Please note there is the option to present in person or virtually.

The International Vampire Film and Arts Festival and University of South Wales present The 6th Vampire Academic Conference ‘Vampires Through the Ages’ 15th-17th June 2022, Insole Court Mansion, Cardiff, Wales.

The University of South Wales, in association with the IVFAF, calls for papers by scholars interested in presenting their researched essays on vampire literature, film, folklore, theatre, games, graphic novels, lifestyle, fashion, music and wider art in the sixth annual Vampire Academic Conference (VAC) that runs alongside the festival in Cardiff. This Year’s main themes:

Nosferatu 100 years later;

Vampires in Media;

Symphony of Horror: Vampires, Setting, and Folklore

 

Possible topics may include:

  • Ghetto or gentrified gore: the vampire and urban space
  • (Dis)ability and the monstrous
  • Fans’ fangs: Vampire fandom, subcultures, and participatory practices
  • Liminal beings: the vampire and teen/young adult media
  • Beyond Transylvania: Global and transnational vampires
  • Casting shadows: Vampire, acting, and stardom
  • Draculaughs: The vampire as comedy monster
  • From the coffin to the digital tomb: twenty-first century adaptation of the vampire story
  • Race and Vampires
  • Season’s greetings: the vampire and cultural festivals
  • In the past: Folklore and Vampires
  • In the Now: The History of the Modern Vampire
  • Feminism and Vampires
  • Queer Theory in Vampires
  • Don’t go Into the Woods: Eco-Criticism and Vampires

However, the VAC is not limited to these themes. The two overriding criteria for papers delivered at the conference are:

They must be about vampires &

They must be interesting

This major interdisciplinary international conference aims to examine and expand debates around vampires in all their many aspects. We therefore invite researchers from a range of academic backgrounds to re/consider vampires as a phenomenon that reaches across multiple sites of production and consumption, from literature and film to theatre and games to music and fashion and beyond. What accounts for this Gothic character’s undying popular appeal, even in today’s postmodern, digital, commercialized world?  How does vampirism circulate within and comment upon mass culture?

We invite papers in genre theory & history, popular fiction, media culture, television theory, adaptation, journalism, comic studies, the transformative arts and other areas of film, literary and cultural studies to explore and expand the significance of the vampire as a figure of fascination across popular culture in shifting historic and social contexts.

We are delighted to announce that our keynote speakers for the event are Professor Stacey Abbott (University of Roehampton) and Kim Newman.

We welcome proposals for conference papers of 20 minutes but also for pre-formed panels (of 3×20-minute papers), roundtable discussions, or formats that allow for the presentation of praxis (installations, lecture performances, for instance). We also want to support undergraduate scholarship: any current UG students interested in attending the VAC would be eligible for special, 10–15-minute presentation panels to facilitate their participation in an international conference at the undergraduate level.

Please send a 300-500-word abstract, along with a short biography and indication of the format of your proposed presentation to: jelinej@scf.edu by Sunday March 20th, 2022. If you are looking for a virtual choice, please state this in your proposal. If submitting a full panel proposal, the moderator should send a 50-word summary statement outlining the panel’s title and central topic, along with all three proposals. Accepted submitters must confirm their commitment to attend and present a finished written paper in a talk lasting approximately 20 minutes at the conference in Cardiff. It must be their own original work.

Presenters must register by purchasing a Delegate ticket. For more information on conference registration and location, visit www.ivfaf.com

The VAC runs in tandem with the Vampire Creative Congress, which focuses on the creative industries and featuring talks about filmmaking, writing, games etc. The wider festival includes literature and film strands and includes guest talks. There’s also a programme of theatre performances and parties, including the spectacular Vampire Ball. For more details, go to www.ivfaf.com