Theorizing Zombiism 2 Conference: Undead Again

Program and abstracts

You find the program overview, the session by session version of the program, and all the abstracts here:
https://gubox.box.com/s/px6kbheg1dnddrf4lxh7xg4e9f22j72x

About the conference

The zombie as an allegory for cultural, social, and scientific analysis spans almost every discipline including humanities, biology, mathematics, anthropology, economics, and political science. This range of use for the zombie narrative is a clear indication of its adaptability and viability as a distinct framework for critical theory. Theorizing Zombiism 2: Undead again will thus serve as a timely and much-needed platform for the development of international and interdisciplinary relationships between researchers, educators, practitioners and other interested parties.

Note that we are hoping that the majority of the events at this conference can take place in a live, synchronous format. Having said that, we will also take advantage of alternative formats for participation and presentations, including (but not limited to) synchronous digital presentations, recorded presentations and virtual social events. Please note that in addition to the main conference, we are also hosting a workshop on ‘Teaching the Zombie’ (see below for details).

For the main conference, contributors are encouraged to provide discipline specific, and interdisciplinary, examinations of the zombie with the purpose of formulating an overall theoretical structure of Zombiism.

Some Potential Topics, both discipline specific and non-discipline specific, could be (but not limited to):

• Nationalism through the zombie narrative (e.g. films like Le Horde (French), Cockneys vs Zombies (British), Dead Meat (Ireland), Ravenous (French Canadian), Zombieland (US American)).
• Zombie Infections as a Metaphor for Pandemics.
• Zombie Phenomenology/Philosophy/Psychoanalysis.
• The Undead in Myth & Folklore (Zombies by other names in myths and legends, such as those found in Greek, Norse, Chinese and Egyptian mythologies, among others).
• Globalization, Refugees, and Migration.
• Gender/Ethnicity/Race and the Undead.
• Zombies in Popular Culture: Re-evaluating the function of horror in society.
• Expanding Praxis: Evaluating the expanding Zombie trope into other art forms and fields.
• Historical/Literary Mash-ups: Re-telling historical events and/or literary works through Zombiism and other horror tropes (Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter, Queen Victoria: Demon Hunter, Pride and Prejudice and Zombies, Paul Is Undead: The British Zombie Invasion, etc).
• Undead digital objects and issues of digital curation/Undead archival objects.
• Zombies in Games (e.g. video games such as Resident Evil, The Last of Us, Plants vs. Zombies or board games like Zombicide, Dawn of the Zeds, Carnival Zombie, among others).
• Legal Zombiism: Law and Legislation that refuses to die.
• Ecocritcal Zombiism.
• Science/Science Fiction: The science of Zombiism/The Zombification of science.
• Zombiism and visual culture and art history.
• Zombies and Consumer Capitalism
• Linguistic perspectives on the undead – e.g.  genre or text type analysis via a corpus, the linguistic construction of the undead in popular culture, the types of cognitive verbs are used in zombie narratives, among others.

Theorizing Zombiism 2 Workshop: Teaching the Zombie

As part of the Theorizing Zombiism 2 Conference, we are seeking proposals for a workshop entitled “Teaching the Zombie.” This workshop aims to create a space in which scholars from a variety of disciplines can discuss how they integrate or plan to integrate Zombie Studies into their classes. As one of the objectives of the conference is to encourage international and interdisciplinary relationships among scholars, our hope is that this workshop can foster connections through discussions of pedagogical practice.

Workshop panelists will share zombie-themed assignments and activities intended for their classes as well as hold an informal discussion on teaching zombiism more generally. We welcome proposals focused on teaching zombies within any discipline.

Each panelist will prepare a short (5 minutes or less) presentation of an assignment or activity they use in their courses or plan to use in their courses that utilizes Zombie Studies. The workshop panelists will then engage in an informal discussion of teaching zombiism and a Q & A with the audience. Ideally, we will later collect the assignments to share on the Zombie Studies Network website.

Please submit a 300-word abstract that provides a description of the ways you have integrated zombies/zombiism/zombie studies into your courses (or hope to integrate zombies into your courses) alongside a description of your proposed assignment or activity.

Please note that proposals may be submitted for both a conference presentation for Theorizing Zombiism 2 as well as for this workshop.

While the conference organizers are hoping that the majority of the conference events will take place in a live, synchronous format, we are aware that this workshop may need to accommodate alternative formats for participation.

Send abstracts to:

For the main conference, please send abstracts of 300 words to theorizingzombiism@gmail.com by March 10, 2021.

For the workshop, please send abstracts of 300 words to chera.d.kee@gmail.com by March 10, 2021.

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Travel and Accommodation

Our admin team can help you make travel/accommodation arrangements – please contact Anne Berg (anne.berg@sprak.gu.se) if you prefer for us to help you in these matters.
Otherwise, if you choose to book these things yourself, here is some useful information:

Hotel Accommodations

Here is a short list of hotels and hostels arranged (more-or-less) in ascending order by price. You can find many other hotels in Gothenburg at the following website: https://www.goteborg.com/en/hotels/

• Slottsskogens Vandrarhem & Hotell (https://www.sov.nu/en/)
• Linné Hostel (http://www.linnehostel.com/)
• STF Göteborg City Hotel/Hostel (https://www.goteborg.com/en/stf-goteborg-city-hotell--vandrarhem/)
• Hotel Vasa (http://www.hotelvasa.se/en/)
• Quality Hotel Panorama (http://quality-hotel-panorama.gothenburg-hotels.com/en/)
• Hotel Lorensberg (http://www.hotel-lorensberg.se/?lang=en)
• Gothia Towers hotell (https://gothiatowers.com/hotel/?lang=en)

If you have any further questions about accommodation or need help booking your trip, please contact Anne Berg (anne.berg@sprak.gu.se) or one of the conference organizers.

Local transport

The local transport provider is called Västtrafik. On their website (https://www.vasttrafik.se/en/) you will find travel and ticket information in English. You can buy single tickets and multiday passes at the airport, at the numerous 7-Eleven or Pressbyrån shops, or you can purchase mobile tickets using their app which can be downloaded for both IOS and Android. Most bus/tram drivers do not sell tickets on-board in Gothenburg, and in fact don’t generally speak to passengers at all.

The easiest way to find directions to and from the university buildings from your hotel, and around the city is to use Västtrafik’s travel planner (available as a downloadable app in English).
You can enter the address of your point of departure and destination, and the app will suggest the most suitable route.

Airport transfer

There are two main options available for travelling into the city from Landvetter airport: taking a taxi, which is relatively expensive (expect to pay a minimum of 400kr for a single journey), and by bus (Flygbussarna).

The most convenient way to buy a ticket for Flygbussarna (if you do not already have one) is to do so in advance, via their webshop - https://www.flygbussarna.se/en/landvetter - though you can also buy tickets at the airport, at resellers or on board with a charge card. They cost 95 SEK one way or 185 SEK return. Tickets are typically issued electronically via mobile devices.

The busses depart every 12-15 minutes during the day, and the journey time to the city is approx. 20-30 minutes depending on which stop you are travelling to. The closest stop to the University is KORSVÄGEN, the first stop on the bus’s route into Gothenburg.

Passengers on the airport coaches are also entitled to one ticket for travel within the city, valid for 90 minutes. This ticket is issued by the coach driver only on request, so be sure to speak with him/her if you need to use local transport following the transport.

Please see their website https://www.flygbussarna.se/en/landvetter for further information.

If there any remaining questions about travel, don’t hesitate to ask the conference organizers.

Finding the conference/workshop

The conference/workshop will take place in two formats: virtually (via a conferencing program, details will be provided later) and phsyically at ‘Humanisten’, which is the main building for the Faculty of the Arts at the University of Gothenburg (Renströmsgatan 6). For those who plan on attending the physical conference, we will provide the specific details about the rooms/lecture halls in the program when that is finalized. We will have a registration/information desk near the main entrance to the building and naturally, you can simply go to the main information desk at Humanisten and ask about the event. If for some reason you need further help, you can call or text Joe at +46 708-603604 or Linda at +46 736 933960

Map of Humanisten

(coming soon!)