Summary: Make America Hate Again: Trump-Era Horror and the Politics of Fear explores the intersection of film, politics, and American culture and society through a bold critical analysis of popular horror films/TV produced in the Trump era, such as Green Room (2015)The Witch (2015)Don’t Breathe (2016)The Purge: Election Year (2016)American Gods (2017)American Horror Story (2017)Get Out (2017); and The Handmaid’s Tale (2017). This collection of essays will explore how popular horror scrutinises and unravels the events, anxieties, discourses, dogmas and socio-political conflicts of the Trump years.

Call for Papers: abstracts are requested in and around the following themes (with an aim to explore Trump-era horror and its many forms in recent cinema and television). As opposed to formalising and limiting the genre, narrative texts that cut across typical subgenres recognised in horror will also be considered.

Some Inspiration:

Further Themes/Considerations:

  • Horror Films Reimagined à la Trump: The Use and Significance of Trump’s Image in Horror-Centric Social and Cultural Internet Phenomena (Images, Memes, GIFS)
  • Resident Evil 7: The Enormous Re-Direction of the Video Game, to the Deep South, Couldn’t Be More Timely
  • The Babadook (2014): The Significance of a Horror Film Monster Becoming a Gay Icon in 2017

Make America Hate Again: Trump-Era Horror and the Politics of Fear will offer informed speculation about the possible correlations between very recent culturally meaningful horror films and television shows, and the broader culture within which they have become gravely significant.


Submission Guidelines: abstracts should be 250 words or less, with a 50-word biography. Notifications made by: October 31, 2017. Accepted and completed papers (5000-6000 words with references in Harvard format) due: August 31, 2018. Please send abstracts to the editor at: v.mccollum@ulster.ac.uk.

Further information available at: https://popcultstudies.wordpress.com/