[Commlist] CFP: The Oxford Handbook of Black Horror Film

/The Oxford Handbook of Black Horror Film/

Edited by

Drs. Robin R. Means Coleman & Novotny Lawrence

Since the release of Jordan Peele’s Academy Award-winning horror hit, 
/Get Out/ (2017), interest in Black horror films has erupted. This 
renewed intrigue in the stories of Black life, history, and culture, or 
‘Blackness’ has taken two forms. First, the history and politics of race 
has been centered in the genre. Second, Black horror has become an 
increasingly visible topic in mainstream discourses with scholars, 
critics, and fans contending that Black horror is seeing its “renaissance.”

However, in the U.S., critical attention to Blackness in horror has 
primarily focused on the U.S. and western world; this, despite the fact 
that Blacks and Black stories have featured prominently in the genre-- 
as actors, screenwriters, directors, producers—globally and across 
cultures. We invite contributions that explore *Global Black horror 
cinema*, across media platforms (e.g., theatrical releases, streaming 
services, etc.), by interrogating Blackness and the ways in which it 
manifests in films across the diaspora and around the world. Ours is an 
ambitious goal: to present a collection that leaves no continent unexamined.

This project is under contract with Oxford University Press.

We invite interested contributors to propose essays by submitting 
250-word abstracts, along with 3 keywords. Example questions/themes include:

●How are taxonomies of race presented? Who is considered ‘Black?’ How is 
Blacknessconstructed in the culture(s) in which it is produced and/or 
distributed?

●How is ‘horror’ defined and represented globally and/or culturally? 
What textual role does Blackness play in horror?

●Themes:

○Transgression—excess, disrupting temporalities, disrupting 
corporeality, appropriation, colorism, arriving at Blackness through 
blindcasting

○Liberation—reflecting on responses to oppression

○Sound—Examining the use of scores and soundtracks in Black horror films.

○Adaptation—transformation of stories from one source to the Black 
horror film

To receive full consideration, please submit abstracts to 
(Globalhorrorcinema /at/ gmail.com) by August 1, 2021. For those accepted into 
the collection, first drafts of essays will be due on January 14, 
2022.Upon publication, contributors to the collection will receive a 
modest honorarium for their work.

*Dr. Robin R. Means Coleman*is Northwestern University’s Vice President 
and Associate Provost for Diversity and Inclusion and the Ida B. Wells 
and Ferdinand Barnett Professor in the Department of Communication 
Studies. Dr. Coleman is widely published, to include her book, Horror 
Noire: Blacks in American Horror Films from the 1890s to Present (2011, 
Routledge) Dr. Coleman’s (co-executive producer) documentary film, 
Horror Noire, made its international premiere in 2019 to critical 
acclaim. To-date, Horror Noire has won the 2020 Rondo Hatton Award for 
Best Documentary and the 2019 FearNyc Trailblazer Award.

*Dr. Novotny Lawrence*is an Associate Professor at Iowa State University 
where he holds a joint appointment between the Greenlee School of 
Journalism and Communication and the English Department. He is widely 
published and his research primarily centers on African American 
cinematic and mediated experiences. Dr. Lawrence is the author of 
Blaxploitation Films of the 1970s: Blackness and Genre (Routledge, 
2007), the editor of Documenting the Black Experience (McFarland, 2014), 
and the co-editor of Beyond Blaxploitation (Wayne State University 
Press, 2016).


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