Call for papers

Arthur Rackham, Illustration for A Midsummer Night’s Dream (Heinemann, 1908)

CFP: Sea changes: The fairytale Gothic of mermaids, selkies, and enchanted hybrids of ocean and river

You are invited to submit proposals for papers for the next fabulous Open Graves, Open Minds Project conference:

Venue: The British Library, London, UK (and online) Date: 5–6 September 2025

Mermaids, selkies, and other such hybrid aquatic creatures, especially their global equivalents, facilitate the interaction between humanity and nature (both inner and outer). In their Gothic aspect and engagement with darkness, they may adumbrate a re-enchantment of the disenchanted world (following Weber and Adorno); reconciliation with Otherness; and new relationships with the natural world. We are looking for presentations that look at narratives of merfolk and their kin in the light of their Gothic aspects and that highlight their connection with folklore, dwelling on the enchantment of their strange fluidity. We invite contributors to create a dialogue amidst these sea changes into something rich and strange.

Please see our main page for a more comprehensive declaration.

Topics may include but are not restricted to

Aquatic beings and dis/re-enchantment

Liquid bodies and fluid sexuality

Scottish folklore and its aquatic inhabitants

Tragedy, comedy, and RomCom

The natural world and environmental issues

Global and postcolonial merfolk

Questions of ethics

Musicality and the Siren’s song

Film, TV, and new media

Adaptation of folklore and fiction

YA and children’s literature

Paranormal Romance

The Gothic and the monstrous in the depths

Hybrid bodies and genres

Kelpies and water-bulls, merrows and other less-known creatures of the depths

Relationships with the Other

Borders and shorelines

Animality/culture

The merfolk of medieval Romance

Retellings of ‘The Little Mermaid’

Disneyfication of ‘The Little Mermaid’ and its controversies

Retellings of selkie stories

Blue Humanities and aquatic bodies

Destiny, agency, and biological determinism

Eastern European folklore, fiction, and film

Mami Wata and her kin

Aquatic dissolving of the self

Merfolk and selkie ballads

The mermaid in Victorian poetry and painting

Fake mermaids/sacred objects from the sea

Submission

In 1948, Ann Blyth was filming Mr Peabody and the Mermaid and Glenn Strange was filming Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein at nearby studios. They posed for this touching and humorous photograph in their costumes – a horror and fantasy classic!
In 1948, Ann Blyth was filming Mr Peabody and the Mermaid and Glenn Strange was filming Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein at nearby studios. They posed for this touching and humorous photograph in their costumes – a horror and fantasy classic!

Abstracts (200–300 words) for twenty-minute papers or proposals for panels, together with a short biography (150 words), should be submitted by 7 February 2025 as an email attachment in MS Word document format to ogomproject@gmail.com

Please prefix the document title with your surname. The abstract should be in the following format: (1) Title (2) Presenter(s) (3) Institutional affiliation (4) Email (5) 5–10 keywords (6) Abstract.

Panel proposals should include (1) Title of the panel (2) Name and contact information of the chair (3) Abstracts of the presenters.

Please state whether you would prefer to present online or in person. Presenters will be notified of acceptance after the deadline has passed in 2025.

There will be an opportunity to submit your paper for our OGOM publications.

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