The Fan Studies Network

INTERNATIONAL VAMPIRE FILM AND ARTS FESTIVAL
http://www.ivfaf.com

CALL FOR PAPERS
The second annual International Vampire Film and Arts Festival will take place in Sighisoara in Transylvania, Romania, on May 25th ‐ 28th 2017.
Theme: VAMPIRES ON SCREEN: Life, Death, and Immortality
Curating University: EMERSON
Keynote Speaker: Cynthia J. Miller (Undead in the West, Horrors of War, The Laughing Dead)

This call for papers is for scholars interested in presenting their work in the academic symposium that runs alongside the Festival (in association with Emerson College).
From the silent era to the present day, cinematic vampires have menaced, critiqued, and entertained the living. From sexuality to race, and political‐economy to personal violence,
vampires have reflected our existential struggles as well as our everyday lives, Lending themselves to not only horror, but a wide range of genre mash‐ups and hybrids as well,
they can be found in cities and suburbs, battlefields and college campuses, the Wild West and quaint New England towns. As vampire narratives and tropes shift and evolve in
motion pictures, how do we continue to interpret their roles and functions? What do cinematic vampires—as familiar foils, monstrous Others, and cultural commentators—
bring to our theaters and homes when we invite them in? This session invites papers exploring the many forms and visions of the vampire on screen, from Nosferatu through the present day. Papers will be selected to broadly represent eras, fields of critical inquiry, and the cinematic and cultural evolution of vampire.
Proposals for single 20‐minute papers or pre‐constituted panels (of 3 x 20‐minute papers) on the conference theme are invited from scholars and advanced graduate
students. Possible topics include (but are not limited to) the following:

+ Landmarks of Vampire Film and Television (Dracula, Dark Shadows, Interview with
a Vampire, Near Dark, John Carpenter’s Vampires, True Blood)
+ Urban Vampires (Dracula A.D. 1972, Vampire in Brooklyn, Love at First Bite)
+ Genre Parody (Vampire’s Kiss, What We Do In the Shadows, Vampires Suck, Dracula:
Dead and Loving It)
+ Vampires as Social and Political Commentary (Fearless Vampire Killers, Blacula,
Vampires: Los Muertos)
+ The Vampire’s Role in Genre Evolution
+ Franchising the Vampire (Twilight, Underworld, Blade)
+ Children of Dracula: Spin‐offs, Adaptations, and Novelizations
+ Turned: Fan Editing and Vampire Cinema
+ Vampire Foodways
+ Non‐Western Cinematic Vampires (Thirst, Let the Right One In, Daughters of
Darkness, Mr. Vampire)
+ Vampires in Genre Mash‐ups (Curse of the Undead, Billy the Kid vs. Dracula, From
Dusk Till Dawn, Abraham Lincoln, Vampire Hunter)
+ Still Cutting Their Teeth: Vampires for Children and Young Adults (The Little
Vampire, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, The Vampire’s Assistant)
+ Sex, Gender, and the Children of the Night (Near Dark, Only Lovers Left Alive,
Vampyros Lesbos)

This conference theme is curated by Professor Cynthia J. Miller and Professor Meta Wagner, and is sponsored by the Institute for Liberal Arts and Interdisciplinary Studies at Emerson
College (www.emerson.edu) Submit abstracts (500 words maximum) via email to vampiresonscreen2017@gmail.com, no later than February 1, 2016. Full panel proposals should include all three proposals
along with a summary (50 words maximum) of the panel’s central topic by the moderator. Accepted submitters must confirm commitment to attend and present their
own original work at the conference in Transylvania. For information on conference registration and location, visit http://www.ivfaf.com

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