Dark Economies Conferences

Dark Economies

The Dark Economies Conferences offer an international forum for discussion and dissemination of cutting edge scholarly discussion and exhibition. Offering great opportunities for PGR and ECRs as well as established academics and creative practitioners these conferences, hosted in beautiful Cornwall, provide a forum for the creative discussion of the Gothic, Crime, Haunting, and Horror. 

    Project details

    Project lead Professor Ruth Heholt
    Start date 2011
    End date Ongoing
    External website Dark Economies

    The Dark Economies conferences are now an established part of the international conference circuit. The conferences encourage provocative, radical and respectful discussions, we aim to generate serious interdisciplinary and transdisciplinary engagements with scholars, practitioners, and artists. Past conferences include: 

    • Haunted Men 
    • Haunted Landscapes (I and II) 
    • Sensational Men 
    • Folk Horror: New Global Pathways 
    • Dark Economies 
    • Crones, Crime, and the Gothic
    • Sex, Scandal, and Sensation 

    Project team

    Dr Ruth Heholt: profile image
    Dr Ruth Heholt

    Project lead - Ruth Heholt

    Ruth Heholt is an internationally renowned scholar in the fields of Gothic, supernatural, Victorian, folk horror, and crime fiction studies. She is author of Catherine Crowe: Gender, Genre, and Radical Politics (Routledge, 2020) and co-author of Gothic Kernow: Cornwall as Strange Fiction (Anthem Press, 2022). She is co-editor of several collections including Gothic Britain: Dark Places in the Provinces and Margins of the British Isles (2018), The Victorian Male Body (2018), and Haunted Landscapes (2017).

    Read more

    Additional team members

    Falmouth staff:

    • Ruth Heholt
    • Joanne Ella Parsons
    • David Devanny 
    • Jennifer Young 
    • Adrian Markle 
    • Eoin Murray 
    • Laurence North 
    • Tanya Krzywinska 
    • Amy Greenhough 
    • Marshall Moore 
    • Andy Chatfield 

    Other staff:

    • Dawn Keetley (Lehigh University) 
    • Karl Bell (University of Portsmouth) 
    • Eric Sandberg (City University Hong Kong) 

    Partners

    We have had many partners for the conferences, offering support and sometimes competitive ECR bursaries. Our partners include: 

    • Lehigh University 
    • City University Hong Kong 
    • The Supernatural Cities Project (Portsmouth University) 
    • The International Gothic Association (IGA) 
    • The Victorian Popular Fiction Association (VPFA) 
    • The International Crime Fiction Association (ICFA) 
    • The Association of Literature and the Environment (ASLE-UKI) 
    • The Drinking Studies Network 
    • International Association for the Study of Popular Romance 
    • Contemporary Women’s Writing Association (CWWA) 
    • Scholarly Association of Menopausal Studies (SAMS) 

    Funders

    Conference partners have brought funding to support the project, fund associated research projects and sponsor wine receptions. They include: 

    • Lehigh University 
    • City University Hong Kong 
    • The Supernatural Cities Project 
    • The Victorian Popular Fiction Association 
    • The Association of Literature and the Environment 
    • International Association for the Study of Popular Romance 
    • Contemporary Women’s Writing Association