Uniquely rooted in the tensions and the hauntings—both literal and figurative—of the American South, the Southern Gothic shares DNA with the broader Gothic genre, but situates itself geotemporally within the social, political, and personal concerns of the region loosely stretching from the Southwest to the Mid-Atlantic. Yet the borders of the Southern Gothic—much like the characters and settings that often inhabit it—are at turns permeable, transient, and diaphanous. Whether considered a style, a form, or a genre, the Southern Gothic explores regional cultural anxieties about race, class, gender, sexuality, history, and geographic identity itself. From the fiction of Edgar Allan Poe to Jesamyn Ward, the poetry of Minnie Bruce Ward to Natasha Trethewey, the films of Kasi Lemmons (Eve’s Bayou; Harriet) to Craig Brewer (Black Snake Moan; Hustle and Flow), the Southern Gothic functions as a medium through which both the specter of history and the complexity of the present-day South are confronted. Whether located in stereotypical depictions of rednecks and hillbillies or in more nuanced, intricate interpretations, the Southern Gothic shapes the wider perception of regional identities in ways that invite our contemporary scholarly engagement.
The Southern Gothic area of the Popular Culture / American Culture Association in the South (PCAS/ ACAS) invites proposals for individual presentations, roundtable discussions, or full panels of 3-4 papers at the 2025 PCAS/ ACAS Annual Conference, to be held October 9 – 11, 2025 in Huntsville, AL.
Topics might include (but are in no way limited to):
• representations of the Southern Gothic in film, TV, and literature
• monsters in the Southern Gothic: vampires, zombies, ghosts, etc.
• adaptation(s) of Southern Gothic literature
• the Southern Gothic in popular music
• Global elements of/ approaches to the Southern Gothic
• Repression as a foundational theme in the Southern Gothic
• Spirituality, faith practices, or religious communities within the Southern Gothic
• the Southern Gothic in new media (games, podcasts, graphic novels, etc.)
• the emergence of “Southern noir” as a subgenre
• Appalachian Gothic, Southern Ohio Gothic, Mississippi Delta Gothic, or other hyper-regional modes
• race, class, gender, and/ or sexuality in the Southern Gothic
• Southern true crime as a cultural phenomenon
• documentary and the Southern Gothic
• Southern Gothic tourism
• mental health narratives in the Southern Gothic
• specificity—or generality—in Southern Gothic geographies
• pedagogical approaches to/ uses of the Southern Gothic
• sites of intersection between the Southern Gothic and other genres/ modes
PCAS/ ACAS is dedicated to working toward equity, diversity, and inclusion both within our organization and in academia at large. As such, we particularly welcome submissions by underrepresented and marginalized scholars across categories such as race, gender, sexuality, ability, and employment status (e.g., graduate students and non-tenure track or unaffiliated/ independent scholars).
To propose a presentation (of 20 minutes or less) or a roundtable discussion for the Southern Gothic Area, please send the following to Area Chair Stephanie Graves at [email protected] by June 15, 2025:
- Name of presenter(s), institutional affiliation (if applicable), & email address for each presenter
- Type of submission (individual paper, roundtable, or full panel)
- Presentation abstract (250 words or fewer)
- Indication if you need access to A/V (not all rooms have A/V available—if you don’t indicate the need, you may be scheduled in a room without AV)
Submission deadline is June 15, 2025; notifications of acceptance will be sent by July 1, 2025.
PLEASE NOTE: In order to be considered for the Southern Gothic Area, please follow the instructions above rather than submitting through the PCAS/ ACAS website. Everyone is invited to submit one academic paper and can, in addition, participate in one round- table discussion or creative session. Only those proposals intended for the Southern Gothic area should be submitted as outlined above; the PCAS/ ACAS website has an online submission form for the General Call.