Conference: Falmouth University, June 30 to 2nd July 2027
In 2014 and 2023, Falmouth University hosted two of its most successful conferences: Haunted Landscapes. This conference is round three of that event, which will again be held in beautiful Cornwall on the Falmouth Campus, set in lush tropical gardens and only a few minutes’ walk away from its picturesque town and beaches.
Literature, art, games, and film have always explored concepts of the supernatural, as well as the landscape, and the environment – those places and spaces haunted by spectres, memory, or history. Places may be indelibly marked by the past and by the people who populated and shaped the environment in an infinite variety of ways. Landscapes can be haunted by acts of violence done, and irrevocable crimes committed, and echoes and memories of oppression, persecution, and colonization. Layers of memory and action can be embedded in the landscape alongside the layering of history in stone and soil. Encounters with the landscape reverberate through the ages as well as through the rocks, trees, hills, and streams that are still present today. Ghosts can shade the atmosphere of a place, showing that some things never vanish, and the environment as a whole bears witness to the devastating impact of human action.
This conference will explore haunted landscapes of all sorts – from environments teetering on the verge of collapse due to climate emergency, to landscapes steeped in blood, dripping in nostalgia, or haunted by spectral memories, supernatural entities, and the threatening future of AI.
We welcome topics and proposals from any discipline. Subjects can include (but are not limited to):
- The climate emergency
- Technology/AI
- Ghosts
- The Weird
- Memory
- Altered Spaces
- Intoxication
- Hauntings
- Affect and Emotion
- History
- Folklore/Folk Horror/Fairy Tales
- The Local/Regional
- Specific Landscapes – the ocean, bogs, forests, mountains etc
- The Uncanny
- Nature
- Non-human animals
- Flora and fauna
- Death, life, and rebirth
Please send 250 word abstracts and a short bio (and any questions) to: Hauntedlandscapes2027@gmail.com
Deadline: 1st February 2027
Website: www.darkeconomies.co.uk