Horror Studies Now (29-30 May 2025, Northumbria University, UK)

deadline for submissions: 
March 14, 2025
full name / name of organization: 
Horror Studies Research Group, Northumbria University

Horror Studies Now: A Two-Day Conference (29-30 May 2025, Northumbria University, UK)

Researchers working in the broad field of “Horror Studies”, are invited to submit abstracts about their research for an in-person conference, hosted by the Horror Studies Research Group at Northumbria University (https://research.northumbria.ac.uk/horrorstudies), on 29-30 May 2025.

Speakers will each deliver a 15-minute talk about their research, followed by extended discussion and questions from the conference delegation. We welcome submissions from scholars at any career stage, but are particularly open to hearing from early career researchers and new voices in the field. The event is intended to provide a welcoming space in which to develop ideas, network, and forge collaborations with fellow Horror Studies researchers.

The event seeks to explore areas and approaches that have not yet been adequately accounted for or represented in the field, encompassing (but not limited to):

- The diversity of perspectives, identities, and voices that comprise Horror Studies and horror production

- Independent horror production, alternative histories, and horror produced outside of Europe and North America

- The field’s methodological richness, including archival approaches, audience research, practice-based research, and new theoretical perspectives

- The breadth of cultural perspectives that inform Horror Studies and horror media

- Papers that address horror in all its media forms including games, film, comics, music, social media, television, literature, art, and so forth

We seek to foreground scholarly excellence within the field by embracing a wide range of approaches, confronting representational biases within the canon, highlighting strategies to counter these biases, and contributing to a more diverse and inclusive academic landscape. We encourage and welcome expressions of interest from members of the global majority and people from underrepresented or marginalised groups.

Special guests include:

- Dr Cüneyt Çakırlar (Nottingham Trent University; editor of Transnational Horror: Folklore, Genre and Cultural Politics [Liverpool University Press, 2025])

- Dr Maxine Gee (Bournemouth University; screenwriter of short film Standing Woman [2020] and web series Tales of Bacon [2018])

- Professor Maisha L Wester (University of Sheffield/Indiana University, Bloomington; author of African American Gothic in the Era of Black Lives Matter [Cambridge University Press, 2025])

The deadline for abstracts (of 250 words) is 23:59 (GMT) Friday 14 March 2025. Abstracts should be accompanied by a biographical statement (of 50-100 words) and submitted at the following link: https://forms.office.com/e/FgdAxxxWxy.

A small fee will be required to attend to cover catering expenses; however, we are striving to keep this cost as low as possible. All speakers, unless they choose to decline, will have their work considered for the new Peter Hutchings Award for Outstanding Contribution to Horror Studies. The award includes a certificate for the winner and a publication (subject to revision) in Studies in the Fantastic.

Applicants will be notified of the outcome of their proposal within 14 days of the deadline.

Any questions should be directed to horrorstudies@northumbria.ac.uk

 

The Horror Studies Research Group at Northumbria:

Northumbria University is internationally renowned as the home of horror scholarship. This research specialism was founded by our late Professor Peter Hutchings, and the Horror Studies Research Group formalises Northumbria’s concentration of experts in this area. Our core team are widely recognised as leaders in this area, publishing field-defining monographs, presenting keynote lectures at major conferences, delivering talks at numerous European film festivals, holding positions on the editorial boards of the field’s primary book series and winning major research grants. Our global reputation for research excellence in Horror Studies is further proliferated by our many genre-based PhDs and alumni.