This interdisciplinary conference aims to bring together scholars, writers, filmmakers, and students to share the interest and passion for the fictional criminal genre through their participation in panels, roundtables, workshops, film screenings, and curated cultural events in historic Salem.

Topics of interest include but are not limited to:

• Noir and the Gothic
• The Terrain of Rural Noir
• Motherhood, family and the Noir Domestic
• Noir, colonization, and Post Colonial Crime
• Noir in the Age of Global Neoliberalism
• Gendered Investigations and Female Agency
• Justice Reimagined: Interrogating Law, Order, Worlds
• Queer identities and LGBTQ+ Themes inNoir
• Border Spaces and Transnational Crime
• Adaptation Across Media (Film, TV, Graphic Novels, Podcasts)
• Masculinities in crises and Gender Fluid Reconfigurations
• Noir and Economic Trauma

We welcome proposals for individual submissions, round-table discussions or thematically aligned panels of speakers (20-minute presentations). Abstracts (max. 250 words) and brief biographical note (max. 150 words) should be submitted by no later than February 8, 2026. We will respond to applications no later than February 22, 2026.

Please find the full CFP, 

CFP Salem Meets the Noir