Gothic Practice (CfP)

We are excited to announce a special issue of Gothic Studies, guest edited by the Internet Ghost Collective (Chera Kee, Erika Kvistad, Line Henriksen, and Megen de Bruin-Molé)

“As a habitus, the Gothic describes a way of writing, a way of reading, a way of thinking about stories, a way of imagining,” writes Timothy G. Jones. “Perhaps the Gothic is something that is done rather than something that simply is” (2009, p. 127). In this special issue, we propose to consider the Gothic as not only a subject of research, but as something that we as researchers might do – the Gothic as a research method, a creative practice, a habitus. What might it mean for academics, artists, and other thinkers and makers to work in Gothic ways, or to experience their own work as Gothic, with its associations of unsettling power dynamics, intellectual uncertainty, and the potentially dangerous search for knowledge? Drawing on Jones’s idea of the Gothic as “something between the ceremonial and the ludic” which “ought to be understood, not as a set form, nor as a static accumulation of texts and tropes, but as a historicised practice which is durable yet transposable” (2009, p. 127), we ask contributors to explore the Gothic mode/genre and critical and creative practice. Just as Gothic fictions often explore the dynamics between those with immense power and the most vulnerable, we are interested in work that explores similar power structures in academia and the wider world – how might Gothic practice help us examine, challenge, or even counteract these dynamics?

This special issue welcomes work that discusses or proposes Gothic creative research methods and Gothic creative practices, and also work that exemplifies such practices, for instance by using unconventional or boundary-breaking methods to study more conventional Gothic topics in literature, film, and popular culture. We are open to a range of non-traditional methods and formats, including, but not limited to, practice-based research, creative practice, and creative-critical research. We are especially open to proposals where making and praxis are central to the research methodology and process. We understand that non-traditional academic work can be alienating and difficult, as well as dynamic and exciting, and it is often either neglected or exploited within academic administrative structures. For these reasons, we also believe that creative-critical research has Gothic implications for and uses in anti-colonial ‘undisciplining’ efforts within the academy – particularly for those who sit at its centres of power – and we welcome proposals that consider how Gothic practice might be productively disruptive.

Possible topics for the special issue include:

• Practice-based and practice-led Gothic research 
• The Gothic as a practice / ‘undisciplining’ the Gothic
• Creative practice as Gothic or monstrous
• Making and Gothic aesthetics
• The Gothic and activism / care work practices
• Goth fashions, subcultures, and community practices
• Creative Gothic pedagogies
• Making in a Gothic world (making with and in crisis)
• The Gothic / monstrous researcher and academic practice
• The Gothic as reading practice / way to approach others’ work

Timeline and Format

• 13th September 2024: Deadline for abstracts / Expressions of Interest. 
  • Abstracts should be around 200-500 words and accompanied by a 50-100 word bio. Contributors are also welcome to include mini-portfolios or mockups of creative work if this will help you give us a sense of what you’re planning.
• 1st November 2024: Responses to abstracts/EOIs sent.
• 15th May 2025: First drafts of submissions due. 
• July 2026: Publication.

There will also be two (entirely optional, online) workshops open to people interested in submitting something to the special issue, acting as opportunities to meet the guest editors and make and talk together:

• Friday, 21st June 2024, 1:00 pm Eastern Daylight Time / 5:00 pm GMT / 7:00 pm CET (register now: https://wayne-edu.zoom.us/meeting/register/tJEqce2opzkuGdzb0MN7aFNejCxiNTk7nh08)
  • This workshop is a chance to meet the editors and explore the idea of ‘Gothic Practice’ together, in advance of the Expression of Interest deadline for our special issue of Gothic Studies. In this 90-minute online workshop we will explore what it means to imagine in Gothic ways, through discussion and making. No preparation or prior experience with making is required, and you can attend for as much or as little as you are able.
• Tuesday, 3rd September 2024, 10:00 am Central European Time / 8:00 am GMT. To register for this workshop, please contact the guest editors at the email address listed below.

Conventional academic articles in Gothic Studies typically run between 5000-7000 words including footnotes. For this issue, we also encourage critical/creative submissions in mixed or non-conventional formats, including (but not limited to) visual media and photography, creative (non)fiction, video essays, and audio productions, and with the enthusiastic support of the Gothic Studies editorial team, we look forward to discussing how these might be incorporated into the special issue. 

We welcome scholars, artists, makers, and experimenters of all backgrounds and experience levels. We also welcome questions and informal discussions about what might be possible! Please contact the guest editors of this issue at internetghostcollective@gmail.com.

Inspirational readings + examples

• The work of Carol Quarini: https://carolquarini.com. 
• Henriksen, et al., “Writing bodies and bodies of text: Thinking vulnerability through monsters,”: https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/gwao.12782 
• The zine Becoming Undisciplined: https://becomingundisciplined.com/
• Special issue on practice-based research in the journal Theatre Topics (Johns Hopkins University Press, 2013): https://muse.jhu.edu/issue/28323
• Timothy G. Jones, “The Canniness of the Gothic: Genre as Practice,”: https://www.euppublishing.com/doi/10.7227/GS.11.1.12
• Natalie Lovelace, How to Make Art at the End of the World: A Manifesto for Research Creation: https://www.dukeupress.edu/how-to-make-art-at-the-end-of-the-world
• Tsing, et al., eds, Arts of Living on a Damaged Planet: Ghosts and Monsters of the Anthropocene:https://www.upress.umn.edu/book-division/books/arts-of-living-on-a-damaged-planet