NEPCA Fantastic 2020 (6/1/2020; Manchester NH 10/23-24/2020)

Call for Papers on the Fantastic (Fantasy & Science Fiction / Monsters & the Monstrous)

The Northeast Alliance for Scholarship on the Fantastic and the allied Fantastic Areas (Fantasy & Science Fiction and Monsters & the Monstrous) invite paper proposals for the 2020 conference of the Northeast Popular Culture/American Culture Association (NEPCA) to convene at Southern New Hampshire University in Manchester, New Hampshire, from Friday, 23 October, to Saturday, October 24.

The deadline for proposals is June 1, 2020.

The 2020 conference is about 1 hour from Boston, just under 2 hours from Providence, RI, or around 2.5 hours from Burlington, VT, Hartford, CT, or Augusta, ME, about 3.5 hours from Albany, NY, 4.5 hours from New York City or Montreal, QC.

Fantasy & Science Fiction Area:

Area Chair: Amie A. Doughty (State University of New York, College at Oneonta), (Amie.Doughty@oneonta.edu)

Highlighting the more positive aspects of the fantastic genre, the Fantasy and Science Fiction area seeks to examine texts that bring about a sense of wonder in their receivers through their representation of the marvelous, and we welcome submissions from scholars of all levels for papers that explore any aspect of the intermedia traditions of the fantastic that might promote this work. Topics can include, but are not limited to, elements of fairy tale, fantasy, legend, mythology, and science fiction; proposals should investigate how creative artists have shaped and/or altered our preconceptions of these sub-traditions by producing innovative works in diverse countries, time periods, and media and for audiences at all levels.

Monsters & the Monstrous Area:

Area Chair: Michael A. Torregrossa (Independent Scholar) (Popular.Preternaturaliana@gmail.com)

This area welcomes proposals that investigate any of the things, whether mundane or marvelous, that scare us. Through our sessions, we hope to pioneer fresh explorations into the darker sides of the intermedia traditions of the fantastic (including, but not restricted to, aspects of fairy tale, fantasy, gothic, horror, legend, mythology, and science fiction) by illuminating how creative artists have both formed and transformed our notions of monsters within these sub-traditions in texts from various countries, time periods, and media and for audiences at all levels. Our primary goal is to foster a better understating of monsters in general and to examine their impact on those that receive their stories as well as on the world at large. However, as a component of the Northeast Popular Culture/American Culture Association, the Monsters and the Monstrous Area is also especially interested in celebrating both the New England Gothic tradition and the life, works, and legacy of H.P. Lovecraft, a leading proponent of Weird Fiction and an immense influence on contemporary popular culture. (Further information on the area at http://popularpreternaturaliana.blogspot.com/.)



Please submit your proposal for either area via the online form at https://forms.gle/TTbp6EVTkYJqcGgM6.

Membership in NEPCA is required to present; further details on the can be found at https://nepca.blog/.

Northeast Alliance for Scholarship on the Fantastic: https://northeastfantastic.blogspot.com/.

NEPCA Fantastic 2018

Here, belatedly, are the details of our farewell sessions. running this weekend. Full schedule accessible at https://nepca.blog/2018-conference/. (Further apologies for the lack of formatting; Blogger and Word don't get along.)

40th Annual Conference of the Northeast Popular Culture/American Culture Association
Worcester State University (Worcester, Massachusetts)
19-20 October 2018

Friday, 19 October at 2-3:15
Session 2: Frankenstein 1818 to 2018: 200 Years of Mad Scientists and Monsters I (S-205)

Chair: Saraliza Anzaldua (UCLA)

Frankenstein: A Personal History
Daniel Shank Cruz (Utica College)

Daniel Shank Cruz grew up in New York City and Lancaster, Pennsylvania. He is a graduate of Goshen College (B.A.) and Northern Illinois University (M.A., Ph.D.) and is currently an Associate Professor of English at Utica College in upstate New York. Daniel is the author of Queering Mennonite Literature, which is forthcoming from Penn State University Press in spring 2019. He has also published articles on a variety of contemporary North American authors in journals such as Crítica Hispánica, Mennonite Quarterly Review, the Journal of Mennonite Writing, and the Journal of Contemporary Thought, as well as in several book collections. His research interests include the intersections between ethnic minority literatures (especially Mennonite literature and Latinx literature) and queer literatures, archiving, and the role of geographical space in literature.

Looking at Frankenstein: Ten Filmmakers Capture the Monster
James Osborne (College of Saint Rose)

James Osborne teaches writing and film in the Department of English at the College of Saint Rose, Albany, New York. He holds a PhD in English from the University of Arizona, an MA in English from Brooklyn College/CUNY, and a BA in English, with Dramatic Arts as a related field, from the University of Connecticut. His principal area of academic research is in adaptation studies, an interest explored in his dissertation, “Looking at Frankenstein: Ten Film Visions of Mary Shelley’s Novel, 1990-2015.” He lives in Albany, New York, with his wife Denise, a lecturer in Portuguese at the University at Albany.

Frankenstein and Transatlantic Monster Making in Robert J. Myer’s The Cross of Frankenstein (1975)
Matt Grinder (Union Institute and University)

Matt Grinder is a PhD Candidate at Union Institute and University where he studies literature and culture with an emphasis on Native American Literature. He also works as an English and Philosophy adjunct faculty member at Central Maine Community College.

Friday, 19 October at 3:30-4:45
Session 10: Frankenstein 1818 to 2018: 200 Years of Mad Scientists and Monsters II (S-205)

Chair: Marty Norden (University of Massachusetts Amherst)

New Adam, New Eve: The Brides of Frankenstein in Theodore Roszak’s Memoirs of Elizabeth Frankenstein (1986) and John Kessel’s Pride and Prometheus (2018)
Faye Ringel (U. S. Coast Guard Academy, Emerita)

Faye Ringel, the founder of the Fantastic Area, is Professor Emerita of English at the U.S. Coast Guard Academy in New London, CT, having taught in the Department of Humanities for 25 years. She directed the Honors Program and taught the Honors Colloquium, composition and literature. After retiring from CGA, she taught British Literature at UConn Avery Point. Faye holds an A.B. in Comparative Literature from Brandeis University and doctorate in Comparative Literature from Brown University. She is the author of New England's Gothic Literature: History and Folklore of the Supernatural (E. Mellen Press, 1995) and articles in scholarly encyclopedias, collections, and journals, including a chapter in The Cambridge Companion to the American Gothic (2017) edited by Jeffrey Weinstock. Faye is a long-time NEPCA member and presenter, and she has published articles and presented conference papers on (among many other subjects) New England vampires, urban fantasy, demonic cooks, Lovecraft, King, Tolkien, Yiddish folklore, and sea music.

Frankenstein’s Justine Moritz: The Female Monster and Her Body
Saraliza Anzaldua (UCLA)

Saraliza Anzaldua, a frequent presenter in the Fantastic Area, is a teratologist with a B.A. in Sociology from the University of Texas, Dallas and an M.A. in English Literature from National Taiwan University. She is currently a doctoral student with the philosophy department of UCLA. Her work is devoted to promoting teratology as a framework for social theory and moral inquiry. She also studies Chinese social philosophy, and Japanese martial philosophy.

Saturday, 20 October at 8-9:15
Session 18: Fantastic I: Deciphering Disney: Heroes and Villains in Fantastic Films of the Walt Disney Company (S-205)

Chair: Amie Doughty (SUNY Oneonta)

Merlin Knows Best: Patterns of Masculine Identity in Disney’s Animated Fantasies
Michael A Torregrossa (Independent Scholar)

Michael A. Torregrossa is a graduate of the Medieval Studies program at the University of Connecticut (Storrs). He is founder of both the Alliance for the Promotion of Research on the Matter of Britain and the Association for the Advancement of Scholarship and Teaching of the Medieval in Popular Culture and is the outgoing Fantastic (Fantasy, Science Fiction, and Horror) Area Chair for NEPCA. His research interests include adaptation, Arthuriana, comics and comic art, medievalism, monsters, and wizards, and his presentation builds upon his previous studies on Merlin included in Film & History and The Medieval Hero on Screen: Representations from Beowulf to Buffy.

Girls who are BRAVE: Young Women Warriors of the Spiritual Realm
June-Ann Greeley (Sacred Heart University)

June-Ann Greeley, PhD, is an associate professor of Theology and Religious Studies at Sacred Heart University in Fairfield, Connecticut. She is also a board member of the Women's Studies Program and Director of the Middle Eastern Studies Program at SHU. June-Ann also chairs the “Belief” area of NEPCA.

Horror in Disney: Mob Mentality and Ideology in Beauty and the Beast (1991) and The Hunchback of Notre Dame (1996)
Kellie Deys (Nichols College)

Kellie Deys is an Associate Professor of English at Nichols College. She chairs the English Department and the College’s Writing-Across-the-Curriculum program. She recently launched a Gender and Diversity Studies program. Her teaching and research interests include: Cultural Studies, Composition, Gender and Body Studies, Young Adult Literature, and Victorian Literature. Kellie has published on Margaret Atwood’s The Handmaid’s Tale, celebrity culture, and practical applications of Freire’s problem-posing method.

Saturday, 20 October at 9:30-10:45
Session 21: Fantastic II: Heroes Reborn: New Models of Heroism in Fantastic Fiction (S-205)

Chair: Sharon Yang (Worcester State University)

The Librarians, Flynn Carsen, and the Aesthetics of Heroism
Nova Seals (Salve Regina University)

Nova Seals, a frequent presenter in the Fantastic Area, is a PhD candidate in Humanities at Salve Regina University in Newport, Rhode Island. Nova is the Director of the Library and Archives at St. George’s School, an independent preparatory school in Middletown, Rhode Island where she also teaches philosophy courses. Her academic and research interests are philosophy, technology and aesthetics. Nova is particularly interested in how groups of people use technology, especially social media, to learn and transform artistic knowledge.

A More Feminine Way of Being: Growth and Aging in Ursula K. Le Guin’s Tehanu (1990) and The Other Wind (2001)
Kathleen Healey (Worcester State University)

Kathleen Healey is an Adjunct Professor of English at Worcester State University. She is the editor with Sharon Healy-Yang of Gothic Landscapes: Changing Eras, Changing Cultures, Changing Anxieties. Her interests include Gothic literature, American literature, fantasy, and science fiction, as well as the relationship between literature and the visual arts.

Decentering Monsterhood: John M. Ford’s The Last Hot Time
Angela Gustafsson Wyland (Southern New Hampshire University)

Angela Whyland graduated in 2017, with a MA in English Literature from Southern New Hampshire University, and has past degrees in Fashion Merchandising, Business Administration and Interdisciplinary Studies. In 2017, she was honored to have her MA thesis accepted for presentation by the Minnesota Teaching Conference on Writing and English and a paper on subversive colonial feminine captivity novels accepted for a panel at the annual National Women’s Studies Conference. Also that year, Angela presented a paper on “Spinning Threads: Fantasy and Reality in George MacDonald’s The Princess and Curdie” at the “North American Society for the Study of Romanticism” in Ottawa, CA, and her essay on “Schwab’s Imaginary Ethnographies: A Student’s Wanderings through Familiar Literary Texts and the Development of New Subjectivities” was published in “Dream & Reality”, a special issue of Acta Iassyensia Comparationis, an international journal of comparative literature. Recently, her essay on “The Role of the Fool within Dystopian Spaces,” which looks at the SF/F writer Steven Brust’s novel Vallista, was published in the 2018 volume of St. John’s University Press Humanities Review.

Reluctant Royals: Reading Royalty in YA Fantasy
Amie Doughty (SUNY Oneonta)

Amie Doughty, another veteran of the Fantastic Area, is a professor of English SUNY Oneonta and teaches children’s lit, fantasy, linguistics and composition. She is also Children’s and YA Lit and Culture Area Chair for PCA/ACA. Amie is the author of two monographs and the editor of a collection of essays. She works with both children’s and YA literature and urban fantasy and is currently working on a project about royalty in children’s and YA literature.

Saturday, 20 October at 11-12:15
Session 29: Fantastic III: Horrific Spaces (S-205)

Chair: Faye Ringel (U. S. Coast Guard Academy, Emerita)


A Realm for the Reanimated: The Magnificent Nightmare of Dr. Porter and Prof. Poe and Their Attempts to Raise the Dead in Victorian New England
Michael J. Bielawa (The Barnum Museum)

Award-winning author Michael J. Bielawa’s explorations have taken him to the Northeast's most exotic, and mysterious, places. He is the author of numerous articles and five books, including Wicked Bridgeport (which received the first-ever New England Paranormal Literary Award) and Wicked New Haven. Bielawa has discussed Mary Shelly’s Frankenstein on NPR and brought Connecticut’s unique folklore to light on WABC-TV affiliate programs, Good Morning Connecticut and Connecticut Style. Mike has written for Major League Baseball (about abandoned 19th century ballparks), Connecticut Magazine (“The Lost Treasure of Seaside Park”) and London’s Fortean Times (“Barnum and the World’s Greatest Ghoul”); forthcoming works include an essay in the Autumn 2018 issue of The Edgar Allan Poe Review. Mike has shared his research with radio audiences on WCBS, WABC-AM, and WPLR-FM, and he celebrated New Haven’s 17th century “Phantom Ship” when he created the 4-story-tall illuminated art installation, “The Persistence of Legend.” Mike is an ongoing lecturer and consultant for The Barnum Museum ,and he has lectured about Jackie Robinson for the NEA. His dedication to preserving New England history has been covered by the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, and the Washington Post.

American Mythology and Mythopoeia: Blackwood and Lovecraft
Russell Brickey (Youngstown State University)

Russell Brickey holds an MFA and PhD from Purdue University, and he is currently an instructor at Youngstown State University. Russell’s publications include a number of scholarly, journalistic, and creative works, including a reader’s guide to Sharon Olds and two books of poetry.

Childhood as Landscape in The Village of the Damned (1960)
Heather Flyte (Lehigh University)

A second-year presenter in the Fantastic Area, Heather Flyte joined Lehigh University in 2018 as a doctoral student in English literature. She will be focusing on Victorian literature, print culture, and science fiction. She earned her Master’s Degree in English Literature from Kutztown University, and her thesis investigated the transference of Victorian values in the translation of Japanese fairy tales. She presented at the 2017 Northeastern Popular Culture Association conference at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, on The Princess Bride and psychoanalytic theory. She is a non-traditional student who has previously worked in journalism and web development

Mash-Ups and Moral Philosophy: An Approach towards Combining Ethics and Zombie Studies
Bryan Hall (St. John’s University)

Dr. Bryan Hall is Professor of Philosophy and Associate Dean of Undergraduate Studies in the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences at St. John’s University. Bryan received his Ph.D. from the University of Colorado, Boulder, in 2005, and he is a two-time Fulbright scholar and author of two books on the German philosopher Immanuel Kant. In a slight departure from his previous research, Bryan is now working at the intersection of Ethics and Zombie Studies and shares some of this work today.

Saturday, 20 October at 1:45-3
Session 37: Fantastic IV: Making Monsters (S-205)

Chair: Don Vescio (Worcester State University)

Gender, Trauma, & the Domestic in Exorcism Novels
Bridgit Keown (Northeastern University)

Bridget Keown is a Ph.D. candidate at Northeastern University (Boston, MA), who received her BA from Smith College and her MA in imperial and commonwealth history from King’s College London. Her work focuses on British and Irish women and their experience of war trauma during the First World War and Irish War of Independence, and Bridgit has been awarded the Larkin Research Fellowship in Irish Studies from the American Conference for Irish Studies to continue this research. During the summer of 2017 she contributed guest blogs for the American Historical Association as one of two AHA Today Blog Contest winners, and you can read her postings at http://blog.historians.org/2017/06/gendered-treatments-trauma-first-world-war/. Bridget is also currently a contributing writer to Nursing Clio; her posts can be accessed at https://nursingclio.org/author/bkeown/.

More Than Human: A Crip Theoretic
Christopher Ketcham (University of Houston Downtown)

Chris Ketcham earned his Ph.D. from the University of Texas at Austin. He teaches risk management and ethics for The University of Houston Downtown. His interests, however, go beyond business and into the philosophy of the uncertain and mysterious through film and popular culture. Chris has explored Ridley Scott’s Insomnia through Emmanuel Levinas’s philosophy of responsibility, and he has analyzed Herman Melville’s Bartleby the Scrivener through the eyes of the American work ethic through the question: do we work to live, or live to work? Chris’s other forays into popular culture include analyses of the television series Downton Abbey, Orange is the New Black, Orphan Black, It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia, Adventure Time, Mr. Robot, and The Man in the High Castle. He has also written about philosophy and Deadpool, Jurassic Park, Superman and Batman, Dracula, and Frankenstein.

Project Alice: Ultimate Woman Warrior or Frankenstein’s Monster in the Resident Evil Film Series
Kristine Larsen (Central Connecticut State University)

Dr. Kristine Larsen, a veteran of the Fantastic Area, is Professor of Astronomy at Central Connecticut State University. Her teaching and research focus on issues at the boundary between science and society, including science ethics, science and gender, the history of women in science, and scientific motifs in popular media. She is the author of Stephen Hawking: A Biography, Cosmology 101, and the 2017 volume The Women Who Popularized Geology in the 19th Century, as well as the co-editor as The Mythological Dimensions of Doctor Who and The Mythological Dimensions of Neil Gaiman. Her complete CV can be found at http://www.ccsu.edu/astronomy/larsencv.html.

Saturday, 20 October at 3:15-4:30
Session 45: Fantastic V: New Insights into Science Fiction (S-205)

Chair: Kristine Larsen (Central Connecticut State University)

Daddy Issues: David in Prometheus (2012) and Alien: Covenant (2017)
Leslie Stratyner (Mississippi University for Women)

Leslie Stratyner is a full professor of English at Mississippi University for Women. She teaches various ancient and medieval literatures, as well as composition and survey courses.

Indigenous Aliens: Science Fiction and Native America
Meredith James (Eastern Connecticut State University)

Meredith James is an Associate Professor at Eastern Connecticut State University. Her specialties include Indigenous/Native American Studies and American Studies.

Bridging Realities: Time Travel in A Wrinkle in Time
Don Vescio (Worcester State University)

Don Vescio, a frequent presenter in the Fantastic Area, is a faculty member of Worcester State University’s Department of English. After serving ten years as Worcester State’s Chief Information Office/Vice President of Information Technologies and two years as Vice President of Enrollment Management and Marketing, Don now focuses his energies on teaching undergraduate and graduate students in a variety of disciplines. His research interests are in critical theory, narratological analysis, and information design.

NEPCA 2018 Update

I am pleased to report that the Fantastic (Fantasy, Horror, and Science Fiction) Area will be going out with a bang.

For our final set of sessions set for this year's meeting of NEPCA, the area is sponsoring two sessions on the 200th anniversary of Frankenstein plus five sessions on the fantastic.

Full details to follow.

Michael A. Torregrossa
Fantastic (Fantasy, Horror, and Science Fiction) Area Chair

CFP Fantastic (Fantasy, Horror, and Science Fiction) Area 2018 (6/1/18; NEPCA Worcester, MA 10/19-20/18)

Fantastic (Fantasy, Horror, and Science Fiction) Area
Eleventh-Anniversary and Farewell Sessions

2018 Conference of the Northeast Popular Culture/American Culture Association (NEPCA)
Worcester State University, Worcester, Massachusetts
19-20 October 2018
Proposals due 1 June 2018

Formed in 2008, the Fantastic (Fantasy, Horror, and Science Fiction) Area will hold its eleventh-anniversary and farewell sessions in 2018, and we seek proposals from scholars of all levels for papers and/or panels that explore any aspect of the intermedia traditions of the fantastic (including, but not limited to, elements of fairy tale, fantasy, gothic, horror, legend, mythology, and science fiction) and how creative artists have altered our preconceptions of these subtraditions by producing innovative works in diverse countries, media, and time periods and for audiences at all levels.
Presentations will be limited to 15 or 20 minutes in length depending on final panel size.
An archive of previous work in the area exists at our website Northeast Fantastic (https://northeastfantastic.blogspot.com), which is intended as a gateway to furthering research on the fantastic.

Special Topics:

• Given the proximity of the conference to Halloween, we are always interested in proposals related to monsters and the monstrous.
• This year, we are also looking for papers related to the fantastic in children’s culture, especially the works of the Walt Disney Company.
• Furthermore, in celebration of the two hundredth anniversary of the publication of Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein in 2018, we are organizing a special session devoted to “Frankenstein 1818 to 2018: 200 Years of Mad Scientists and Monsters.” Details can at our outreach site Frankenstein and the Fantastic at https://FrankensteinandtheFantastic.blogspot.com/.

Directions for Submission:
Please contact area chair Michael A. Torregrossa at cfp.nepcafantastic@gmail.com, using “NEPCA Fantastic 2018” as your subject line, with any questions in advance of the 1 June 2018 deadline.
Submissions for papers and/or panels should be made online through the “2018 Proposal Form” at https://nepca.blog/2018-conference/. Please select “The Fantastic (Fantasy, Horror, and Science Fiction)” as your designated area. A complete submission includes contact information, academic affiliation (if any), an academic biographical statement (between 50 and 200 words), a paper title (no more than 60 characters), and a paper abstract (no more than 250 words). Do also send copies of your biography and proposal to the area chair at cfp.nepcafantastic@gmail.com, using “NEPCA Fantastic 2018” as your subject line.


The Northeast Popular/American Culture Association (a.k.a. NEPCA) was founded in 1974 as a professional organization for scholars living in New England and New York. It is a community of scholars interested in advancing research and promoting interest in the disciplines of popular and/or American culture. NEPCA’s membership consists of university and college faculty members, emeriti faculty, secondary school teachers, museum specialists, graduate students, independent scholars, and interested members of the general public. NEPCA is an independently funded affiliate of the Popular Culture Association/American Culture Association. Membership is open to all interested parties, regardless of profession, rank, or residency. NEPCA holds an annual conference that invites scholars from around the globe to participate. In an effort to keep costs low, it meets on college campuses throughout the region.

Membership in NEPCA is required for participation and annual dues are included in conference registration fees. Further details are available at https://nepca.blog/membership-information/.

Fantastic Area Sessions 2017

Sorry about the lack of formatting; Blogger doesn't make pasting from Word easy:

Fantastic (Fantasy, Horror, and Science Fiction) Areas Sessions 2017
(full conference program at https://nepca.blog/2017-conference-schedule/)

Session I: Friday, October 27, 1:00-2:30pm

PANEL 1 – CC 803 – The Fantastic: Horrors Past and Present
CHAIR: Amie Doughty, SUNY Oneonta

 “Horrifying Mythical Obstacles: Masculine Anxieties and Alternate Gazes in Robert Eggers’s The Witch (2015),” Dustin Fisher, University of Cincinnati

Dustin Fisher received an M.A. in Literature from Wright State University in 2014 where he completed and presented his master’s thesis, “Doppelgangers and Dualistic Femininity in Shirley Jackson’s The Haunting of Hill House.” In 2014 he also presented a paper at Newcastle University in Newcastle, UK, on Ian McEwan’s Atonement. He is currently pursuing a Ph.D. in contemporary Gothic fiction and film studies at the University of Cincinnati.

“Images of the Indigenous Monster in The Green Inferno (2013),” Erica Tortolani, University of Massachusetts Amherst

Erica Tortolani is currently enrolled at the University of Massachusetts Amherst, where she is pursuing a Ph.D. in Communication with a concentration in Film Studies.  Her past research explored the intersection of film theory with rhetorical studies, looking specifically at how the cinematic medium can transmit messages regarding gender, sexuality, and the female body through visual and narrative elements.  These interests culminated into her Masters thesis, entitled "Dual Images of the ‘Monstrous Feminine’ in Three Horror Films," a project that received the 2015 Graduate Research Excellence award at the University of Rhode Island.  Erica has also presented at the 2015 Graduate Conference at the URI, the 2016 Northeastern Modern Language Association Conference, and earned her publication in the Fall 2013 issue of the undergraduate journal, Film Matters.  Her research interests include general film theory and criticism, silent cinema, comedy and theories of humor, horror films, German Expressionist film, and feminist film theory.

“The Decomposing Youths and the Revival of the Zombies in Contemporary Korea,” Ha Rim Park, Seoul National University

After receiving her Master of Literature in 2016, Harim Park is doing a Ph.D in Comparative Literature at Seoul National University. She has published an article titled “The Origin of Catastrophe and Melancholy: A Korean Cultural Study on Zombie Narrative in the 2000s” in the journal of Korea Comparative Literature as the result of her master degree. Her areas of research include 1990-2000s Korean literature, genre fiction, movie, webtoon, and modernization, democratization after the Korean War. Harim is currently studying on disaster, apocalypse, Sci-fi narratives and non-human representations in contemporary East asian cultures, specifically Korea, Taiwan and Japan. 

“The Bunhill Apocalypse: Robert Aickman’s ‘Larger than Oneself’ (1966) as a Post-Christian Metaphor,” Steffen Silvis, University of Wisconsin-Madison

Steffen Silvis is a playwright, theatre critic, actor and director, who is currently finishing his Ph.D. in Interdisciplinary Theatre Studies at the University of Wisconsin, Madison. Among Silvis’ plays are Archetypes (1991; produced at The King’s Head, London), Liberty, Oregon (winner of the London International Playwrights Festival, 1993, produced by The Man-in-the-Moon Theatre, Chelsea, London, 1994, [nominated for best new work on the London Fringe]; The Traverse Theatre, Edinburgh, 1995, California State University, 2005,); The Kalama Orpheum (winner of the London International Playwrights Festival, 2001); Nothing, If Not Critical (co-winner of the London One-Act Festival, 2003, and produced in London and Portland, Oregon, 2004); and Phere[crates]: Scraps (produced in Madison, Wisconsin, 2013). Silvis was the theatre critic for Portland’s Willamette Week and The Prague Post in the Czech Republic. His writing has appeared in American Theatre Magazine, Time Out, Paperback Jukebox, and Black Lamb. Co-Founder of the Madison-based theatre company, In-House, Silvis has produced Manjula Padmanabhan’s Light’s Out, and directed the devised-environmental piece, Reunion. Silvis has also won an NEA/Annenberg Fellowship and an O’Neil Fellowship for his criticism.


Session II: Friday, October 27, 2:45-4:15pm

PANEL 8 – CC 803 – The Fantastic: Meeting Monsters
CHAIR: Michael A. Torregrossa, Independent Scholar

“‘Everything That Ought to Have Remained Hidden’: Sublimation and the Uncanny in Anya's Ghost (2011),” Shane Gomes, North Dakota State University

Shane is from Honolulu, Hawaii, and completed his BA at the University of Hawaii at Hilo, his MA at the University of Northern Colorado, and is currently pursuing his PhD in English at North Dakota State University. His primary research interests are graphic novels and pop/comic culture more broadly, especially minority representations therein.

“Murder, Reproduction, and Bad Women in Junji Ito’s Tomie,” Rahel Worku, University of Maryland

Rahel Worku was an undergrad English major at UMBC and is currently a Masters student at the University of Maryland studying Comparative Literature. Rahel is now in the second year of the program and once again teaching English 101. Rahel’s interests are in African American literature, speculative fiction, and comic books.

“A Trekkie’s Guide to the Zombie Apocalypse,” Cinzia DiGiulio, Merrimack College

Cinzia DiGiulio is an Associate Professor of Italian and Cultural Studies at Merrimack College in North Andover, Massachusetts.  Cinzia completed a Doctorate in Russian and English (languages and literatures) at the Catholic University of Milan, a Master’s degree in Comparative Literature and Classics at Purdue University, and then a Ph.D. in Romance Studies and Comparative Literature at the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill. Most Cinzia’sstudies and research interests revolve around late 19th-century narrative (British, Russian, and Italian) -- particularly popular narrative -- and its intersections with contemporary popular culture.

“Scientists Become Monsters: The Strain’s Dr. Goodweather,” Kristine Larsen, Central Connecticut State University

Dr. Kristine Larsen is Professor of Astronomy at Central Connecticut State University, where her teaching and research focus on the intersections between science and society. She is the co-editor of The Mythological Dimensions of Doctor Who and The Mythological Dimensions of Neil Gaiman.


Session III: Friday, October 27, 4:30-6:00pm

PANEL 15 – CC 803 – The Fantastic: Re-envisioning the Heroic in Fantastic Fiction
CHAIR: Shane Gomes, North Dakota State University

“Happy Endings: Frankenstein’s Creature as a Romantic Lead,” Maggie Damken, Independent Scholar

Maggie Damken is a graduate of Sarah Lawrence College, where she studied literature and creative writing. She has presented previously at the Northeast Regional Honors Conference and Beacon Conference. A previous essay on Frankenstein was accepted for presentation by the Science Fiction Research Association.

“Decentering Monsterhood: Blurred Histories, Genres and Narrative Identities in John M. Ford’s Fantasy The Last Hot Time (2000),” Angela Gustafsson Whyland, Southern New Hampshire University [WITHDRAWN]


“Guinevere, the Warrior Queen of Camelot?: The Altered Fate of Guinevere in Recent Comics,” Michael A. Torregrossa, Independent Scholar
 
Independent scholar Michael A. Torregrossa is a graduate of the Medieval Studies program at the University of Connecticut (Storrs). His research interests include adaptation, Arthuriana, comics and comic art, medievalism, monsters, and wizards. Michael has presented papers on these topics at regional, national, and international conferences, as well as in published works. In addition, he is currently Fantastic (Fantasy, Science Fiction, and Horror) Area Chair for the Northeast Popular Culture/American Culture Association and organizes sessions, like this one, for their annual conference in the fall and maintains the area’s blogs.


Session IV: Saturday, October 28, 8:45-10:15am

PANEL 22 – CC 803 – The Fantastic: New Approaches to the Fantastic
CHAIR: Nova Seals, Salve Regina University

“The Princess Bride and Slavoj Žižek's Fantasy of the Real,” Heather Flyte, Kutztown University of Pennsylvania

Heather Flyte is a graduate student in English Literature at Kutztown University in Pennsylvania. She is working on her thesis investigating the dialogue of imperialism created during translation of non-western fairy tales in the Victorian era, with a specific focus on Japanese folk tales. In September 2014, she presented at the “Sensational Influences: Mary Elizabeth Braddon’s Literary Legacy” in London and recently was awarded the Emma Richards-Bausch Award in Literary Criticism from Kutztown University for her writing on H.G. Wells. She is a non-traditional student who has previously worked in journalism and web development and plans to pursue doctoral work in English Literature.

“Madness and Mixed-Bloods: Racial Metaphors in Seanan McGuire’s October Daye Series,” Amie Doughty, SUNY Oneonta

Amie Doughty is an associate professor of English as SUNY Oneonta, where she teaches course in linguistics, composition, and literature, including children’s literature, folklore, fantasy, and science fiction. She is the author of Folktales Retold: A Critical Overview of Stories Updated for Children and “Throw the book away”: Reading versus Experience in Children’s Fantasy, and is the editor of Children’s and Young Adult Literature and Culture: A Mosaic of Criticism.

“Heredity And The Hero: The Role of Heredity in Shaping Popular Heroes and Why It Matters,” Cheryl Hunter, University of Massachusetts Lowell

Cheryl Hunter is an adjunct professor of English and the Humanities at UMASS Lowell and Southern New Hampshire University. She attended the University of New Hampshire where she received a Master of Arts degree in Liberal Studies with a concentration in Philosophy and Literature. She was a National Endowment for the Humanities Fellow at a week-long workshop on Henry David Thoreau. Her book, Myths and Archetypes in The Lord of the Rings and Harry Potter, looks at the roles of Philosophy and Mythology in modern literature and what important lessons about the human condition are conveyed to the audience through the hero and journey archetypes. She is a writer and artist, and she loves to travel.


Session V: Saturday, October 28, 10:30am-noon

PANEL 29 – CC 803 – The Fantastic: Re-Thinking the Monstrous
CHAIR: Heather Flyte, Kutztown University of Pennsylvania


“‘If You're So Hungry, Why Don’t You Get a Job?’: Patrick Bateman as Neoliberal Monster and Hero in American Psycho,” Caitlin Duffy, Stony Brook University

Caitlin Duffy is a doctoral student in the English Department at Stony Brook University. Her scholarly interests include horror films and 19th century American Gothic literature. Her work will be published in the 2017 issue of The Journal of Dracula Studies and in an upcoming volume on 1980’s horror films.

“Tackling the Femme: The Psycho-Biddy Genre,” James Patrick Carraghan, Kutztown University

James Patrick Carraghan is a graduate student, writing tutor, and research assistant at Kutztown University. He is currently writing a thesis on the intersection of Harlem Renaissance scholarship and Queer Theory. His work has been published in On the Road, Glimmer on the Bookshelf, and 5x5. He is currently a contributing writer at Terse Journal and Vada Magazine (UK).

“The Aesthetics of Abjection in Anna Dressed in Blood (2011),” Nova Seals, Salve Regina University

Nova Seals is a Ph.D. candidate in humanities at Salve Regina University in Newport, Rhode Island. Nova is also the Director of Library Services and Archives and teaches philosophy courses at St. George’s School, an independent preparatory school in Middletown, Rhode Island. Her academic interests are the intersection of philosophy and technology, as well as art and aesthetics. Nova is particularly interested in how groups use technology, especially social media, to transform knowledge.

“The Brides of Dracula Tell All: Dracula as Romantic Protagonist in Recent Neo-Victorian Fiction,” Terry Riley, Bloomsburg University

Terry Riley teaches in the English Department at Bloomsburg University.  He teaches 19th and 20th century British Literature; his research interests are in 19th century science and neo-Victorian fiction.


Session VI: Saturday, October 28, 1:30-3pm

PANEL 36 – CC 803 – The Fantastic: Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein: 199 Years Old and Still Going Strong
CHAIR: Kristine Larsen, Central Connecticut State University

“Frankenstein and the Real: A Psychoanalytic Look at Power and the Unconscious,” Emilie Lewis, Simmons College

Emilie Lewis is currently an M.A. candidate in Gender/Cultural Studies at Simmons College in Boston. She holds a bachelor’s degree in English-Creative Writing from Goucher College and is a member of Phi Beta Kappa.

“Coexistence of Gender Binaries: Bisexualism in Frankenstein,” Christopher Maye, California State University, Long Beach

Christopher Maye graduated from California State University, Long Beach with a Bachelor's in English Literature and a minor in music in 2015. His research interest includes Critical Theory, Gender Studies, Political, and Ethnic Literature, but he primarily focuses on literature within the 18th Century English and 20th Century American periods. While he is currently pursuing a Master of Arts in English at CSULB, he works as a substitute teacher in the Los Angeles Charter School system, and is one of the managing editors for CSULB’s graduate academic journal Watermark.

“Modern Prometheus Bound,” Dennin Ellis, Independent Scholar

Dennin Ellis grew up in upstate New York and was raised by a consortium of stubborn women, a trait they passed to him. He learned how to read from X-Men comics and how to talk (and sing) from Beatles records. Throughout his childhood he vacillated between his dual passions for music and writing before settling on the former, receiving his Bachelor’s in Music from the College of Saint Rose. He then immediately went back to vacillating, achieving his Master’s in English from the State University of Albany. His graduate thesis, Colossus, concerned the place of humanity and the individual in the face of technological encroachment, brought to life through the melding of historical fiction, journalism and the epistolary novel. More recent projects include a collection of speculative fiction and research papers on topics as diverse as Edgar Allan Poe and Pink Floyd. He currently lives with his girlfriend in Ulsan, Korea, where he teaches English.


Session VII: Saturday, October 28, 3:15-4:45pm

PANEL 43 – CC 803 – The Fantastic: New England Horrors
CHAIR: Amie Doughty, SUNY Oneonta

“Body Horror in Lovecraft Fiction and Film,” Shastri Akella, University of Massachusetts Amherst

Shastri Akella earned an MFA in Creative Writing before joining the Comparative Literature PhD in 2014. He lived all over India, Dublin, and San Francisco, before moving the valley. He previously worked for a street theater troupe and for Google. His fiction and essays have been published or is forthcoming in Guernica, Electric Literature, The Common, The Rumpus, and Hypothetical Review, among other places. He has taught at the university for 5 years and was one of two teaching associates to win the campus-wide Distinguished Teaching Award for the academic year 2015-2016. His dissertation topic is a comparison of the perception of children in horror films and the perception of refugees. His other interests include film and translation, and he is working to get certified in both areas.

“The Dead Past in New England Vernacular Poetry,” N. C. Christopher Couch, University of Massachusetts Amherst

N. C. Christopher Couch holds a Ph.D. in art history from Columbia University, and is the author of numerous books and articles on comic art, graphic novels, and Latin American art. His most recent book, Jerry Robinson: Ambassador of Comics (Abrams 2010), on the artist and humanitarian famed for his Expressionist Batman and creation of the Joker, was a Harvey Award finalist and was featured in a New York Times profile of Robinson. As senior editor at Kitchen Sink Press, he worked with Will Eisner, about whom he has published two co-authored volumes, including The Will Eisner Companion (2005, with Stephen Weiner). He has held fellowships at the Institute for Advanced Study, Dumbarton Oaks of Harvard University, and the Newberry Library among others. He teaches at the University of Massachusetts Amherst, Trinity College in Hartford, and in the Care Center Clemente Program, Holyoke, MA, and has curated exhibitions at the American Museum of Natural History and other art and science museums.

“Tilting at Vampires,” Katie Gagnon, Independent Scholar

Katie Gagnon has a Master of Arts in American Studies from Trinity College.

Fantastic Area Sessions 2018

I am pleased to announce the schedule for the area's tenth-anniversary sessions. My thanks to the program chair, Marty Norden, for his help in organizing.

The complete conference schedule and registration information can be accessed at https://nepca.blog/2017-conference/.


Session I: Friday, October 27, 1:00-2:30pm

PANEL 1 – CC 803 – The Fantastic: Horrors Past and Present
CHAIR: Amie Doughty, SUNY Oneonta
“Horrifying Mythical Obstacles: Masculine Anxieties and Alternate Gazes in Robert Eggers’s The Witch (2015),” Dustin Fisher, University of Cincinnati
“Images of the Indigenous Monster in The Green Inferno (2013),” Erica Tortolani, University of Massachusetts Amherst
“The Decomposing Youths and the Revival of the Zombies in Contemporary Korea,” Ha Rim Park, Seoul National University
“The Bunhill Apocalypse: Robert Aickman’s ‘Larger than Oneself’ (1966) as a Post-Christian Metaphor,” Steffen Silvis, University of Wisconsin-Madison

Session II: Friday, October 27, 2:45-4:15pm

PANEL 8 – CC 803 – The Fantastic: Meeting Monsters
CHAIR: Michael A. Torregrossa, Independent Scholar
“‘Everything That Ought to Have Remained Hidden’: Sublimation and the Uncanny in Anya's Ghost (2011),” Shane Gomes, North Dakota State University
“Murder, Reproduction, and Bad Women in Junji Ito’s Tomie,” Rahel Worku, University of Maryland
“A Trekkie’s Guide to the Zombie Apocalypse,” Cinzia DiGiulio, Merrimack College
“Scientists Become Monsters: The Strain’s Dr. Goodweather,” Kristine Larsen, Central Connecticut State University

Session III: Friday, October 27, 4:30-6:00pm

PANEL 15 – CC 803 – The Fantastic: New Approaches to the Heroic in Fantastic Fiction
CHAIR: Shane Gomes, North Dakota State University
“Happy Endings: Frankenstein’s Creature as a Romantic Lead,” Maggie Damken, Independent Scholar
“Decentering Monsterhood: Blurred Histories, Genres and Narrative Identities in John M. Ford’s Fantasy The Last Hot Time (2000),” Angela Gustafsson Whyland, Southern New Hampshire University
“Guinevere, the Warrior Queen of Camelot?: The Altered Fate of Guinevere in Recent Comics,” Michael A. Torregrossa, Independent Scholar
 
 
Session IV: Saturday, October 28, 8:45-10:15am

PANEL 22 – CC 803 – The Fantastic: New Approaches to the Fantastic
CHAIR: Nova Seals, Salve Regina University
“The Princess Bride and Slavoj Žižek's Fantasy of the Real,” Heather Flyte, Kutztown University of Pennsylvania
“Madness and Mixed-Bloods: Racial Metaphors in Seanan McGuire’s October Daye Series,” Amie Doughty, SUNY Oneonta
“Heredity And The Hero: The Role of Heredity in Shaping Popular Heroes and Why It Matters,” Cheryl Hunter, University of Massachusetts Lowell

Session V: Saturday, October 28, 10:30am-noon

PANEL 29 – CC 803 – The Fantastic: Re-Thinking the Monstrous
CHAIR: Heather Flyte, Kutztown University of Pennsylvania
“‘If You're So Hungry, Why Don’t You Get a Job?’: Patrick Bateman as Neoliberal Monster and Hero in American Psycho,” Caitlin Duffy, Stony Brook University
“Tackling the Femme: The Psycho-Biddy Genre,” James Patrick Carraghan, Kutztown University
“The Aesthetics of Abjection in Anna Dressed in Blood (2011),” Nova Seals, Salve Regina University
“The Brides of Dracula Tell All: Dracula as Romantic Protagonist in Recent Neo-Victorian Fiction,” Terry Riley, Bloomsburg University

Session VI: Saturday, October 28, 1:30-3pm

PANEL 36 – CC 803 – The Fantastic: Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein: 199 Years Old and Still Going Strong
CHAIR: Kristine Larsen, Central Connecticut State University
“Frankenstein and the Real: A Psychoanalytic Look at Power and the Unconscious,” Emilie Lewis, Simmons College
“Coexistence of Gender Binaries: Bisexualism in Frankenstein,” Christopher Maye, California State University, Long Beach
“Modern Prometheus Bound,” Dennin Ellis, Independent Scholar

Session VII: Saturday, October 28, 3:15-4:45pm

PANEL 43 – CC 803 – The Fantastic: New England Horrors
CHAIR: Cheryl Hunter, University of Massachusetts Lowell
“Body Horror in Lovecraft Fiction and Film,” Shastri Akella, University of Massachusetts Amherst
“The Dead Past in New England Vernacular Poetry,” N. C. Christopher Couch, University of Massachusetts Amherst
“Tilting at Vampires,” Katie Gagnon, Independent Scholar

Frankenstein at PCA

The Fantastic (Fantasy, Horror, and Science Fiction) Area is organizing a session on the Frankenstein story in children's and young adult culture for the 2018 meeting of the Popular Culture Association. Details at https://frankensteinandthefantastic.blogspot.com/2017/09/cfp-frankenstein-story-in-childrens-and.html.

CFP Fantastic (Fantasy, Horror, and Science Fiction) Area (6/1/17; NEPCA Amherst, MA 10/27-28/17)

SECOND CALL FOR PAPERS
TENTH-ANNIVERSARY SESSIONS OF THE
FANTASTIC (FANTASY, HORROR, AND SCIENCE FICTION) AREA

Visit us at NEPCA Fantastic: https://nepcafantastic.blogspot.com

2017 Conference of The Northeast Popular Culture/American Culture Association (NEPCA)
University of Massachusetts Amherst, Amherst, Massachusetts
27 and 28 October 2017
Proposals by 1 June 2017

Michael A. Torregrossa
Fantastic (Fantasy, Horror, and Science Fiction) Area Chair
cfp.NEPCAFantastic@gmail.com

Formed in 2008, the Fantastic (Fantasy, Horror, and Science Fiction) Area celebrates its tenth anniversary in 2017, and we seek proposals from scholars of all levels for papers that explore any aspect of the intermedia traditions of the fantastic (including, but not limited to, elements of fairy tale, fantasy, gothic, horror, legend, mythology, and science fiction) and how creative artists have altered our preconceptions of these subtraditions by producing innovative works in diverse countries, media, and time periods and for audiences at all levels. Details on previous offerings can be found on our website at https://nepcafantastic.blogspot.com.


Special topics:

• Given the proximity of the conference to Halloween, we are always interested in proposals related to monsters and the monstrous. 

• Furthermore, in anticipation of the two hundredth anniversary of the publication of Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein in 2018, we are especially hoping for proposals that address aspects of the Frankenstein tradition and the fantastic. Be on the lookout for a separate call for our 2017 Frankenstein-themed sessions on "Frankenstein: Friend or Foe?". 

Please see our website NEPCA Fantastic (https://nepcafantastic.blogspot.com) for further details and ideas. Presentations will be limited to 15-20 minutes in length (depending on final panel size).

If you are interested in proposing a paper, please address inquiries and send your biography and paper abstract (each of 250 words) to the Fantastic (Fantasy, Horror, and Science Fiction) Area Chair at cfp.nepcafantastic@gmail.com, noting “NEPCA Fantastic Proposal 2017” in your subject line. Do also submit your information into NEPCA’s official Paper Proposal Form accessible from https://nepca.blog/2017-conference/. Be sure to select "Fantastic" as your designated area.

Please submit inquiries and/or proposals for complete panels directly to the Fantastic (Fantasy, Horror, and Science Fiction) Area Chair at cfp.nepcafantastic@gmail.com.


The Northeast Popular/American Culture Association (a.k.a. NEPCA) was founded in 1974 as a professional organization for scholars living in New England and New York. It is a community of scholars interested in advancing research and promoting interest in the disciplines of popular and/or American culture. NEPCA’s membership consists of university and college faculty members, emeriti faculty, secondary school teachers, museum specialists, graduate students, independent scholars, and interested members of the general public. NEPCA is an independently funded affiliate of the Popular Culture Association/American Culture Association. Membership is open to all interested parties, regardless of profession, rank, or residency. NEPCA holds an annual conference that invites scholars from around the globe to participate. In an effort to keep costs low, it meets on college campuses throughout the region.

Membership in NEPCA is required for participation and annual dues are included in conference registration fees. Further details are available at https://nepca.blog/membership-information/.

Frankenstein and the Fantastic Site

The Fantastic (Fantasy, Horror, and Science Fiction) Area is pleased to announce the launch of its new outreach effort, Frankenstein and the Fantastic. The new blog can be accessed at http://frankensteinandthefantastic.blogspot.com/.


Michael Torregrossa
Area Chair

NEPCA Fantastic 2017

NEPCA meets next October on the campus of UMass Amherst from 27 to 28 October. A call for papers for our tenth-anniversary sessions will be posted soon.

As always, we are looking for papers that explore the fantastic in all its various forms as well as monster-specific papers in celebration of Halloween. The area also looks to commemorate the two-hundredth anniversary of Mary Shelley's completion of Frankenstein with a set of panels devoted to the theme of "Friendly Frankensteins" exploring the reception of the Frankenstein story in youth culture.

Michael Torregrossa
Area Chair

NEPCA Fantastic at NEPCA 2016 Conference

NEPCA FANTASTIC 2016 SESSIONS

KEENE STATE UNIVERSITY, KEENE, NH

FRIDAY, 21 OCTOBER, SESSION I: 1:30-3 PM

Panel 3 - Fantastic #1: Women and Fantastic Fiction

Presider: Kristine Larsen (Central Connecticut State University)

The Lavender Menace: The Horror of 1980s Lesbian Feminism in Tony Scott’s The Hunger

William A. Tringali (Independent Scholar)

Our first presenter is William A. Tringali. William is a recent graduate of Bridgewater State University, and he is currently working for a cultural/historical nonprofit in Plymouth, Massachusetts.

Manic Pixie Green Girl: On the Problem of the Green-Skinned Space Babe

Elizabeth Nielsen (University of Massachusetts Amherst)

Our second presenter is Elizabeth J Nielsen, who makes her second appearance in our area this afternoon. Elizabeth is a PhD student in Communication at the University of Massachusetts Amherst. She received her MFA from New Mexico State University in 2010 and her BFA from the Ohio State University in 2005. Her research interests broadly focus on popular media, with a special focus on monsters and the monstrous, gender studies, and fan studies, as well as the frequent intersections between these areas. Elizabeth’s recent and upcoming publications include two book chapters, “Wearing the Woman in White: The Doomed Lives and Afterlives of Supernatural’s Women” in The Gothic Tradition in Supernatural: Essays on the Television Series and “A Bloody Big Ship: Queering James Bond and the Rise of 00Q” in Fan Phenomena: James Bond, and the article “Dear Researcher: Rethinking Engagement with Fan Authors” in the Journal of Fandom Studies vol. 4.3. Elizabeth is also co-editing a collection of essays on NBC’s Hannibal as well as guest editing an upcoming special edition of the Journal of Fandom Studies on virtual and physical fan spaces.Her most recent conference presentations have dealt with the figure of the Wendigo in popular culture as well as on the use of meta-text in the relationship between Holmes and Moriarty in BBC’s Sherlock.

Chinese Fantasy and Women: When Immortals Tell About Life

Jonathan Truffert (University of Geneva)

Our third presenter is Jonathan Truffert. Jonathan was born in France in 1985 and has spent most of his life in the French-speaking part of Switzerland. In 2013 he obtained a Master degree in Chinese Studies at the University of Geneva. Long stays in China, as well as language-related jobs during and after his studies (tour guide at the UN, translator, check-in agent, etc.), helped him maintain a very good level of the Chinese language, and in 2014 he accepted a position as a research assistant in a project on “Popular Literature in contemporary China”. Beside this main job, he works on his own translation projects, and occasionally does the extra at the opera, the perfect side job to pass from a sitting to a standing position.

The Treatment of Women Shown through Witches in Pop Culture

Hillary Di Menna (Independent Scholar)

Our final presenter is Hillary Di Menna. Hillary began her work as a journalist hoping to eliminate apathy within her communities. She has profiled those fighting for social justice and investigated shady practices in big business. Hillary tries to stay active within her community and is currently running the Feminist Internet Resource Exchange (FIRE). Hillary also acts as a guest speaker for Durham Rape Crisis Centre's training classes. In addition, she maintains her own blog, Misfit Matriarch, and is entering her final year of the Women and Gender Studies program at York University. Hillary writes regularly for This Magazine, most notably with her feminist blog Gender Block. Calling Toronto home, Hillary shares a cat-centric apartment with her eight-year-old-daughter and three black cats.

FRIDAY, 21 OCTOBER, SESSION II: 3:15-4:45 PM

Panel 10 - Fantastic #2: Dangerous Fantasy

Presider: Amie Doughty (SUNY Oneonta)

Psychological Trauma in Curse of Strahd (2016)

Shelly Jones (SUNY Delhi)

Our first presenter is Shelly Jones. Shelly has a PhD in Comparative Literature from SUNY Binghamton. She studies ancient Greek tragedy and mythology and is an avid board gamer and D&D player. 

Nazi Zombies: B-Movies and a Metaphor for Horror

Mia Martini (University of Oklahoma)

Our next presenter is Mia Martini. Mia earned her doctorate at Purdue University and currently works as a lecturer in the First Year Writing Program at the University of Oklahoma. Her research interests include the American novel, narrative theory, trauma, and war narratives. 

Angels and Demons: Physiological and Psychological Vivisection in the World of SyFy’s Dominion (2014-15)

Kristine Larsen (Central Connecticut State University)

Our third presenter, Kristine Larsen is an eight veteran of our area. Kristine is Professor of Astronomy at CCSU where her teaching and scholarship focus on the intersections between science and society. She is the author of Stephen Hawking: A Biography and Cosmology 101 and co-editor of The Mythological Dimensions of Doctor Who and The Mythological Dimensions of Neil Gaiman and has presented and published on depictions of science and scientists in such varied sources as the works of J.R.R. Tolkien, C.S. Lewis, George R.R. Martin. J.K. Rowling, Phillip Pullman, Robert Heinlein, and Andrzej Sapkowski, and the tv series Lost, The Walking Dead, and Land of the Lost. She was the recipient of the 2014 Ralph Donald Award for Outstanding Conference Paper (Mid-Atlantic Popular Culture/American Culture Association)  for “Monsters Inside Me: Zombification as Parasitism.”

Knowledge, Form and Function: Checking Out the Posthuman Condition in Gene Wolfe’s A Borrowed Man (2015)

Nova M. Seals (Salve Regina University)

Our final presenter is Nova Seals. Nova is a Ph.D. student in Humanities at Salve Regina University in Newport, Rhode Island. She is also the Director of the Library and Archives at St. George’s School, an independent preparatory school in Middletown, Rhode Island. Her academic and research interests are philosophy, technology and aesthetics. Nova is particularly interested in how groups use technology, especially social media, to transform knowledge.

FRIDAY, 21 OCTOBER, SESSION III: 5:00-6:30 PM

Panel 16 - Fantastic #3: I Am the Master of My Fate (Right)? Searching for Morality and Reality in the Postmodern Age [organized by Kelly Kane]

Presider: Amie Doughty (SUNY Oneonta)

Coming of Age in the Age of Uncertainty: Moral Relativism in Animorphs

Catharine Kane (Independent Scholar)

Our first presenter is Catharine Kane. Catharine is presently an independent scholar. She recently graduated with a MA and MFA in Children's Literature from Simmons College in Boston, Massachusetts. Her primary area of focus is middle grade fiction, especially fantasy/scifi series that deal with identity formation, trauma, and war narratives. When not filling out PhD applications, she can be found eating buffalo wings while cheering on the New York Giants.

White Rabbits, Blue Pills, and Vanilla Skies: In “Psy Fi,” the Final Frontier is the Human Mind

Kelly Kane (Iowa State University)

Our second presenter is Kelly Kane. Kelly is a social cognition graduate student researching the ways that readers' attitudes and beliefs respond to the process of becoming immersed in, or transported by, fictional narratives.  She has a B.A. in Creative Writing and Psychology from Ithaca College, and is currently working on her Ph.D. in Social Psychology at Iowa State University.

I'm Not Calling You a Liar: Unreliable Narration and Complicated Canon in Dragon Age II

Charlotte Reber (Independent Scholar)

Our final presenter is Charlotte Reber. Charlotte is also an independent scholar. She recently graduated this past May from Simmons College's school of Library & Information Science. Her interests are in creative writing and children's literature.

SATURDAY, 22 OCTOBER, SESSION IV: 8:45-10:15 AM

Panel 23 - Fantastic #4: Frankenstein and the Fantastic I--Shelley’s Frankenstein

Presider:  Kathleen Healey (Worcester State University)

“And What Was I?” The Power of Aesthetic Perception in Shelley’s Frankenstein

Jobin Daniel Davis (University of Central Missouri) [WITHDRAWN]

There is No Monster: Monstrous Imitation in Frankenstein

Saraliza Anzaldua (Independent Scholar)

Our next presenter is Saraliza Anzaldua. A second-time presenter in our area, Saraliza studies teratology (the study of monsters and the monstrous) and recently graduated from National Taiwan University with an M.A. in English Literature. She has a B.A. in Sociology from the University of Texas and studied Philosophy at Harvard University for a year as a visiting graduate student. At last year’s NEPCA conference, she presented a paper on contemporary monster erotica as a method of sexual displacement for readers uneasy fantasizing about men. This year, she contributes another teratological paper. This one argues that there is no monster in Frankenstein, and Shelley did not intend to write a novel about one. Instead, she offered a critique of her own monstrous society.

Social Revolution’s Terrible Price:  Mary Shelley’s Failed Pastoral World in Frankenstein

Sharon R Yang (Worcester State University)

Our final presenter is Sharon Yang. Sharon is a longtime supporter of our area and presents her second paper for us today. She is a Full Professor in the English Department at Worcester State University and teaches courses in Renaissance literature, nineteenth-century British literature (including the Gothic), and Film and Literature.  Sharon has published and presented in these fields, including her book Goddesses, Mages, and Wise Women:  The Female Pastoral Guide in Sixteenth- and Seventeenth-Century English Drama (2011) and her collection The X-Files and Literature: Unweaving the Story, Unraveling the Lie to Find the Truth (2007).  She has most recently edited a collection of essays with Dr. Kathleen Healey called Gothic Landscapes:  Changing Eras, Changing Cultures, Changing Anxieties due out next month.

SATURDAY, 22 OCTOBER, SESSION V: 10:30 AM-12:00 PM

Panel 28 - Fantastic #5: Frankenstein and the Fantastic II--Rebuilding Frankenstein

Presider: Jesse Weiner (Hamilton College)

Frankenstein and Epigenetics—The Future of Paradise

Gloria Monaghan (Wentworth Institute of Technology)

Our first presenter is Gloria Monaghan. Gloria is a Professor of Humanities at Wentworth Institute in Boston. Her research focuses on cyborgs, gender identity and masculinity, and she is working a book about the spectrum of masculinity. Gloria is also a creative writer.

Her first poetry chapbook, Flawed, was published by Finishing Line Press in 2012.  Her second book The Garden (Flutter Press, 2015) was recently published.  Her poetry has appeared in Slope, Spoonful, and Aries, Blue Max Review and 2River. Her fiction has appeared in Ezine and Tracks, and she is also working on a collection of short stories.

Franken-faeries, or the Conflation of Creator and Created in the October Daye and Merry Gentry Series

Amie A. Doughty (SUNY Oneonta)

Our second presenter today is Amie A. Doughty. A five-time presenter in our area, Amie is an Associate Professor and Chair of the English Department at SUNY Oneonta, where she teaches courses in linguistics, children’s literature, fantasy, science fiction, mythology, and folk literature. She is the area chair of the Children’s Literature and Culture area of Popular Culture Association and the author of the books Folktales Retold: A Critical Overview of Stories Updated for Children (2006) and “Throw the book away”: Reading versus Experience in Children’s Fantasy (2013).

Clockwork Resurrection:  Steampunk and Frankenstein in Mackenzi Lee’s This Monstrous Thing (2015)

Kathleen  Healey (Worcester State University)

Our final presenter is Kathleen Healey. Kathleen made her first appearance in our area last year, and we are glad to welcome her back this year. Kathleen is a Visiting Professor at Worcester State University.  She is co-editor with Sharon Healy-Yang of a book entitled Gothic Landscapes: Changing Eras, Changing Cultures, Changing Anxieties to be published by Palgrave in October 2016.  This edition includes an essay she has written entitled "Dark Shadows in the Promised Land: Landscapes of Terror and the Visual Arts in Charles Brockden Brown's Edgar Huntly."  Her teaching and research  interests include Gothic Literature, Science Fiction, American Literature, and Literature and the Environment.

SATURDAY, 22 OCTOBER, SESSION VI: 1:45-3:15 PM

Panel 35 - Fantastic #6: Frankenstein and the Fantastic III--Frankenstein on Screen

Presider: Martin F. Norden (University of Massachusetts Amherst)

Frankenstein, Bride of Frankenstein, and The Hollywood Production Code

Joseph Sgammato (SUNY/Westchester Community College)

Our first presenter this afternoon is Joseph Sgammato. Joseph makes his second appearance in our area this year. He is a writer and teacher.  After earning an M.A. in English from Fordham University, he studied film at New York University and Columbia University, receiving an M.F.A. in Film Studies from the latter. He is also a Fellow of the CUNY Writers’ Institute in New York City. He has written about film, literature, art, and medicine. His work has appeared in Sight and Sound, The Wordsworth Circle, The College Language Association Journal, Patient Care, and other periodicals. He was a contributor to the essay collection The Book of Firsts published by Anchor Books in 2010 (new edition Spring 2016.)  He teaches in both the English Department and the Film Department at Westchester Community College, a division of the State University of New York, in Valhalla, New York. He lives in Norwalk, Connecticut.

From Frankenstein’s Monster to Ultron: Man’s Unbridled Ambition Gone Awry

Cheryl A. Hunter (University of Massachusetts Lowell)

Our next presenter is Cheryl A. Hunter. Like Joseph, Cheryl is now a two-timer presenter in our area, having also made her debut appearance last year. Cheryl attended the University of New Hampshire Manchester and graduated Summa Cum Laude with a Bachelor of Arts Degree in Humanities and a minor in English. She has extensive coursework in Philosophy, Literature, and Classics. She received her Master of Arts degree in Liberal Studies from the University of New Hampshire Durham with a concentration in Philosophy and Literature and has since completed 18 graduate hours beyond the Master’s degree since graduation. Cheryl’s Philosophy focus includes Greek and Roman Philosophies, Enlightenment, and Transcendental Philosophy; she was a National Endowment of the Humanities Fellow at a weeklong workshop on Henry David Thoreau in Concord, Massachusetts in 2010. Cheryl is also the author of Myths and Archetypes in The Lord of the Rings and Harry Potter, which was published in February 2011 by Lambert Academic Publishers. This book looks at the roles of Philosophy and Mythology in modern literature and what important lessons about the human condition are conveyed to the audience through the hero and journey archetypes used in The Lord of the Rings and Harry Potter. Cheryl is currently an adjunct professor at UMASS Lowell and Southern NH University. She teaches in a variety of formats (including 100% online, hybrid, and traditional classroom) and a diverse group of courses (including English Composition,  Introduction to Philosophy, Humanities I – Ancient Culture to Renaissance, Humanities – Heroes, Humanities – Mediterranean Culture, Ethics, Critical Thinking, and Communications).

Frankenfilm: Bill Morrison’s Spark of Being (2010)

Jesse Weiner (Hamilton College)

Our final presenter today is Jesse Weiner. Jesse is Visiting Assistant Professor of Classics at Hamilton College in Clinton, NY. He publishes broadly in Greek and Latin literature and its reception in modernity, and his work has appeared in Classical Receptions Journal, International Journal of the Classical Tradition, Law, Culture and the Humanities, The Atlantic, and several other journals and edited volumes. Jesse’s work in classical reception studies has a particular emphasis on science fiction and fantasy. This work includes studies of Homer and Kurt Vonnegut, epic poetry and the aesthetics of high fantasy, and archaeology and the fantastic in Wilhem Jensen’s Gradiva: A Pompeiian Fantasy. Jesse is also developing a monograph on classical traditions in science fiction, centered on moral ambiguities created in the wake of speculative science. In Frankenstein studies, Jesse is the author of “Lucretius, Lucan, and Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein” (in Rogers and Stevens, Classical Traditions in Science Fiction, OUP, 2015) and he is presently editing a volume of essays, entitled The Modern Prometheus; or, Frankenstein, which is dedicated entirely to Frankenstein and classical traditions. In April 2016, Jesse organized and hosted an international conference dedicated to Frankenstein and the classics, timed to celebrate the bicentennial of the “Year without a Summer” and the ghost story challenge among the British Romantics that precipitated Frankenstein’s conception. In public humanities, Jesse has worked as a National Program Scholar with Ancient Greeks/Modern Lives, an outreach program based in New York with NYU and the Aquila Theater. Jesse is the 2013 recipient of the Women’s Classical Caucus Prize for Best Paper (Post-Ph.D.) in Women’s or Gender Studies in Antiquity.

SATURDAY, 22 OCTOBER, SESSION VII: 3:30-5 PM

Panel 44 - Fantastic #7: More Monsters

Presider: Shelly Jones (SUNY Delhi)

The Folly of Faithlessness in Dracula Has Risen from the Grave (1968)

Martin F. Norden (University of Massachusetts Amherst)

Our first presenter today is Martin F. Norden. Returning to our area for a second time this year, Martin teaches film history and screenwriting as a Professor of Communication at the University of Massachusetts Amherst. He has published more than one hundred books, book chapters, journal articles, encyclopedia essays, and reviews, almost all of which have been about film. At last year’s NEPCA conference in New London, NH, he presented a paper on the classic 1930s horror film, Bride of Frankenstein.

Gender Monsters: Angels, Demons, and Fans in the CW’s Supernatural

Megan Genovese (University of Pennsylvania)

Our next presenter is Megan Genovese. Megan is a second-year PhD student at the Annenberg School for Communication at the University of Pennsylvania. She graduated summa cum laude from Baylor University, where she was in the University Scholars interdisciplinary program and pursued concentrations in media and culture studies. Her research interests include superhero narratives and fan works.

Winchester Abbey: Poking Fun at the Gothic Tradition in the CW’s Supernatural

Nan King (Eastern Connecticut State University)

Our third presenter is Nan King. Nan is a part-time instructor in the Women’s & Gender Studies and English Departments at Eastern Connecticut State University in Willimantic. She earned her BA in English with a minor in Women’s Studies from ECSU and her MA in English Literature with a focus on contemporary women writers from Clark University in Worcester, Massachusetts. Her current research interests include contemporary perceptions of women and gender, fan studies, and gender in science fiction and fantasy. Nan’s article “Fan Appreciation No 4: CousinCecily and Winter, Bond Crossplayers” appears in the collection Fan Phenomena: James Bond. Her recent conference subjects have been gender in fandom, James Bond, and Sherlock Holmes.

Did the Aliens Do It? The Disappearance of Franklin Expedition and Malaysia Airlines Flight 370

Donald Vescio (Worcester State University)

Our last speaker for both this panel and the conference is Donald Vescio. With today’s talk, Don becomes a two-time presenter in the area. He is a faculty member of Worcester State University’s Department of English.  After serving ten years as Worcester State’s Chief Information Office/Vice President of Information Technologies and two years as Vice President of Enrollment Management and Marketing, Don now focuses his energies on teaching undergraduate and graduate students in a variety of disciplines.  His research interests are in critical theory, narratological analysis, and information design.  

Thank you again for your attendance at today’s session of the Fantastic (Fantasy, Horror, and Science Fiction) Area. Should you like to join us next year at UMass Amherst, contact the area chair, Michael Torregrossa, at nepcafantastic@gmail.com.