CFP: 2026 Gods and Monsters Conference

“Gods and Monsters” is an interdisciplinary academic conference seeking to gather graduate students, established and emerging scholars, and independent researchers to explore the intersection of monstrosity and the sacred––both broadly defined. Its 2026 meeting will be held March 26–29 at Texas State University in San Marcos, TX.

The theme of the 2026 conference is “Communities and their Monsters.” Plenary speakers will examine how monsters have been deployed in such media as folklore and horror movies to tell stories that reflect the experiences of diverse ethnic, cultural, racial, and geographic communities; however, these same media may also serve to “monsterize” subaltern communities.

Call for paper proposals is open through October 15, 2025. Topics include but are not limited to:

• The state of “monster theory” as espoused by Jeffrey Jerome Cohen, J. Halberstam, Timothy Beale, and others.
• Monsters, demons, and fantastic creatures described in religious texts.
• Monstrous creatures described in contemporary folklore and cryptozoology.
• Monsters in fictional media such as novels, film, television, comic books, and video games
• The deployment and consequences of discourse used to “monsterize” specific groups of people
• Monsters, the sacred, and pedagogy
• The phenomenology of encounters with monsters

Proposals should include a brief bio and an abstract (200–300 words) and should be sent to Joseph Laycock at joseph.laycock@txstate.edu or Natasha L. Mikles at n.mikles@txstate.edu.