to postgraduate students and Early Career Researchers from all fields of study across all time periods, unaffiliated or affiliated with any institution. 

Submission Process: Submissions should be sent via this form by 30th of November.

Successful applicants will receive full presentation guidelines upon notification of acceptance.  For more information, please contact us at saintsegc@gmail.com. We look forward to welcoming you to this exciting event!