The Writing, Speaking, and Argument Program, along with the Department of English and the Film and Media Studies Program at the University of Rochester are pleased to announce an upcoming undergraduate conference on horror, to be held October 23-25, 2026. The conference will featuring a keynote address by the University of Rochester’s own Jason Middleton, author of numerous articles on horror films, co-editor (with Aviva Briefel) of Labors of Fear: The Modern Horror Film Goes to Work (U of Texas P, 2023), and a featured expert on the AMC series Eli Roth’s History of Horror.

Overview
Over the past several decades, with the rise of cultural studies and increased attention to genre within film studies, scholarly perspectives on horror have shifted dramatically. Now horror occupies a secure place in both film studies and curricula. Meanwhile, that critical awareness and recognition has “bled out” into the popular imagination, as scholarly concepts such as Carol Clover’s “Final Girl” have become as recognizable to popular audiences as they are to scholars in the field. Alongside this trend, horror itself has become more self-consciously ambitious in its aesthetic dimensions, with the rise of “elevated horror” and a new crop of horror filmmakers who have both adopted novel storytelling approaches and adapted familiar generic tropes and conventions to self-consciously explore and reflect a wide range of thematic concerns and cultural anxieties.

The current generation of undergraduate students attending US colleges and universities has grown up immersed in this environment and has perspectives on horror that reflect these shifts. This conference will provide an opportunity for those undergraduate scholars to share those perspectives and participate in the larger ongoing scholarly conversations on horror. We invite proposals from students at any stage of undergraduate studies for original 15-20min presentations on all areas of horror studies, including (but not limited to) film, literature, theater, and video games, as well as panel proposals for thematically linked individual presentations.

Submission Guidelines
Individual paper proposals should be approximately 200-300 words and include the following:

• working title for the presentation
• clear description of the primary text/subject under consideration
• brief account of the argument
• short (approx. 50-100 word) bio

Panel proposals should include the following:

• a title or theme for the panel
• individual presentation proposals for each panelist, meeting the requirements listed above 

Contact Information
Dustin Hannum
dustin.hannum@rochester.edu