Events

Dark Enchantments: 

Gothic Folklore and the Monstrous Fairy-Tale

Sheffield Gothic is excited to announce our upcoming conference, Dark Enchantments: Gothic Folklore and the Monstrous Fairy-Tale. The two day colloquium will take place on 29th-30th October Firth Court, the University of Sheffield.

In addition to a range of panels touching on all that is monstrous, beautifully sinister, or otherwise otherworldly in art and culture, this conference will feature a keynote paper from Dr Sam George, Associate Professor of Research in English Literature and Creative Writing at the University of Hertfordshire. Delegates are also invited to attend a creative workshop hosted by Ella Ruby Self, a PhD researcher at the University of Sheffield and the author of Abraxus Elijah Honey (2024).

We are now seeking submissions for individual academic papers and/or roundtable proposals, so please visit our CfP page for more information on the theme and how to send us your abstracts.

This year, Sheffield Gothic is working in collaboration with independent Northern publisher Twisted Ink, an online literary journal run by Sheffield PGRs. We are seeking creative submissions of poetry, prose, flash fiction, creative non-fiction, auto-fiction or anything else that is inspired by our theme of Gothic Folklore and the Monstrous Fairy- tale, to form a panel of creative work. If selected for the panel, you will also be invited to submit and publish the creative work you present in a special issue of Twisted Ink, in celebration of current studies and creative exploration of the Gothic. Find out more about Twisted Ink here.

To parallel our values of accessibility, this conference will be free to attend and fully catered. Once registration opens, you will have the opportunity to provide any dietary and/or access requirements.

We look forward to seeing you there!

Ann Radcliffe, Then and Now | International Conference

University of Sheffield | 24th, 25th, 26th June, 2027

Please direct any questions to annradcliffeconference@sheffield.ac.uk

The Ann Radcliffe, Then and Now team are delighted to welcome you to Sheffield for our international Radcliffe conference. In addition to papers and keynote lectures from world-leading experts, expect a range of exciting events which we’ll be unveiling month by month from July! Please keep an eye on our website and social media pages to stay up to date – and click here to submit your paper proposal.

WHEN? 24th-26th June, 2027

WHERE? INOX, Level 5, Students’ Union Building, Durham Road, Sheffield, S10 2TG

KEYNOTE SPEAKERS: Tom Duggett, Michael Gamer, Robert Miles, Katrina O’Loughlin, Dale Townshend, and Angela Wright

CONFERENCE FEE: £180 (£120 for unwaged, undergraduate, postgraduate, and ECR participants; £60 for online-only audience members).

CALL FOR PAPERS

Deadline 15th September (we will aim to get back to you by 30th September)

A pioneer of Gothic fiction, poetry, and travel writing, Ann Radcliffe (1764-1823) was one of the most influential and widely read authors of her day. Her published works dominated the Romantic literary landscape, anticipating later psychological fiction and inspiring writers from Byron to the Brontës, from Mary Wollstonecraft to Mary Shelley. But Radcliffe’s influence extended far beyond her Romantic and Victorian successors: her unique and innovative Gothic mode impacts upon the way we understand and experience art, media, and literature today. Since 2024, the Ann Radcliffe, Then and Now project, funded by the AHRC, has sought to reintroduce Ann Radcliffe to 21st-century readers by exploring both her contemporary influence and her lasting legacies. To celebrate the project and the accompanying Cambridge Edition of the Works of Ann Radcliffe, we invite you to our conference, held at The University of Sheffield: an opportunity for Radcliffe readers and scholars to come together and celebrate her incredible and lasting contribution to literature.

We welcome paper proposals on any and all aspects of Radcliffe’s life and writing. Topics can include, but are not limited to, Radcliffe’s

~ novels and poetry

~ literary influences

~ imitators and emulators 

~ contemporary reception and adaptation

~ Gothic mode

~ Gothic and Romantic contemporaries

~ Travel and Travel Imaginary

~ Preternatural, Supernatural, Nature, the Numinous

~ Circulating Objects

~ Publishing Networks

~ Form and style

~ Aesthetics

~ Political commitments

~ 21st-century reception, revival, and adaptation

Click here to submit your paper proposals. Deadline: 15.09.26.

We are very pleased to announce that we are able to offer AHRC-funded bursaries to undergraduate, PGR, ECR, and unwaged participants: x4 £500 bursaries and x2 £1000 bursaries. These bursaries are designed to cover the conference fee, accommodation, and travel. If you would like to apply for a bursary, please provide the relevant information as outlined on the Google Form.

Please note that the conference will be hybrid for audience members, but if you are giving a paper you must attend in-person.

Event and conference archive

Read about our previous events including: free public lectures by Professor Michael Gamer, Dr Deborah Russell, and Professor Catherine Spooner, given as part of the Ann Radcliffe, Then and Now project (2024-2026); our Summer School, Gothic Futures: A Sheffield Summer Institute; Sheffield Gothic's "Consuming the Gothic" conference (November 2023); the 30th anniversay "Candyman and the Whole Damn Swarm" conference (October 2022); and the online "Cults, Cthulus, and Klansmen: The (Hi)stories within Lovecraft Country" symposium (May 2021).

Code of conduct

The Centre for the History of the Gothic is dedicated to providing a harassment-free conference experience for everyone regardless of gender, gender identity and expression, sexual orientation, disability, physical appearance, body size, race, age or religion. 

We believe our online spaces and our physical spaces should be safe and free from harassment, bullying or hate. We do not tolerate harassment of conference participants or attendees of our events in any form. 

All attendees, speakers, hosts and volunteers at our events are required to agree with the following code of conduct. There will be a zero tolerance policy for any form of harassment or abuse throughout our conference and events. Conference participants and attendees violating these rules may be sanctioned or removed from the conference or events at the discretion of the organisers. 

Harassment includes but is not limited to:

• Offensive verbal comments related to gender, gender identity and expression, age, sexual orientation, disability, physical appearance, body size, race, ethnicity, religion.

• Sexual images in public spaces.

• Deliberate intimidation, stalking, following, harassing photography or recording.

• Sustained disruption of talks or other events.

• Inappropriate physical contact.

• Unwelcome sexual attention or racial harassment, including any language that might be construed as antagonistic or inflammatory.

• Advocating for, or encouraging, any of the above behaviour.

Enforcement

Participants who display any harassing behaviour will be asked to leave the event immediately, or will be removed from the event by the event organisers.

We expect participants and speakers, as well as event organisers, chairs, and volunteers to follow this code throughout the event. This includes in particular not using sexualised images, activities, or other material (unless this is a relevant and appropriate part of your presentation), and not using sexualised clothing/uniforms/costumes, or otherwise creating a sexualised environment.

Reporting

If you witness or experience harassment, please report it as soon as possible to the organisers so that steps can be taken to remove individuals. Each conference and event will clearly state who the organisers are and how to contact them, so please refer to event materials for this information specific to each event. [Attendees and participants will be able to find details of the organisers and how to contact them in the conference pack for the symposium].

Hate crimes should be reported to the University of Sheffield’s Security Services, and you can find more details about the University’s policy and definition of harassment, bullying, and hate crimes on their website.

Harassment and other code of conduct violations reduce the value of our event for everyone. We want you to be happy and safe at our events.