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UMEGO Conference 2025: Learning from Fear

Department of English Graduate Student Conference

Each year, the University of Memphis English Department hosts a Graduate Student Conference in conjunction with the UofM English Graduate Organization (UMEGO). This year's University of Memphis English Graduate Student Conference is sponsored by the Talbot Roundtable and hosted by the UMEGO Executive Board.

2025 Talbot Roundtable & Conference Keynote

Friday, April 25th
6:00pm | UC Theatre (145)
*More information forthcoming*

2025 Graduate Student Conference: Learning from Fear

Saturday, April 26th
Patterson Hall

Call for Proposals

The University of Memphis English Department Graduate Student Organization will host a conference with the theme Learning From Fear on April 25th-26th, 2025, in Memphis, Tennessee. This conference aims to appeal to a variety of disciplines and interests, including rhetoric, communication, film and media studies, creative writing, linguistics, African American literature, museum studies, philosophy, gender studies, graphic design, pop culture studies, psychology, educational studies, and web development. 

Key Research Questions

  1. How has fear shaped academia?
  2. How does fear control your research? 
  3. How do we embody or manifest fear within the work we do?
  4. How could the study of fear help explain present attitudes towards education?
  5. Can we learn from fear?

Conference Topics
We are particularly interested in papers, presentations, short films, interactive exhibits and other interdisciplinary works that engage with varied or novel approaches to understand fear, horror, pop media, and pedagogy. Topics for consideration include (but are not limited to):

  • The rhetoric of horror 
  • The embodiment of fear
  • Digital & technical communication
  • Visual/digital design
  • Fear within performance art
  • Unfiction/Chaotic Fiction 
  • Ergodic literature
  • Fear of surveillance 
  • Perceived literacy “crises”
  • Horror as an educational genre 
  • Resistance of traditional academic publishing/presentation standards 
  • Value of entertainment in education 
  • Found footage as genre
  • Fear and risk assessment among adult learners
  • Fear and Disability Studies
  • Rhetorical/artistic analysis of online ARGs (alternate reality games)
  • Codes/ciphers and modes of communication
  • Fear of Artificial Intelligence
  • Secrecy in linguistic communication 
  • Fear and anxiety in the classroom
  • Fear and anxiety in academic administration
  • Religious fear
  • Fear and race
  • Fear and queerness
  • Fear and sex
  • Fear as a pedagogical tool
  • Creative or productive failure in the classroom
  • Horror/fear aesthetics

Submission Guidelines 

  • Abstracts should be no more than 300 words.
  • Abstracts can be submitted here by February 21st, 2025.
  • Notifications regarding acceptance will be sent via email on or before March 7th, 2025.

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