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We All Love Frank(enstein) at NEPCA
Frankenstein 1818 to 2018: 200 Years of Mad Scientists and Monsters (Final Call for Papers)
A Special Session of the Fantastic (Fantasy, Horror, and Science Fiction) Area of the Northeast Popular Culture/American Culture Association
Worcester State University, Worcester, Massachusetts
19-20 October 2018
Proposals due 1 June 2018
In this panel, the Fantastic (Fantasy, Horror, and Science Fiction) Area of the Northeast Popular Culture/American Culture Association seeks to commemorate the 200th anniversary of the publication of Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein in 1818 by celebrating the longevity of her iconic characters of scientist Victor Frankenstein, “the pale student of unhallowed arts,” and his monstrous construct, “the thing he had put together,” as she succinctly describes them in her introduction to the 1831 reissue of the work.
Proposals for papers should explore aspects of Shelley’s versions of Frankenstein or his creations (both the Creature as well as its Bride) as representations of the fantastic and/or of the afterlife of these figures in later fantastic narratives of any genre or medium in which adaptations and appropriations of the Frankenstein story have occurred.
Be advised that presentations will be limited to 15 or 20 minutes in length depending on final panel size.
Ideas and resources for the study of Frankenstein and its progeny can be accessed at Frankenstein and the Fantastic, an outreach effort of the Fantastic (Fantasy, Horror, and Science Fiction) Area, based at https://FrankensteinandtheFantastic.blogspot.com/.
Please contact area chair Michael A. Torregrossa at FrankensteinandtheFantastic@gmail.com, using “Frankenstein 1818 to 2018” as your subject line, with any questions in advance of the 1 June 2018 deadline.
Submissions should be made online through the “2018 Proposal Form” at https://nepca.blog/2018-conference/. Please select “The Fantastic (Fantasy, Horror, and Science Fiction)” as your designated area. A complete submission includes contact information, academic affiliation (if any), an academic biographical statement (between 50 and 200 words), a paper title (no more than 60 characters), and a paper abstract (no more than 250 words). Do also send copies of your biography and proposal to the area chair at FrankensteinandtheFantastic@gmail.com, using “Frankenstein 1818 to 2018” as your subject line.
The Northeast Popular/American Culture Association (a.k.a. NEPCA) was founded in 1974 as a professional organization for scholars living in New England and New York. It is a community of scholars interested in advancing research and promoting interest in the disciplines of popular and/or American culture. NEPCA’s membership consists of university and college faculty members, emeriti faculty, secondary school teachers, museum specialists, graduate students, independent scholars, and interested members of the general public. NEPCA is an independently funded affiliate of the Popular Culture Association/American Culture Association. Membership is open to all interested parties, regardless of profession, rank, or residency. NEPCA holds an annual conference that invites scholars from around the globe to participate. In an effort to keep costs low, it meets on college campuses throughout the region.
Membership in NEPCA is required for participation and annual dues are included in conference registration fees. Further details are available at https://nepca.blog/membership-information/.
CFP: The Fantastic for NEPCA
Fantastic (Fantasy, Horror, and Science Fiction) Area
Eleventh-Anniversary and Farewell Sessions
2018 Conference of the Northeast Popular Culture/American Culture Association (NEPCA)
Worcester State University, Worcester, Massachusetts
19-20 October 2018
Proposals due 1 June 2018
Formed in 2008, the Fantastic (Fantasy, Horror, and Science Fiction) Area will hold its eleventh-anniversary and farewell sessions in 2018, and we seek proposals from scholars of all levels for papers and/or panels that explore any aspect of the intermedia traditions of the fantastic (including, but not limited to, elements of fairy tale, fantasy, gothic, horror, legend, mythology, and science fiction) and how creative artists have altered our preconceptions of these subtraditions by producing innovative works in diverse countries, media, and time periods and for audiences at all levels.
Presentations will be limited to 15 or 20 minutes in length depending on final panel size.
An archive of previous work in the area exists at our website Northeast Fantastic (https://northeastfantastic.blogspot.com), which is intended as a gateway to furthering research on the fantastic.
Special Topics:
Given the proximity of the conference to Halloween, we are always interested in proposals related to monsters and the monstrous.
This year, we are also looking for papers related to the fantastic in children’s culture, especially the works of the Walt Disney Company.
Furthermore, in celebration of the two hundredth anniversary of the publication of Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein in 2018, we are organizing a special session devoted to “Frankenstein 1818 to 2018: 200 Years of Mad Scientists and Monsters.” Details can at our outreach site Frankenstein and the Fantastic at https://FrankensteinandtheFantastic.blogspot.com/.
Directions for Submission:
Please contact area chair Michael A. Torregrossa at cfp.nepcafantastic@gmail.com, using “NEPCA Fantastic 2018” as your subject line, with any questions in advance of the 1 June 2018 deadline.
Submissions for papers and/or panels should be made online through the “2018 Proposal Form” at https://nepca.blog/2018-conference/. Please select “The Fantastic (Fantasy, Horror, and Science Fiction)” as your designated area. A complete submission includes contact information, academic affiliation (if any), an academic biographical statement (between 50 and 200 words), a paper title (no more than 60 characters), and a paper abstract (no more than 250 words). Do also send copies of your biography and proposal to the area chair at cfp.nepcafantastic@gmail.com, using “NEPCA Fantastic 2018” as your subject line.
The Northeast Popular/American Culture Association (a.k.a. NEPCA) was founded in 1974 as a professional organization for scholars living in New England and New York. It is a community of scholars interested in advancing research and promoting interest in the disciplines of popular and/or American culture. NEPCA’s membership consists of university and college faculty members, emeriti faculty, secondary school teachers, museum specialists, graduate students, independent scholars, and interested members of the general public. NEPCA is an independently funded affiliate of the Popular Culture Association/American Culture Association. Membership is open to all interested parties, regardless of profession, rank, or residency. NEPCA holds an annual conference that invites scholars from around the globe to participate. In an effort to keep costs low, it meets on college campuses throughout the region.
Membership in NEPCA is required for participation and annual dues are included in conference registration fees. Further details are available at https://nepca.blog/membership-information/.
ONE WEEK UNTIL NEPCA
T minus 7 days and counting folks. NEPCA’s fall conference launches next Friday. For those coming from out of the region, the preliminary weather forecast cals fro mild weather. but don’t trust it this far in advance. Check the forecast as the date draws nearer and plan your wardrobe accordingly. It’s never a bad idea to think about “layering” in an New England autumn. Weather Underground is generally a pretty good Web source to consult–generally more accurate than the Weather Channel.
Foliage update: There should still be quite a bit around for Oct 27-28. It has just started to peak and is the color is late arriving this year. Not our most brilliant foliage show, but looks as if it might linger.
Attention Graduate Students Presenting at NEPCA
NEPCA awards two cash prizes for best graduate student papers at its annual conferences. If you are presenting this October and your paper goes well, consider entering this competition.
The rules:
- Only your panel chair can nominate a paper. If you’d like to compete, approach your chair and ask that individual to nominate your paper.
- At some point after the conference, our prize committee will approach you and ask that you submit a written copy (by email) to the committee. This will necessitate that you transform your notes into a paper of roughly 10-12 pages (plus footnotes and bibliography).
- Your written paper should be as close as possible to the presentation you actually gave. Do not submit expanded versions, dissertation chapters, or long manuscripts.
- The committee will deliberate and the winners will be announced in the late spring or early summer of 2018 (depending upon how many papers are submitted).
- Winners will receive a cash prize, a certificate, and an invitation to attend our 2018 conference free of charge. (NEPCA does not cover food, lodging, or transportation costs.)
- You must make sure that NEPCA is kept up to date re: any email address changes and/or physical address changes. Put simply, NEPCA can’t honor you if it can’t find you!
Some Rooms Available Saturday Night
The Campus Center Hotel advises they have a small number of hotel rooms available for Saturday night of the NEPCA conference. You can book one by calling them directly: 877-822-2110. Friday night is currently booked solid, but you could check for cancellations. Otherwise, check this site for other lodging options.
TEN DAYS LEFT TO REGISTER
A REMINDER TO ALL WHOSE PAPERS HAVE BEEN ACCEPTED:
There are just ten days left to register for NEPCA’s fall conference. Please do so immediately. We have a very long waiting list of presenters that we will begin to call upon for those whose conference fees are not paid by the end of the day on 31 August.
IMPORTANT INFORMATION re: NEPCA CONFERENCE
If you have applied to give a paper for the fall NEPCA conference, you should have received notification by now.
PLEASE CHECK TO MAKE SURE THIS MESSAGE WASN’T INTERCEPTED BY YOUR SPAM FILTER.
If you, for some reason, have not received notification, please contact Marty Norden immediately: norden@comm.umass.edu
Reminder: PRESENTERS WHO DO NOT REGISTER BY SEPTEMBER 1 WILL BE BUMPED TO THE WAIT LIST. We have a large number of individuals whose papers were waited-listed in the first round and if you do not pay and register by September 1, you may lose your place on the program.
