CFPs and Events: Monsters, Victorians, Osgood Perkins, Cottingley Fairies, fairy tales, folklore

CFP: Monster Media Conference 2026

University of Edinburgh, 18-19 June 2026 (in person and on line)

Deadline: 15 March 2026

This conference aims to explore the relationship between monsters and the media in which they are portrayed, and the way monsters and monster theory can help us better understand media itself.

CFP: Our Victorians, Ourselves: Rethinking Victorian Texts & Contexts

Undergraduate and Graduate Student Victorian Association (UGSVA), 28 April 2026 (on line)

Deadline: 31 March 2026

this conference asks: what do the Victorians mean to students today, and what can we gain from continuing to engage with these nineteenth-century texts? We invite undergraduate and graduate students to answer that question for us by sharing their work on Victorian themes and narratives that still speak to us today.

CFP: Osgood Perkins and 21st-century Horror

Edited collection.

Deadline: 31 March 2026

Osgood Perkins is emerging as one of the most significant directors of horror in the 21st century. [ . .] This proposed collection of essays will explore Perkins’ corpus of horror films (so far). I’m looking for at least one contribution on each of his films as well as essays that make larger thematic, aesthetic, philosophical, political claims across multiple films.

The Long View: Deep Fakes – Seeing is Believing

Radio talk, BBC Radio 4. Dr Merrick Burrow in conversation on the Cottingley Fairies.

Dr Burrow was a keynote speaker at our 2021 Ill met by moonlight conference on Gothic Faerie and is a contributor to our forthcoming book on the theme, Gothic Encounters with the Enchantment and the Fairy Realm in Literature and Culture.

The number of deepfakes shared online rose from around half a million in 2023 to eight million by 2025. While much of this material is seen as humorous or satirical, deepfakes are increasingly used for scams, misinformation, and political manipulation, exploiting a long-standing human weakness: our tendency to trust what we can see. The Long View explores a striking historical parallel — the Cottingley Fairies affair of 1917–1921.

Leaping Hare – Tales in the Tiles

An archaeology and storytelling workshop. Todmorden Folklore Centre, 7 Mar 2026, 18:00 – 20:00

Join Leaping Hare on a journey through time to the Medieval Malvern Priory, explore the stories from the Priory’s handmade tiles. In this workshop you can create your own story and make your own Malvern tile! All materials will be provided.

Fairy Tales, Papua New Guinea, an Idiosyncratic Approach

Viktor Wynd, The Folklore Society, 10 March 2026, 7 pm to 8:30 pm GMT (on line)

Viktor Wynd will discuss his idiosyncratic approach to performing and understanding fairy tales, his obsession with Papua New Guinea, the world’s second largest island, home to over 800 different peoples – each with their own rich cultural traditions – a country he has visited for a month or so every year for past decade. The lecture will end with a performance of a few of his favourite tales collected on the Sepik and in The Trobriand Islands featuring the moon, menstruation, man eating pigs, giant octopus and the spirit world.

Lily-of-the-valley Customs: a Window on France

Cozette Griffin-Kremer, The Folklore Society, 5 May 2026, 7 pm to 8:30 pm GMT+1

There is a wealth of customs associated with the lily-of-the-valley (Convallaria majalis L.) in France and this can only be a sampling that runs from the iconic plant’s botanical being, on to how it is associated with bringing good luck, and hence, with some of the famous people who have used the muguet to construct their own legends.

Tessitrici di Fiabe/Weavers of Fairy Tales

The Cambridge University Italian Society and Ars in Fieri – International Theatre Company
Friday, March 13th – 7PM
Saturday, March 14th – 4PM and 7PM
Sunday, March 15th – 2PM

Freely based on Italian fairy tales adapted for the stage by Ludovico Nolfi and Elena Sottilotta, directed by Ludovico Nolfi.

The performance will be in Italian with English captions displayed live.