A special issue of MAI – an intersectional feminist journal on

Doing Women’s Global Horror Film History

including many video essays on Asian films and filmmakers

edited by Rebecca Rouse, Alison Peirce, and Erica Sheen

Focus Issue Thirteen: Doing Women’s Global Horror Film History

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Call for Papers
Interdisciplinary Humanities
Special Double Issue
Gothic Literature: Creative Activity, Research, and Pedagogy

Interdisciplinary Humanities announces a special double issue dedicated to exploring Gothic literature’s rich and diverse world. This special issue will feature creative works, scholarly research, and pedagogy with a particular focus on the New England Gothic context, although submissions on alternate Gothic traditions are encouraged for specific areas of focus outlined below. We invite papers that investigate the New England Gothic genre’s literary, cultural, and historical dimensions as well as creative works that engage with, draw inspiration from, and/or reinterpret Gothic traditions for contemporary audiences.

Research Topics

We welcome submissions that engage with topics such as the following:

Critical analysis of Gothic texts, particularly focused on those rooted in the New England Gothic tradition.
The evolution of New England Gothic literature’s themes and motifs, including the supernatural, horror, isolation, and decay. Of particular interest are the ways in which these phenomena integrate with conversations about Indigenous peoples, the Puritans, religious and cultural superstitions and stereotypes, clashes of diverse cultures in these contexts, etc.
The intersection of Gothic literature with other literary genres such as horror, fantasy, science fiction, and media such as film, video games, and digital texts. This topic is open to submissions rooted across a more holistic Gothic literature and art field.
Comparative studies of New England Gothic with other regional Gothic traditions, such as Southern Gothic or Transatlantic Gothic.
Exploration of how New England Gothic literature reflects and shapes cultural anxieties related to gender, race, class, or historical trauma.
Environmental and eco-Gothic themes, particularly in relation to the landscapes of New England.
The role of art, architecture, geography, and space in Gothic narratives. This topic is open to submissions investigating a broad field of Gothic traditions.
The relationship between Gothic literature and cultural theory and analysis, including religious or philosophical traditions.

Creative Works

We also invite creative submissions inspired by Gothic traditions. These may include but are not limited to:

Short stories, flash fiction, or novel excerpts that are drawn specifically from New England Gothic themes and/or contexts.
Poetry that evokes the New England Gothic tradition’s atmosphere, tone, or imagery.
Experimental or hybrid forms that push the boundaries of New England Gothic literature.
Creative non-fiction or memoirs that reflect on personal encounters with New England Gothic themes, narratives, or landscapes.

Pedagogy

Innovative teaching methods for the Gothic.
Curriculum design and assessment strategies.
Interdisciplinary approaches to teaching Gothic texts.
Digital humanities and Gothic literature /culture education.

Editors

Volume 1: Gothic Literature: Creative Activity and Research

Jay Burkette (Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University)
Wendy Galgan (Saint Joseph’s College of Maine)
Megan Gannon (Ripon College)
Darian Wharton (University of New Mexico)

Volume 2: Gothic Literature / Culture and Pedagogy

Debra Bourdeau (Missouri University of Science and Technology)
Clint Jones (Capital University)
Mary Powell (Desert Vista High School and Grand Canyon University)
Elissa Pugh (Concord University)

Important Dates

Submission Deadline: September 1, 2025
Notification of Acceptance: November 1, 2025

Review Process

All submissions will undergo a double-blind peer review process. Manuscripts will be evaluated
based on originality, relevance, methodological rigor, and contribution to the field.

Contact Information

Ed Cueva, Interdisciplinary Humanities Lead Editor: cuevae@uhd.edu

We are happy to announce that the 3rd PBIC Thai Studies conference shall be on “Ghosts”. The conference shall take place on June 15th 2025 at PBIC Thammasat, Tha Prachan campus. We accept abstracts until May 1st 2025 sent to thstudies@pbic.tu.ac.th. Please see the poster for more information.

MonsterTalk has been promoting science and critical thinking since 2009. We use monsters as a springboard to talk about a variety of monster topics. We’re skeptical of the existence of monsters, but we want to understand the mysterious experiences people report.

Blake Smith is the host & producer of MonsterTalk.

Karen Stollznow is an author, researcher and the co-host of the show.

The hosts of MonsterTalk are pretty easy to find but here’s some pointers if you need to get in touch with them.

Blake – Blake@monstertalk.org
Karen – Karen@monstertalk.org

Dr Chawarote Valyamedhi is a full-time Assistant Professor at National Chengchi University, Taiwan. He holds PhD in Thai Dance, MA in Sanskrit, BFA in Music from Chulalongkorn University, Certificate in Japanese Culture and Language from Ryukoku University and Senshu University, Japan, and Certificate in Chinese Language and Culture from National Taiwan University. His research interests include connection between performing arts and literature, performing arts and beliefs, world performing arts, cultural history and intellectual history of dance. From July 2018 Chawarote is a visiting fellow at Taipei National University of the Arts. He has experience as lecturer at Thammasat University, Assumption University of Thailand, and as an adjunct faculty at Chulalongkorn University, Webster University Thailand, and Taipei National University of the Arts. He has served as a full-time faculty at National Chengchi University since 2021.

In 2023, The Last Tuesday Society organised a series of lectures on folk horror, which included one on Thai folk horror.

The New York Times bestselling author, Chloe Gong, is one of the most exciting voices in Fantasy novels and she takes inspiration from Shakespeare. Her ‘Secret Shanghai’ series was a YA Fantasy retelling of Romeo and Juliet and she has just adapted Antony & Cleopatra for her Adult Fantasy trilogy, ‘Flesh and False Gods’. In Gong’s hands, Shakespeare’s women characters have become forces to reckon with.

On 17 November 2023, our very own Sarah Olive led a conversation with NYT bestselling author Chloe Gong. Sarah has been reading her work since 2020 (These Violent Delights was a big book she discovered during the pandemic). She teaches her work now and has written on the joyous multilingualism in her books for Jeunesse.

The event was a collaboration between the British Shakespeare Association and the Women & Shakespeare Podcast which has featured both Gong and Olive as guests.

14th Asian Cinema Studies Society Conference 2025 (May 22-24, 2025)

The University of Hong Kong
Asian Cinema Studies Society (ACSS)
Center for the Study of Globalization and Cultures (CSGC)
Master of Arts in Literary and Cultural Studies (MALCS)
Department of Comparative Literature

Call for Papers: What is Asian Cinema?

We invite paper and panel proposals to present at the 14th Asian Cinema Studies Society conference to be held at the University of Hong Kong (HKU) during May 22-24, 2025. As a non-profit scholarly organization, the Asian Cinema Studies Society (ACSS) actively fosters international research in Asian film and media and publishes the flagship peer-reviewed journal Asian Cinema (Intellect). With the support of the Center for the Study of Globalization and Cultures (CSGC), the Master of Arts in Literary and Cultural Studies Programme (MALCS), and the Department of Comparative Literature of HKU, ACSS brings its first face-to-face meeting since the global pandemic back to Hong Kong, a major Asian metropolis, transport hub, filmmaking capital, and connective node of regional, inter-Asian, and transpacific cultural globalization.

ACSS 2025 invites participants to present papers on any aspect of Asian film and media, though we encourage proposals that address the question: “What is Asian cinema?” Although often understood as cinematic practices, institutions, cultural formations, and critical discourses in or from Asia, the term “Asian cinema” belies its contradictions and complexities as an idea. Historically, scholars challenged such simplistic and binaristic understandings by investigating: how “Asia,” “Asian,” and “cinema” were defined under colonialism and postcolonialism; the way transnational productions trespass national and regional boundaries; the complex relations between home/ancestry/ethnicity/linguistic sharedness and diaspora; as well as how cinema itself often redefines and rewrites the meanings of “Asia” and “Asian.” Recently, theorists posit that the term “Asian cinema” implicitly constructs “cinema” and “media” as universal concepts modified by a particular concept: “Asian,” a construction that perpetuates the orientalist knowledge formation of Asia as an exception to the norm.

In light of these provocations, we ask: Does studying cinema in, from, about, or by Asia/Asians always suggest a power relation between an observer and an observed or an irreconcilable difference between Asia and somewhere else? Do strategically essential concerns justify the particularity of Asian film and media studies? How do evolving meanings and technologies of “cinema,” “film,” and “media” in our era of digital globalization reshape ideas of “Asia” or “Asian?” And, what was Asian cinema?

We welcome discussions and interventions addressing these questions both directly and indirectly, and from different disciplinary perspectives, methods, and approaches. Possible topics in relation to Asian film and media may include, but are not limited to:

Colonialism, postcolonialism, decolonization, nationalism, empire, globalization
Digital and online media, cultures, communities, and fandoms, streaming and platforms, video games, new media, seriality, intermediality, transmediality, post-cinema, big data, AI, CGI, deepfakes, surveillance
Environmentalism, ecocriticism, animal studies and/or plant studies, anthropocene
Film and media theory, philosophy, and discourse
Historiography, memory, media archaeology and ecology, industry, exhibition, distribution, censorship/regulation, museology and curation, film festivals, stars
LGBTQIA+, disability, race, ethnicity, class, feminism, and gender
Pedagogy, production, performance, criticism, sound, music, effects, choreography
Poetics, narrative, aesthetics, genre, documentary, experimental, animation, authorship, studios, independent, reception, audience, waves, movements
Regional, national, transnational, indigenous, diaspora, language communities, refugee, exilic, inter-Asian, transpacific, Asian/American, Asian Australian, Asian Canadian
Urban, rural, archipelagic, oceanic, and other spatial and environmental imaginaries

Please send proposals or enquiries to acssconference2025@gmail.com. For individual paper proposals, send a 200-300 word abstract and include the title, author name(s), institutional affiliation, mailing address, and email contacts, as well as a brief (50-100 word) biography of the contributor. For pre-constituted panel proposals (of 3-4 papers), provide a brief description (100 words) of the overall panel along with the individual abstracts and contributor information. Sessions will be 90 minutes in duration, and time limits will be strictly enforced. The deadline for submission of proposals is 10 November 2024. Notifications of acceptance will be sent by the end of January 2025.

There will be no conference registration fee per se, but all presenters must be members of the Asian Cinema Studies Society, which requires an annual fee of $550 HKD / $70 USD. Full-time students (with ID) and underemployed scholars may pay a discounted fee of $450 HKD / $57 USD. The fee covers one year membership, one volume (two issues) of Asian Cinema, and gives access to the society’s executive meeting at the conference.

Jenny Wan Ying Chak is an MPhil student in the Comparative Literature department at the University of Hong Kong. Her research interests include East-West Literary Criticism, Ecocriticism, Classical Chinese Literature, Gothic Literature, and Detective Fiction. Her thesis employs a transcultural ecogothic lens to explore the intricate representations of nonhuman animals and natural environments in Pu Songling’s and Edgar Allan Poe’s short stories.

Author Archive: kancuta@gmail.com

MAI: Women in Horror

Doing Women’s Global Horror Film History

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