More Evil and Wickedness for 2014

[CFP] 15th Global Conference: Perspectives on Evil and Human Wickedness

Saturday 22nd March – Monday 24th March 2014
Prague, Czech Republic

Call for Presentations

This inter-disciplinary and multi-disciplinary conference seeks to examine and explore issues surrounding evil and human wickedness. In wrestling with evil(s) we are confronted with a multi-layered phenomenon which invites people from all disciplines, professions and vocations to come together in dialogue and wrestle with questions that cross the boundaries of the intellectual, the emotional and the personal. Underlying these efforts there is the sense that in grappling with evil we are in fact grappling with questions and issues of our own humanity.

The complex nature of evil is reflected in this call for presentations: in recognising that no one approach or perspective can adequately do justice to what we mean by evil, so there is an equal recognition that no one form of presentation ought to take priority over others. We solicit contributions which may be

~ papers, panels, workshops, reports
~ case studies
~ performance pieces; dramatic readings; poetic renditions; short stories; creative writings
~ works of art; works of music
We will also consider other forms of contribution. Successful proposals will normally be given a 20 minute presentation space. Perspectives are sought from all academic disciplines along with, for example, those working in the caring professions, journalism, the media, the military, prison services, politics, psychiatry and other work-related, ngo and vocational areas.

Key themes for reflection may include, but are not limited to:

-what is evil?
-is there ‘new’ evil, or are evil acts/events pretty much the same across time with only our interpretive lenses changing as cultures shift?
-the nature and sources of evil and human wickedness
-evil animals? Wicked creatures?
-the places and spaces of evil
-crimes, criminals and justice
-psychopathic behaviour – mad or bad?
-villains, wicked characters and heroes
-vice and virtue
-choice, responsibility, and diminished responsibility
-social and cultural reactions to evil and human wickedness
-political evils; evil, power and the state
-evil and gender; evil and the feminine
-evil children
-hell, hells, damnation: evil and the afterlife
-the portrayal of evil and human wickedness in the media and popular culture
-suffering in literature and film
-individual acts of evil, group violence, holocaust and genocide; obligations of bystanders
-terrorism, war, ethnic cleansing
-fear, terror, horror
-the search for meaning and sense in evil and human wickedness
-the nature and tasks of theodicy
-religious understandings of evil and human wickedness
-postmodern approaches to evil and human wickedness
-ecocriticism, evil and suffering
-evil and the use/abuse of technology; evil in cyberspace

The Steering Group also welcomes the submission of pre-formed panel proposals.

What to Send

300 word abstracts should be submitted by Friday 10th October 2013. All submissions are at least double blind peer reviewed. If an abstract is accepted for the conference, a full draft paper should be submitted by Friday 17th January 2014. Abstracts should be submitted simultaneously to the Organising Chairs; abstracts may be in Word or RTF formats with the following information and in this order:

a) author(s), b) affiliation, c) email address, d) title of abstract, e) body of abstract f) up to 10 key words

E-mails should be entitled: Evil15 Abstract Submission.

Please use plain text (Times Roman 12) and abstain from using footnotes and any special formatting, characters or emphasis (such as bold, italics or underline). We acknowledge receipt and answer to all paper proposals submitted. If you do not receive a reply from us in a week you should assume we did not receive your proposal; it might be lost in cyberspace! We suggest, then, to look for an alternative electronic route or resend.

Organising Chairs

Stephen Morris

Rob Fisher

The conference is part of the At the Interface programme of research projects. It aims to bring together people from different areas and interests to share ideas and explore various discussions which are innovative and exciting.

For further details of the conference, please click here.

Please note: Inter-Disciplinary.Net is a not-for-profit network and we are not in a position to be able to assist with conference travel or subsistence.

Goth Tech Conference CFP

CFP: International Gothic Association Biennial Conference 2013

Gothic Technologies/Gothic Techniques Biennial Conference of the International Gothic Association
August 5 – 8, 2013
University of Surrey, United Kingdom

Confirmed Keynote Speakers: Professor Roger Luckhurst (Birkbeck College, University of London), Professor Fred Botting (Kingston University), other Keynotes TBA

Recent Gothic studies have foregrounded a plethora of technologies associated with Gothic literary and cultural production. Its presence is witnessed in how techno-science has contributed to the proliferation of the Gothic: the publishing and print culture disseminating Gothic texts, eighteenth-century architectural innovations, the on-line gaming and virtual Goth communities, the special effects of Gothic-horror cinema. One question raised by these new developments concerns the extent to which they generate new Gothic techniques. How does technology generate a new Gothic aesthetic? We are particularly interested in addressing how Gothic technologies have, in a general sense, produced and perpetuated ideologies and influenced the politics of cultural practice. However, we also want to reconsider the whole idea of what we mean by a Gothic ‘technique’ which arguably underpins these new formations of the Gothic. To that end we invite papers that question not only what we might constitute a Gothic aesthetic from the eighteenth century to the present day, but how that is witnessed in various forms such as the Female Gothic, models of the sublime, sensation fiction, cyberpunk as well as the various non-text based media that the Gothic has infiltrated. We also invite proposals which address how various critical theories help us to evaluate either these new technological trends or critically transform our understanding of the intellectual space occupied by earlier Gothic forms. Papers which explore the place of science, writing, and the subject are thus very welcome. We thus seek to explore how Gothic technologies/Gothic techniques textualize identities and construct communities within a complex network of power relations in local, national, transnational and global contexts. Papers exploring any aspect of Gothic technologies/Gothic techniques in writing, film and other media are welcome. Topics could include, but are not limited to, the following:

 • Gothic Architecture and Technology • Printing, Publishing and Gothic Disseminations • Terror, Terrorism, Technology • The techniques of philosophy – the sublime • Colonizing Technology and Postcolonial Gothics • Technology of Monsters • Gothic Art • Enlightenment Gothic and Science • War, Violence, Technology • (Neo)Victorian Gothic • Gothic poetry • Gothic Bodies: Modifications, Mutations, Transformations • Weird Science, Mad Scientists • Staging the Gothic • B-movies, Laughter and Comic Gothic • Demonic Technologies / Demonizing Technology • Theorising the Gothic • Gothic Geography – mapping the Gothic • Cloning, Duplicating, Doubling • Hybrids, Cyborgs and Transgression • Digital Gothics and Uncanny Media

Abstracts (350 words max.) for 20 minute papers may be submitted to IGA2013@surrey.ac.uk . The submission deadline is February 1, 2013. We also welcome submissions for panels (consisting of three papers) that address specific topics.

See: International Gothic Association

Vampire Conference Great Success

'Vampires: Myths of the Past and the Future' at London University's Institute of Germanic and Romance Studies took us from the eastern European vampire epidemic of the 18th century right through to the monster's modern incarnations in Twilight, True Blood, and all the rest. Co-ordinator Simon Bacon brought together a diverse group of scholars from all of the world - even Romania - to discuss vampires past and present, and their multiple meanings and representations. Highlights were undoubtedly the first test screening of Revenant Noir and Sir Christopher Frayling's Coffin Trust (I kid ye not) lecture, but amongst the many other great talks, Michael Bell on 'American Vampires' and Jim Doan on blood rites are worth singling out. In all, 65 papers over three days. For all those who coulnd't make it, there are rumours of a possible publication.

Vampire Conference in The Herald

From The Herald newspaper:

Why we’ve fallen in love with 21st-century vampires

IT’S a topic most people would assume has too little bite for the attention of high-minded academics.

But several of Edinburgh University’s brightest social scientists will speak in London this week at a conference set up to discuss how vampires are portrayed in contemporary pop culture.

Hey, we're not all talking about pop culture! Come along and I'll tell you about the 18th century vampire epidemic...

See also Why We Love Vampires for more coverage.

Vampire Conference Programme

Vampires: Myths of the Past and the Future

An International Conference at the Institute of Germanic & Romance Studies, University of London

Wednesday, 2 November - Friday, 4 November 2011

Co-Ordinator: Simon Bacon (London)

Programme
Wednesday, 2 November 2011

9.15 Registration

10.00 Simon Bacon (London): Welcome and Introduction

10.15 Plenary Session:
Ken Gelder (Melbourne): 'Our Vampires, Our Neighbours'

11.05 Coffee

11.30 Parallel Session 1a: Memories of Vampires Past (Chair: Sharon Payka)
Leo Ruickbie (UK): 'Vampire Autopsy: Evidence for the Undead'
Ingrida Slepavicute (Kaunas): 'Vampires in Lithuanian Mythology: from Traditional Legends until Netlore of Children'
Michael E. Bell (McKinney, TX): 'American Vampires and the Ongoing Ambiguity of Death'

11.30 Parallel Session 1b: Vampires of the Future (Chair: Alannah A. Hernandez)
Aline Ferreira (Aviero): 'Future Vampires: the Genetically Modified in Octavia Butlers Fledgling'
Stephania Kovbasiuk (Kiev): 'Dracula of the 21st Century: an Intellectual and a Thinker'
Cheyenne Mathews (USA): 'Lightening "The White Man's Burden": Evolution of the Vampire from the Victorian Racialism of Dracula to the New World Order of I am a Legend'

13.00 Lunch (own arrangements)

14.15 Parallel Session 2a: Images of the Vampire I (Chair: Hannah Priest)
Marco Grosoli (Italy): 'The Fearless Vampire Palgiarism: Park Chan-Wook's Thirst'
Victoria Williams (UK): 'Reflecting Dracula: the Undead in Alfred Hitchcock's Shadow of a Doubt'
Angela Tumini (Chapman, CA): 'Vampresse: Embodiment of Sensuality and Erotic Horror in Carl Dreyer's Vampyr and Mario Bava's The Mask of Satan'

14.15 Parallel Session 2b: Vampire Transgression (Chair: Ken Hollings)
Stephanie Badziong (Cologne): 'Religious Vampirism: the Elimination of the Church in Perfect Creature'
Judith Schossbock (Vienna): 'Dreading the Normative: the Vampire in the Queer Horror Genre'
Hadas Elber (Tel Aviv): 'Dracula meets Darwin': Contemporary Science Fiction's Demystification of the Vampire'

15.45 Tea

16.15 Parallel Session 3a: Memories of the New World (Chair: Rikke Schubart)
Enrique Ajura Ibarra (Lancaster): 'Vampire Science: the Myths of Dracula and Frankenstein in Medxican Horror Cinema'
Alannah A. Hernandez (Chicago, IL): 'Vampire Migrations: the Long and Winding Road Leading from the Old World to the New'
Ines Ordiz Alonso-Collada (Léon): 'Vampires in Globalized Culture: the Narrative of Adrianna Diaz Encisco'

16.15 Parallel Session 3b: All that Glitters I (Chair: Angela Tumini)
Reni Eddo-Lodge (Preston): 'The Anti-Feminist Character of Bella Swan: Why the Twilight Saga is Regressive'
Karin Hirmer (Regensburg): Female Empowerment: Buffy and her Heiresses in Control'
Thuc Doan Nguyen (Fullerton, CA): 'Of "Cougars" and "Kittens": Vampire Visual Rhetoric in the Last Three Decades'

17.45 Plenary Session: Remembrance of a Symphony of Terror: Film and Performance (Chair: Clemens Ruthner)
Clemens Ruthner (Dublin): 'Introduction to Anglo-German Vampires'
Mark Ferelli (UK): 'Performance: Magic Lantern Performance, "For the Love of Alfred Reginald Natzinck"'
Hannes König (Lind): 'Performance: Revenant Noir: 30-minute Black and White Film with Music (World Premiere/Test Screening)'

19.15 Sessions end

Thursday, 3 November 2011

9.30 Plenary Session:
Milly Williamson (London): title to be announced

10.20 Coffee

10.45 Parallel Session 4a: 'Fangdom' and Popular Memory (Chair: Sorcha Ni Fhlainn)
Maria Mellins (London): 'Fangtasia London: The True Blood Franchise and Vampire Lifestyle'
Malin Isaksson (Umea): 'Traces of Carmilla in Femslash Fan Fiction: Contemporary Female Vampires and their Possible Futures'
Rosemary Candelario (Los Angeles, CA): '"I want to be the one": Vampires and Virgins in Popular Culture'

10.45 Parallel Session 4b: All that Glitters II (Chair: Nadine Farghaly)
Nancy Schumann (UK): 'Women with Bite: Tracing Vampire Women from Lilith to Twilight'
Christine Feichtinger (Graz): 'The Vampiric Body of Plenitude: Reflections on the Role of the Body in Stephanie Mayer's Twilight Series'
Batia Stolar (Ontario): The Gender Politics of Reproduction in the Twilight Series'

12.15 Lunch (own arrangements)

13.30 Parallel Session 5a: 'Our Vampires, Ourselves' (Chair: Maurizio Cinquegrani)
Catherine Strong (Wagga Wagga, NSW): 'Vampire as Celebrity, Celebrity as Vampire': the Uncertain Boundary between Reality and Myth in the Twilight Franchise'
Nadine Farghaly (Salzburg): 'Vamp No More: When Bloodsucking Friends Just Aren't Enough'
Ivan Phillips (Hatfield): 'The Vampire with a Tousand Faces': Towards a Physiognomy of the Undead'

13.30 Parallel Session 5b: All that Glitters III (Chair: Malin Isaksson)
Celia Jameson (London): 'Edward Cullen is a controlling and abusive boyfriend': Twilight and the Discourse of Control and Coercion in Heterosexual Relationships'
Katharina Rein (Germany): 'Father, Brother, Child: the Posy-Familial Vampire Society in True Blood'
Maria Lindgren Leavenworth (Umea): '" I wanna do bad things with you": Fear and Desire in The Southern Vampire Mysteries and True Blood'

15.00 Parallel Session 6a: Mis-Un-Dead (Chair: Ivan Phillips)
Catherine Wynne (Hull): 'Notions of the Home in I am Legend and its Adaptations'
Maurizio Cinquegrani (London): '"Spectral Wanderers of Unholy Night": the Vampire and the Cinematic City'
Raul Rodriguez-Hernandez and Claudia Schäfer (Rochester, NY): 'Sublime Horror: Transparency, Melodrama and the "Mise-en-scène" of Three Mexican Vampire Films'

15.00 Parallel Session 6b: Vampires of the Future II (Chair: Bernhard Unterholzner)
Kristin Burnett and Judith Leggatt (Ontario): 'Bloodsucking Colonizers and the Undead Anishinaabe in Drew Hayden's The Night Wanderer'
Karma Waltonen (Davis, CA): 'Octavia Butler's Fledgling: Postmodern Revisioning of the Vampire'
Georgina Colby (London): Political Bloodsuckers: Neoliberal/Neoimperial Vampires in Bret Easton Ellis's The Informers and Imperial Bedrooms'

16.30 Tea

16.50 Parallel Session 7a: Memories of Vampires Past II (Chair: Grainne O'Brien)
Hannah Priest (Manchester): 'Vampirs in those Days: Interrogating Master Narratives'
James Doan (Fort Lauderdale, FL): "For the blood is the life": Myths and Rituals of Vampirism in Southwest and Plains Indian Cultures'
Achamma Alex (Chengannur): 'Vampire Myths: Offering Resistance to the Dominant Culture'

16.50 Parallel Session 7b: Images of the Vampire II (Chair: Katharina Rein)
Denis Liboni (Iasi): 'Dracula between Myths and Reality, Universe and Homeland'
Yakut Oktay (Istanbul): 'Vampire as the Victorian Aesthete: Coppola's Bram Stoker's Dracula'
Sharon Payka and Jane Nickerson (Washington, DC): 'Developing a Course with Bite'

Coffin Trust Lecture

18.20 Reception
18.50 Sir Christopher Frayling (Cambridge): 'The Nighmare of Bram Stoker'

Sponsored by the John Coffin Trust of the University of London

Friday, 4 November 2011


9.30 Plenary Session:
Stacey Abbott (London): 'How to Survive a Vampire Apocalypse, or What to Do when the Vampires are Us'

10.20 Coffee

10.45 Parallel Session 8a: Memories of a Forever Youth (Chair: Simon Bacon)
Kelly Doyle (Okanagan, BC): 'Childish Monsters, Monstrous Children: Boundary, Transgression, Posthumanism, and the Child as Monster in Tomas Alfredson's Let the Right One In'
Allison Moore (Birmingham): '"I'm twelve, but I've been twelve for a long time": Representations of Childhood in Let the Right One In'
Rikke Schaubart (Denmark): '"Be me for a little while": Border-Crossing and Vampire Pedagogy in Let the Right One In (2008)'

10.45 Parallel Session 8b: Theory of the Undead I (Chair: Judith Schossbock)
Christine Knight (Edinburgh): 'Synthetic Blood and Vegetarian Vampires: the Ethics of Consumption in 21st-Century Vampire Texts'
Odelia Barkin (Jerusalem): 'Current American TV Vampires and Trauma'
Hannes König (Lind): 'Vampire in the Mirror: the Psychoanalysis of Immortal Narcissism'

12.15 Lunch (own arrangements)

13.15 Plenary Session:
Catherine Spooner (Lancaster): '"Dressed in a silken robe of white": Fashioning the Vampire from Page to Screen'

14.15 Parallel Session 9a: Vampire Evolution (Chair: Aline Ferreira)
Karin Preuss (Germany): 'Subversive Aesthetics of Transgression: Vampires in Literature and Film'
Naomi Segal (London): André Gide, Nosferatu and the Hydraulics of Youth and Age'
Karen Leeder (Oxford): '"The empty looking glass": Metamorphosis of the Vampire in Heiner Müller'

14.15 Parallel Session 9b: Vampires in Popular Memory (Chair: Allison Moore)
Erika Grendelova (Prague): 'Vampires in Comics: Transformation of the Myth as Represented in 30 Days of Night'
Burcu Genc (Istanbul): 'The Vampire from an Evolutionary Perspective in the Japanese Animation Blood +'
Grainne O'Brien (Limerick): 'Where's the Blood? Marginalised or Trivialised? Vampires in the Harry Potter Series'

15.45 Tea

16.10 Parallel Session 10a: Theory of the Undead II (Chair: Hadas Elber)
Marius Crisan (Timisoara): 'Vampires and Stereotypes: Post-Stoker Imagined Transylvania'
Sarah Horgan (Canterbury): 'The Anglo-Irish Vampire: Constructions of a Conflicted National Identity in the 19th-Century Gothic Text'
Bernhard Unterholzner (Gießen): 'Tracing Translation: Vampires, Media, Enlightenment'

16.10 Parallel Session 10b: Mis-Un-Dead II (Chair: Cheyenne Matthews)
Ken Hollings (London): 'Gothic Machines'
Sorcha Ni Fhlainn (Dublin): '"Old things, fine things": of Vampires, Antique Dealers, and Timelessness'
Isabella van Elfren (Utrecht): 'Music that Sucks and Bloody Liturgy: Catholicism in Vampire Movies'

17.40 Closing Discussion

17.55 Conference ends

Further details and registration
To obtain further information and register for the conference, contact Christopher Barenberg (tel: 020 7862 8738). Please note the closing date for receipt of registrations is Friday, 21 October 2011.

From http://igrs.sas.ac.uk/events/conferences-workshops/vampires-myths-of-the-past-and-future.html

Contemporary Esotericism Conference

Call for Papers:

International Conference: Contemporary Esotericism

Department of History of Religions, Stockholm University, Sweden.
August 27-29, 2012

Keynote speakers:

- Wouter J. Hanegraaff (Center for History of Hermetic Philosophy and Related Currents, University of Amsterdam)
- Christopher Partridge (Religious Studies, Lancaster University)
- Kocku von Stuckrad (Study of Religion, Groningen University)

Conference organizers:

- Egil Asprem (Center for History of Hermetic Philosophy and Related Currents, University of Amsterdam)
- Kennet Granholm (History of Religions, Stockholm University)

Deadline for abstracts: March 30, 2012
Submit abstracts to: ContEso2012@gmail.com
Conference website: http://www.erg.su.se/pub/jsp/polopoly.jsp?d=16771

The academic study of Western esotericism has blossomed in recent years; University departments and MA programs have been established, book series and journals launched, academic societies founded, and several international conferences and panels are organized every year. There is, however, still a major gap in scholarship on esotericism: very little research exists on contemporary phenomena. While some
present-day phenomena related to esotericism, such as ‘New Age spiritualities’ and (neo)paganism, have been the focus of scholars in other fields, scholars working in the field of esotericism have largely neglected such developments. With a focus on early modern phenomena, scholarship in the field of Western esotericism has been
predominantly historiographical in its approach, with a common reluctance to incorporate social scientific approaches. In recent years, however, serious attempts have been made to develop sociological approaches to the study of the esoteric/occult which are both compatible with historical approaches and forgo the biased presumptions of yesteryear. A fundamental challenge for the study of contemporary esoteric phenomena is that it is not sufficient to simply transpose theories, definitions and methodologies developed for the study of e.g. Renaissance magic to later manifestations of the esoteric. Studying contemporary phenomena poses intriguing possibilities, such as the opportunity to study esotericism in lived
contexts, which unavoidably also introduce new problems. In general, several theoretical and methodological concerns need to be addressed if a proper study of contemporary esotericism is to succeed.

*Suggested Topics*

The primary aim of this conference is to place contemporary phenomena on the agenda of the study of esotericism. Thus we welcome papers dealing with contemporary and recent developments in “classic” esoteric currents – e.g. within Theosophy, Anthroposophy, Freemasonry, Rosicrucianism, and ritual magical currents – as well as esoteric developments of particular relevance today – e.g. Chaos Magick, Satanism, and (neo)paganism. We also strongly encourage papers dealing with theoretical and methodological issues that are particularly pertinent to the study of contemporary esotericism, as well as papers dealing with the societal, cultural, political, religious etc. contexts of esotericism today. This can include discussions on the
role played by the esoteric in modern politics (e.g. the new right), grassroots activism (e.g. deep ecology and the animal rights movement), science (e.g. parapsychology, neurotheology, “New Age physics”), healthcare (e.g. alternative medicine), popular culture (both entertainment media and in broader contexts such as kitsch, consumer, and fan culture), and modern interactive communications media (e.g. mediatization and the effects of changing modes of mediation), as well as the simultaneous influence of these and other fields on esoteric notions, beliefs, and practices. General theoretical discussion on the potential usefulness of sociological
terms and concepts such as globalization, secularization, and the post-secular in the study of contemporary esotericism is also encouraged. The conference should function as an interdisciplinary meeting place where scholars from a multitude of disciplines and with different approaches and perspectives can come together to learn from each other.

*Additional information*

The conference will function as the launching party for Contemporary Esotericism (Equinox Publishing,
http://www.equinoxpub.com/equinox/books/showbook.asp?bkid=531), the first volume specifically dedicated to the study of esotericism in the present day. In addition, the conference is arranged in conjunction with the 2012 EASR conference, also arranged in Stockholm, Sweden (at Södertörn University, August 23-26). Panels on esotericism, both historical and contemporary, are planned for the EASR as well, thus
providing the opportunity to engage in extended discussion on these subjects, and of course lessening travel expenses. A more detailed call for papers, including information on registration, conference fees, transportation, accommodation etc., will be sent out later. However, interested parties may send in their abstracts (approx. 200 words) along with a brief academic CV (max. 1 page) already at this
early stage. Please send the documents to ContEso2012@gmail.com.

Edges of Freemasonry Conference

Call for Papers:

*EDGES OF FREEMASONRY -- WESTERN ESOTERICISM AND THE ENLIGHTENMENT*

7--8 September, 2012, University of Tampere, Finland -- www.edges.fi

The School of Social Sciences and Humanities at the University of Tampere is organizing an international conference on Freemasonry, Western Esotericism and the development of the Enlightenment ideas. The conference is organized in association with the Research Lodge Minerva No. 27 of The Grand Lodge of F. & A. M. of Finland. The themes focus on historical developments, although other aspects will also be presented.

The conference is a two-day event open to scholars, postgraduate students and students, likewise to the members of masonic lodges and the public. The conference language is English.

The keynote speakers of the symposium are Professor Ronald Hutton (University of Bristol, U.K.), Dr. Róbert Péter (University of Szeged, Hungary), Dr. Henrik Bogdan (University of Gothenburg, Sweden) and Mr. Antti Talvitie, Architect MSc. (Seinäjoki, Finland).

Freemasonry is among the most widespread spiritual communities and has had a significant role in diverse ideological currents often named western esotericism. Freemasonry, which is at least 300 years old, is firmly rooted in the tradition of the Enlightenment.

Western esotericism and freemasonry have increasingly attracted attention from academic research. As a unique yet also controversial phenomenon freemasonry provides a dynamic standpoint for the study of western cultural and intellectual life which from this point of view has been much neglected.

The key themes are:

1 The historical constitution of freemasonry

2 The connections between western esotericism and the development of modern science

3 Symbols as cultural artefacts and transmission objects between the personal and the transcendence

4 Extending the rational: rites, intuition and religious experience in western subjectivity

The conference board welcomes all scholarly presentations, also from postgraduates, related to the themes or concepts of the Enlightenment, freemasonry, esotericism or the occult.

The organizers hope that proposals for the general sessions will be sent not later than November 31, 2011. Speakers are asked to supply their contact information, the title of the presentation and a short abstract (400---600 words). Proposals for other sessions can also be sent later. The abstract should preferably be sent via email to the conference secretary Mr. Antti Harmainen (papers@edges.fi and to conference secretary Ms. Katariina Lehto (papers@symposium.fi).

For registration and details of the conference, please see www.edges.fi. For further information please do not hesitate to contact the secretaries or Professor Risto Harisalo (risto.harisalo@uta.fi ) and Dr. Marko Nenonen (marko.nenonen@uta.fi ), +358 40 577 9737.

'Magic is Might 2012': Call for Papers

Harry Potter conference in Ireland. Call for papers just announced:
'Magic is Might 2012': Call for Papers: "The Harry Potter series has become a publishing phenomenon that has captured the imagination of children and adults all over the world. The ..."

This two-day event will feature twenty 15-20 minute presentations on papers relating to popular culture and the Harry Potter series. We will encourage intensive and lively discussion and debate around the papers over the two days in this intimate setting. Wizards, muggles, established academics and postgraduate students are invited to submit papers.

Vampire Conference Paper Accepted

'Vampires: Myths of the Past and the Future' - An interdisciplinary conference organised by Simon Bacon, The London Consortium in collaboration with the Centre for the Study of Cultural Memory, Institute of Germanic & Romance Studies, University of London

From the conference description:

Myths of vampires and the undead are as old as civilisation itself, wherever humans gather these ‘dark reflections’ are sure to follow. Whether as hungry spirits, avenging furies or as the disgruntled dearly departed, they have been used to signify the monstrous other and the consequences of social transgression. Embodying the result of a life lived beyond patriarchal protective proscription that quickly changes from dream to nightmare and from fairy tale to ghost story.

Sir Christopher Frayling, Dr Stacey Abbott, Dr Catherine Spooner and Dr Milly Williamson will be giving papers, and there'll also be the world premiere of a short film on vampires.

I'll be presenting a paper on the 18th century vampire epidemic and its consequences.

See the website for more details on the full programme http://igrs.sas.ac.uk/events/conferences-workshops/vampires.html
And put 2-4 November 2011 in your calendars.

Reinventing the Renaissance Occult

Review of 'Reinventing the Renaissance Occult in Modern and Postmodern Culture' now available at http://jwmt.org/v2n20/reinventing.html

Five hundred years ago the occult – what we think of as ‘the occult’ – was taught in university and practised by many of the foremost personalities of the age. Still it was persecuted. Dangerous. Between the Church and the deep blue sea: Scylla and Charybdis. It was the high point of ‘the occult’ and also its low point. To some it promised to reveal the secrets of the universe, to others it automatically meant a pact with the Devil and damnation. Such contrasts have thrown long shadows that still play across the present.

Published in the Journal of the Western Mystery Tradition, No. 20, Vol. 2. Vernal Equinox 2011.

Reinventing the Renaissance Occult

Review of the 'Reinventing the Renaissance Occult in Modern and Postmodern Culture' conference accepted by the Journal of the Western Mystery Tradition (JWMT) for the forthcoming edition, vol. 2, no. 20. Will post link when the journal is published.

Renaissance Occult - Conference Update

Prof. Sarah Annes Brown has posted a summary of my talk 'Dealing with the Devil: The Faustian Pact in Magical Culture':

Leo Ruickbie gave a very engaging account of the Faustian pact in magical culture, moving from the responses of Faust’s near contemporaries, to an account of an eighteenth-century man apparently saved at the last moment when on the brink of selling his soul to the devil, and concluding with some unexpectedly up to date examples. We heard of people attempting to sell their souls on eBay, and also of the curious case of S. Jason Black who claims to have reaped substantial benefits after making a pact with princes of Hell. (Afterwards Marina Warner drew a wholly convincing parallel between such magical pacts and Catholic indulgences – both equally the targets of Protestant disapproval.)

Dealing with the Devil

This paper given at Reinventing the Renaissance Occult, Anglia Ruskin University, Cambridge, 14 November 2009, explored the development of the Faustian Pact, looking at how the Renaissance magician Faustus came to be condemned as having made a pact with the Devil, and how this condemnation itself came to be a pattern for magical practice.

Pacts with the Devil have been a mainstay of Christian legend, used to reveal the saintliness of some and revile the Satanism of others – a two-edged weapon in the war of words fought between sanctioned ‘truth’ and outlawed knowledge. And it is a sword that has landed firmly on the neck of one sixteenth century magician in particular.

[...]

Reinventing the Renaissance Occult

The aim of the day was to explore the different ways in which modern culture has returned to Renaissance esotericism. Some have been drawn to the intriguing remoteness of such teachings from our own more scientific and sceptical age. Others, by contrast, have sought to discover unexpected points of contact between the mysteries of the occult and more modern mysteries, such as quantum science. The lure of the occult today may partly be explained by a growing dissatisfaction with Enlightenment rationalism and its perceived failure to address fundamental human concerns.

Reinventing the Renaissance Occult in Modern and Postmodern Culture, Saturday 14 November 2009, Helmore 201, Anglia Ruskin University, Cambridge

Jennifer Mckimm, ‘“Sounding Alchyme:” The Politics and Aesthetics of Milton’s Alchemical Verse in Paradise Lost’ [Cancelled]

Diana Barsham, ‘"That Miracles are Ceased": Reginald Scot and the Rediscovery of Witchcraft’ [Cancelled]

Ewan Fernie, ‘The Possessed’.

Gyorgy E. Szonyi, ‘Three "New Age" Interpretations of the Book of Enoch'.

Urszula Szulakowska, 'Art and the Esoteric Tradition in Australia'.


Sophia Wellbeloved, 'The Conquest of Time in the Writings of GI Gurdjieff'.

Leo Ruickbie, 'Dealing with the Devil: The Faustian Pact in Magical Culture'.

Monika Smialkowska, 'Magicians and Scientists: David Calcutt's Prospero's Island and Elizabeth Nunez' Prospero's Daughter'.

Patricia MacCormack, 'Occultism and Continental Philosophy: From Solomon through Spare to Serres'.

Mark Goodall, 'L'Occhio Selvaggio: Towards an Occult Film Studies'.

Rowlie Wymer, 'Science, Religion and Magic in James Blish's "After Such Knowledge" Sequence'.

Marina Warner, reading from Phantasmagoria.

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