[Commlist] cfp: Sex, Scandal, and Sensation Conference

*Sex, Scandal, and Sensation*

Tuesday 2 July 2024 to Thursday 4 July 2024

Falmouth University, UK, in partnership with City University, Hong Kong

/Sex, Scandal, and Sensation/ is an interdisciplinary and global 
exploration of the role and impact of the sensational, the scandalous, 
and the sexual in literature, film, television, gaming, and other forms 
of cultural production. The conference is dedicated to the discussion of 
a broad range of genres and sub-genres, including Sensation Fiction and 
the Sensational Press; Crime Fiction and True Crime narratives; Shilling 
Shockers, Penny Dreadfuls and the Pulps; Romance, Erotica, and 
Pornographies; the Gothic in both traditional and modern forms; 
Thrillers on both page and screen; Bestsellers, Blockbusters, and 
Bonkbusters; Horror novels and films; Soap Operas and Shocking Theatre; 
RPG and Digital storytelling; and other genres and forms that both rely 
on the scandal, sensation, and sex for their effects, and explore its 
effects on us.


Taking place in the bicentenary of the birth of Wilkie Collins, the 
godfather of Sensation Fiction, and amidst Simon & Schuster’s ongoing 
reissue of the entire catalogue of the so-called ‘Queen of Trash’ and 
powerful feminist icon Jackie Collins, this conference celebrates, 
exposes, and interrogates the boundaries and depths of popular, and not 
so popular, culture and real-world events. We will be thinking and 
talking about affect and its effects, about public outrage and private 
shame, about censorship and permissiveness, about lawsuits and love 
affairs, about the market and its imperatives, about aesthetics and 
morality, and all of this across a wide range of disciplines, mediums, 
time periods, and texts.


We hope you will join us for the exciting event, which will bring 
together scholars, researchers, students, and enthusiasts to share their 
research, insights, and perspectives in an open and inclusive 
atmosphere. We welcome submissions for individual twenty-minute papers 
as well as for full panels exploring sex, scandal, and sensation. 
Subjects can include (but are not bound by):

·The portrayal and evolution of sex, scandal, and sensation across 
different periods and genres

·Victorian and Neo-Victorian Sensation Fiction

·Gothic literature’s fascination with the taboo and the scandalous

·The role of sensation in war and atrocity writing

·Sensational real and imagined crime narratives

·The role of sensation in bestsellers and popular literature

·The portrayal of desire, sex, and consent in global Romantic Fictions

·The ways in which scandal and sensation are used to challenge or 
reinforce social norms

·Creating the sensational on screen

·Cultural, historical, and social contexts for sensation and scandal

·Multicultural sensations: how does the sensational appear within and 
across cultures?

·Sensation and form: how does the desire for sensation shape structure?

·Sensation in a post-scandal age

·Navigating consent on screen

·Real world scandals and fictional sensation

·Landscape of sensation, the scandalous, and the traumatic

·Navigating sex and sexualities in traditional and digital forms

·The role of intoxication in the sensational, the scandalous, and the 
shameful

·The public, the private, and the in-between

·Interactive digital romance in visual novels and dating simulators

·Virtual sex and romance through VR, AR, and robotics

·Simulating sex and romance: the rules of roleplaying

**

*Submissions:*

Proposals should include a title, an abstract of 250–300 words, a brief 
biographical note (up to 100 words), and contact details. Panel 
proposals are very welcome.

Please submit your proposals (tosensationconference /at/ gmail.com) 
<mailto:(sensationconference /at/ gmail.com)> by *14^th  February 2024*. We 
encourage submissions from scholars at all stages of their careers, 
including early career researchers and postgraduate students. 
Interdisciplinary approaches and innovative methodologies are welcome.


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