Call for Papers: Absent Presences

A black and white image featuring footprints and a chair

Absent Presences is a Gothic conference taking place at Manchester Metropolitan University on the 27-28th of June. The event wishes to shed light on the neglected aspects of Gothic studies, from representation of marginalised groups both in text and in authorship, to under-explored media types such as new media and online video. It aims to expand the ‘Gothic canon’ beyond the traditional texts and perspectives, and aim to establish a new, wider definition of what can be considered Gothic. The event has confirmed keynotes from Professor Fred Botting (Kingston University) and Professor Maisha Wester (Indiana University Bloomington).

The call for papers covers both individual 20-minute papers as well as organised three paper panels comprising of three 20-minute papers. Possible topics could include, but are not limited to:

-        Queering the Gothic in games

-        Exploration of Gothic game spaces

-        Using games as a way of interrogating traditional representations of Gothic

-        Issues of curation and archiving: Labelling games as Horror rather than Gothic

-        Adapting Gothic texts to games

For individual papers please submit a proposal between 200-250 words and a 50-word bio-note. For three-speaker panels proposals should include a title, rationale for the panel, individual paper abstracts, and biographies for each speaker. Please send submissions and any queries to absentpresencesmmu@gmail.com by the 15th of May 2019.