4th Global Conference
Fear, Horror and Terror

Saturday 11th September 2010 – Monday 13th September 2010
Oriel College, Oxford

Call for Papers
This inter-disciplinary and multi-disciplinary conference seeks to examine and explore issues which lie at the interface of fear, horror and terror. In particular the project is interested in investigating the various contexts of fear, horror and terror, and assessing issues surrounding the artistic, cinematic, literary, moral, social, (geo)political, philosophical, psychological and religious significance of them, both individually and together.

In addition to academic analysis, we welcome the submission of case studies or other approaches from those involved with its practice, such as people in religious orders, therapists, victims of events which have been provoked by experiences of fear, horror and terror – for example, lawyers or others involved with law enforcement, medical practitioners, or fiction authors whose work aims to evoke these reactions.

Papers, reports, work-in-progress, workshops and pre-formed panels are invited on issues related to any of the following themes:

1. The Contexts of Fear, Horror and Terror
~ creating fear, horror and terror
~ the properties of fear, horror and terror
~ contexts of fear, horror and terror
~ the language of fear, horror and terror
~ the meaning of fear, horror and terror
~ the significance of fear, horror and terror
~ case studies

2. At the Interface of Fear, Horror and Terror
~ the role of fear, horror and terror
~ emotional releases (pleasant or negative) achieved by Fear, Horror and Terror
~ techniques of fear, horror and terror
~ marketing fear, horror and terror
~ recreational fear, horror and terror
~ aesthetic fear, horror and terror
~ the temperature of fear, horror and terror
~ professions dealing with the Fear, Horror and Terror

3. Representations of Fear, Horror and Terror and:
~ the imagination; creativity
~ pleasure and pain
~ hope and despair
~ the past and the future
~ relations to anxiety, disgust, dread, loathing
~ the sublime and the chaotic
~ art, cinema, theatre, tv, radio
~ literature (including children's stories)
~ the other
~ technology

4. Research Track
Alongside the themes being considered during the project meeting, we are also looking to create an additional space within which dialogue and future possibilities for research can be generated dealing with the theme of treatments of Fear, Horror and Terror in East Asian cinema. These will form specific focus sessions during the second day of the conference, and will take place alongside and in addition to the general conference sessions. The theme of the research track changes each year.

For 2010, the Fear, Horror and Terror project will meet alongside our project on Making Sense Of: Health, Illness and Disease. It is our intention to create cross-over sessions between the two groups – and we welcome proposals which deal with the relationship between health, illness and disease and fear, horror and terror. Themes could include: fear and global threats to health (swine flu, bird flu, SARS, for example), or horror and disease (fear of our bodies, contagion, HIV/AIDS, for example), or terror and biological warfare. Papers will be accepted which deal with related areas and themes.

300 word abstracts should be submitted by Friday 26th March 2010. If an abstract is accepted for the conference, a full draft paper should be submitted by Friday 13th August 2010. 300 word abstracts should be submitted to the Organising Chairs; abstracts may be in Word, WordPerfect, or RTF formats, following this order:

a) author(s), b) affiliation, c) email address, d) title of abstract, e) body of abstract
E-mails should be entitled: FHT Abstract Submission

Please use plain text (Times Roman 12) and abstain from using any special formatting, characters or emphasis (such as bold, italics or underline). We acknowledge receipt and answer to all paper proposals submitted. If you do not receive a reply from us in a week you should assume we did not receive your proposal; it might be lost in cyberspace! We suggest, then, to look for an alternative electronic route or resend.

Organising Chairs

* Sorcha Ni Fhlainn
Hub Leader, Evil, Inter-Disciplinary.Net,
School of English, Trinity College, Dublin, Ireland
E-mail: snf@inter-disciplinary.net

* Rob Fisher
Network Founder and Network Leader,
Inter-Disciplinary.Net, Freeland, Oxfordshire, United Kingdom
E-mail: fht4@inter-disciplinary.net

The conference is part of the At the Interface series of research projects. The aim of the conference is to bring together people from different areas and interests to share ideas and explore various discussions which are innovative and exciting. All papers accepted for and presented at this conference are eligible for publication in an ISBN eBook. Selected papers may be invited to go forward for development into a themed ISBN hard copy volume.

For further details about the project please visit:
http://www.inter-disciplinary.net/at-the-interface/evil/fear-horror-terr...

For further details about the conference please visit:
http://www.inter-disciplinary.net/at-the-interface/evil/fear-horror-terr...