[Commlist] LFA 2025: Ghosted! Presence, Absence, and Adaptation

Call for Papers:
*LFA 2025: GHOSTED! PRESENCE, ABSENCE, AND ADAPTATION*
LITERATURE / FILM ASSOCIATION CONFERENCE
Hosted by Georgia Southern University at the DeSoto Hotel 
<https://be.synxis.com/?adult=1&arrive=2025-09-24&chain=26905&child=0&currency=USD&depart=2025-09-28&group=2509LITERA&hotel=76327&level=hotel&locale=en-US&productcurrency=USD&rooms=1>, 
Savannah, GA
*Conference Date: SEPTEMBER 25-27, 2025*
*CFP Application 
<https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSe8SrqBPq6lbJ-NV06n4K_8tVy94LUCSXTbqcQlbeFsvNcnNw/viewform?usp=header> Deadline: 
May 16, 2025*
Ongoing trends in arts, technology, and politics seem to insist that 
ours is an era of ghostliness, caught in the increasingly fraught 
relationship between absence and presence. From persistent video 
conferencing to AI-generated artwork, from true crime documentaries to 
ever-living franchises, from climate change to political chaos, it has 
become increasingly clear that not only is the present constantly 
haunted by our past, but that the very boundaries between the material 
and immaterial, the past and present, the here and elsewhere are 
blurring in a way they never have before. As texts that constantly 
negotiate their relationships to their intertexts, adaptations may prove 
to be reflective of and instructive for such times, providing 
meditations on the strained connections between absence and presence.
As we gather in Savannah, GA – ranked among America’s most haunted 
cities and a recent US News and World top 30 destination in the US – the 
Literature/Film Association invites scholars across multiple disciplines 
to meditate on the often ghostly relationship between absence and 
presence in adaptation. Possible topics could include:

  * Presence and absence in a variety of media, including visual arts,
    games, music
  * “Haunted” texts or uncanny media
  * Haunted objects, places, or people and their representations in media
  * Presence and absence in representations (fictional or nonfictional)
    of historical events
  * Ghosts, spirits, souls, and their shifting representations across media
  * Theories, concepts, or frameworks that haunt the study of film and
    literature (or ought to be resurrected)
  * Adapting (to) digitally-mediated phenomena like “ghosting,” “dead
    links,” and posthumous posting
  * Hauntology as methodology
  * The present or absent author/creator in the process of adaptation
  * The felt absence or invisible presence of sources, authors,
    characters, or cultures in adaptation
  * Pedagogical practices for exploring the relationships between media

This is a multidisciplinary conference. As such, we welcome studies of 
American and international cinema, film and technology, television, new 
media, and other cultural or political issues connected to the moving 
image as well as studies of “texts” broadly conceived, including 
artworks, history, music, and dramatic performances. In addition to 
academic papers and pre-constituted panels, presentation proposals about 
pedagogy or from creative writers, artists, video essayists, and 
filmmakers are also welcome.
Please submit your proposal, which will consist of a title, 250-word 
abstract, and keywords, via this Google Form 
<https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSe8SrqBPq6lbJ-NV06n4K_8tVy94LUCSXTbqcQlbeFsvNcnNw/viewform?usp=header> by 
*May 16, 2025*. You will receive a confirmation email within 48 hours. 
If you have any questions or concerns, contact Amanda Konkle at 
(litfilmconference /at/ gmail.com). Accepted presenters will be notified by 
June 5, and a draft conference program will be available by July 15 to 
enable travel planning.
The conference registration fee is $230 ($190 for students and retirees) 
before September 1, 2025 and $255 ($215 for students and retirees) 
thereafter. All conference attendees must also be current members of the 
Literature/Film Association. Annual dues are $50.
Presenters will be invited to submit their work to the /Literature/Film 
Quarterly/ for potential publication. For details on the journal’s 
submission requirements, visit their website here 
<https://lfq.salisbury.edu/submit.html>.
To register for the conference and pay dues following acceptance of your 
proposal, select your registration and click on the PayPal “Buy Now” 
button below that will take you to where you can sign in to your PayPal 
account and complete the transaction. If you aren’t registering for the 
conference but want to join or renew as a member, you may just pay 
membership dues ($50).
The booking link for rooms at the De Soto is currently live: 
Literature/Film Association 
<https://be.synxis.com/?adult=1&arrive=2025-09-24&chain=26905&child=0&currency=USD&depart=2025-09-28&group=2509LITERA&hotel=76327&level=hotel&locale=en-US&productcurrency=USD&rooms=1>, 
with a rate of $209 for Thursday and $239 for Friday and Saturday.

---------------
The COMMLIST
---------------
This mailing list is a free service offered by Nico Carpentier. Please use it responsibly and wisely.
--
To subscribe or unsubscribe, please visit http://commlist.org/
--
Before sending a posting request, please always read the guidelines at http://commlist.org/
--
To contact the mailing list manager:
Email: (nico.carpentier /at/ commlist.org)
URL: http://nicocarpentier.net
---------------