*CFP* "HAMMER, HIGHGATE AND THE VAMPYRE", 4TH VAMPIRE ACADEMIC CONFERENCE

The 4th Vampire Academic Conference

Lauderdale House, Highgate Village, London

10th -13th July 2019

‘Hammer, Highgate And The Vampyre’

Main themes:

• The Undeath of Hammer Films 
• The Tall Tale of the Highgate Vampire 
• Two Centuries of Polidori’s The Vampyre

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 fourth annual Vampire Academic Conference (VAC) that runs alongside the festival in London.

Themes for this year’s Conference include the Celluloid Vampire, with a non-exclusive focus on the undeath of Hammer Films and the enduring legacy of their iconic vampire films; the Fake News Vampire, examining the consequences when fiction and folklore are presented factually, such as the tall tale of the Highgate Vampire and the moral panic and media sensationalism that grew around it fifty years ago; and a celebration of Polidori’s The Vampyre: A Tale two centuries on and its influence on the notion of the vampire as a romantic monster.

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 in order to explore and expand the significance of the vampire as a figure of fascination across popular culture in shifting historic and social contexts.

We welcome proposals for conference papers of 20 minutes but also for pre-formed panels (of 3x20-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: craig@ivfaf.com by Friday 3 May 2019. 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 at Lauderdale House in Highgate Village, London. It must be their own original work. Presenters must register by purchasing an Delegate ticket. More information on conference registration and location.

Abstracts will be moderated by the following panel:

Mike Arnzen, Ph.D, Seton Hill University

Dr Emma McEvoy, University of Westminster

Dr Stacey Abbott, Roehampton University

Prof Nicole Peeler, Seton Hill University

Potential points of entry:

• the transgression of narrative boundaries in Newman’s Anno Dracula and other metafictional vampire texts  
• the impact on popular culture or non‐gothic genres of Polidori’s The Vampyre, Dracula, Varney, Carmilla and other classic vampire texts  
• From Real Life and Real Dead to Undead and Real Scary: blurring vampire fiction and fact in Transylvania, Highgate and beyond  
• remakes and remixes of Polidori’s The Vampyre, Stoker's Dracula or other conventional vampire texts  
• Blood & Lust: Hammer’s vampires and their impact on the modern vampire  
• Women and the Vamp  
• Messy Eaters – gore and violence in vampire stories  
• vampire fiction as subgenre (comedies, romances, YA literature, graphic novels, games, theatre)  
• the vampire’s role in genre evolution  
• the vampire as metaphor  
• vampires as signs of cultural change 
• the popular vampire in the literary mainstream  
• the evolution of sex and religion in vampire literature 
• the influence of cinema on literary vampires (and vice‐versa)  
• vampiric tropes in social networking, internet memes and new media culture  
• popular vampire fiction/film in the non‐western world  
• pedagogical applications of popular vampire texts  
• gender and the vampire and/or the vampire hunter  
• vampires and the depiction of alternative sexualities  
• other cultural studies applications of the vampire icon

This is an indicative list only and papers on any vampiric theme from any academic or practice background would be welcomed.

The wider festival includes literature and film strands, alongside a programme of theatre performances and parties, including the spectacular VampFire Ball at the legendary Dingwalls venue. More details.

IVFAF bringing together vampire media-makers from across the world. A vampire centric film and arts festival. Vampfest: The International Vampire Film and Arts Festival

Alternatively, email Craig Hooper: craig@ivfaf.com

Keynote presentations:

Kim Newman

Kim Newman is a novelist, critic and broadcaster. His fiction includes the bestselling Anno Dracula series, while his non-fiction includes Nightmare Movies and Horror: 100 Best Books. He is a contributing editor to The Guardian, Sight& Sound and Empire.

 

Nick Groom

Nick Groom, known as the “Prof of Goth,” is professor of English at Exeter University, UK. His latest work is The Vampire – A New History, an authoritative study of the iconic creature two hundred years after it first appeared on the literary scene with John Polidori’s publication of The Vampyre. His previous titles include The Gothic: A Very Short Introduction.

The final Keynote Speaker will be announced soon