CFP: Death, Dying And The Undead

Despite being imaged all around us in popular culture and the media, death and dying are, it often seems, the last taboo subjects in modern society. To address this, the inaugural Australasian Death Studies Network conference, ‘Death, Dying, and the Undead: Contemporary Approaches and Practice’, will be held at UCQ’s Noosa campus in Queensland on 12 October 2015.

This one-day multi-disciplinary conference brings together discussion and investigation in a range of cultural, humanities and social areas that consider death and dying, including creative arts, popular culture, health and community planning. Abstracts are due 1 May, 2015. Click CFP to download full details or read more …

The Conference will consider the practices and processes around death and dying, and approaches to these topics, including:

  • Representations of death, dying and the undead in popular culture
  • Gothic representations of the death, dying and the undead
  • Death and dying in Australasian culture and history
  • Writing and Reading about death and dying
  • Approaches to death and dying: at home, in hospital or elsewhere
  • The contemporary funeral and the multinational funeral industry
  • Images of death and dying in visual art and the media
  • The ‘good death’ and what this means in practice and for policy makers
  • Roadside memorials, spontaneous shrines and other memorial practices
  • Celebrity death and public grieving
  • Transgression, death and crime fiction
  • Teaching and learning about death
  • Other relevant topics and issues

International Keynote Speaker

Dr Lorna Piatti-Farnell, AUT: The Price of Undying: Vampire Genetics and the Cultural Politics of Immortality. Director, Popular Culture Research Centre, Auckland University of Technology, AUT President, Gothic Association of New Zealand and Australia. Chair, Gothic and Horror Area, Popular Culture Association of Australia & New Zealand

Publications and related events

An edited book / special issue of Aeternum: The Journal of Contemporary Gothic Studies (founded by Dr Piatti-Farnell) will be produced from this event. The conference will include the opening launch ofThe Vanities, a new exhibition in the CQUniversity exhibition space.

Submissions

Please email abstracts of 200 words, plus your name, email, plus brief bio note (50-100 words) by 1 May 2015 to Zoe Allen, z.allen@cqu.edu.au (Please put ‘Death, Dying and the Undead abstract submission’ in subject line of email.)

Contact/queries

Professor Donna Lee Brien, d.brien@cqu.edu.au