NeMLA 2026 Panel Session: The Murder and Its Afterlife: Regenerating the Wicked Witch
deadline for submissions:
September 30, 2025
full name / name of organization:
Noah Gallego, California State Polytechnic University, Pomona
contact email:
noahrgallego@gmail.com
source: https://call-for-papers.sas.upenn.edu/cfp/2025/06/12/nemla-2026-panel-session-the-murder-and-its-afterlife-regenerating-the-wicked-witch
send submissions to https://cfplist.com/nemla/Home/S/21574.
Conference dates: March 5-8, 2026 in Pittsburgh, PA
Deadline for abstracts: September 30, 2025
Contact panel chair for inquiries: Noah Gallego @noahrgallego@gmail.com
Upon the release of his beloved children’s classic, The Wizard of Oz (1900), L. Frank Baum introduced the masses to one of the most enduring villains of American literature: the Wicked Witch of the West. While she played a marginal role in the original book, Victor Fleming’s 1939 movie adaptation rebranded her as the main antagonist who has become an icon in western popular culture, responsible for traumatizing generations of young children. Such was the impact and intrigue of the Wicked Witch that American novelist Gregory Maguire composed a prequel speculating her origin story as the greenified, Dorothy-hating crone. In the spirit of the Broadway musical inspired by Maguire’s novel finally being adapted to the silver screen, this panel seeks to capitalize on “Wicked-mania” and solicit papers that will explore the Witch’s legacy and regeneration throughout film and beyond. Since her debut over a century ago, there have been dozens of under-examined dramatic representations beyond The Wizard of Oz and Wicked that this panel invites scholars to investigate. While on the surface, the Wicked Witch is a horror to behold, this panel seeks to uncover the even more horrific implications of her character. Scholars have claimed her and her Winkie army to be analogs of the Wehrmacht (MacDonnell 1990), a mestiza figure (McCabe 2008), a queer woman (Wolf 2008), and even a monstrous vegan (Sebastian 2022). Interested parties are welcome to expand on these themes as well as initiate new critical discourses as they pertain to the Wicked Witch. Prospective candidates are welcome, but not required, to consider representations of the witch outside of Wicked and The Wizard of Oz and examine other portrayals as in The Wiz (1974), the recovered 1976 Sesame Street episode, season 3 of Once Upon a Time (2013-14), and the film, Oz the Great and Powerful (2013).
In the spirit of the recent cinematic adaptation of the Broadway megamusical Wicked (2024) and its forthcoming companion film Wicked: For Good (2025), this session invites scholars from across the disciplines to submit proposals critically exploring the various iterations of L. Frank Baum’s infamous Wicked Witch of the West throughout the media since the first adaptations of the Oz franchise were released in the early twentieth century. Interested parties are welcome to probe Maguire’s revisionist work on which the musical is based in addition to other under-examined productions featuring the green-skinned menace. Inquiries may consider themes such as: gender, sexuality, queerness, monstrosity, disability, race, ecocriticism, and class.
Last updated June 12, 2025
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