Haunted Humanity: programme

Haunted Humanity: Workshop by The Monster Network

Thursday November 29 – Friday November 30 at Stavanger Kunsthall and The University of Stavanger (UiS)

In light of so-called migratory challenges and increasing nationalism in the Nordic countries, this workshop critically engages with ongoing debates about exclusion and inclusion through the ideas surrounding monsters, ghosts and haunting. The workshop explores not only important historical contexts for how monsters emerged as justifications for discrimination and violence, but also the monstrous Others as figures that haunt the foundations of the very idea of humanity, and what it means to be human today.

To participate, email ingvil.f.hellstrand@uis.no before November 7^st. The workshop is supported by the Nordic Culture point and is free of charge.

Program: Continue reading “Haunted Humanity: programme” →

Save the dates!

Image description: 10-15 people are covered by a large, beige/pink sheet, their heads or other limbs sticking up to make a large, many-bodied blob. In front of the blob are three school desks with paper, pens and water bottles. To the right, sunlight is coming through a window.

We’re scheming, and we want you to be part of our plans! Due to a generous grant from the Nordic Culture Point, the Monster Network will be organizing two workshops:

Haunted Humanity in Stavanger, Norway on 29-30 November 2018.
Weird Ecologies in Tampere, Finland on 4-5 April 2019.

We will soon update this website with more information about the workshops, so keep peeling those eyeballs!

New Monster Network publication: Promises of Monsters

Soma cover — Image description: painting with black, purple and white paint, some in horizontal stripes, some looking like they are dripping down

In 2016 the Monster Network organised the international conference Promises of Monsters at the University of Stavanger. In our own humble opinion, the conference was nothing short of fantastic, and for close to two years we have been working on a publication based on the themes and debates raised by the fabulous speakers and artists. That publication has now seen the dawn of day and – as any unholy creature would – is roaming the world, looking for trouble and its creators. Want to find it before it finds us? Get your special issue of Somatechnics: Promises of Monsters right here! You can read the introduction Promises, Monsters and Methodologies: the Ethics, Politics and Poetics of the Monstrous for free. You can also read more about the publication in its entirety in this blog-post by Donna McCormack.

Special Issue on the Monstrous

Dr. Donna McCormack (Lecturer in English Literature at the University of Surrey) speaks about the recent Special Issue of the journal Somatechnics that she edited with the steering committee of the Monster Network.

The Monster Network has been busy doing collective work and is happy to announce the publication of a special issue of the journal Somatechnics on Promises, Monsters, Methodologies: The Ethics, Politics and Poetics of the Monstrous (September 2018).

The Special Issue started as a collaborative project between the five editors, who are all steering committee members of the Monster Network. Most of us have worked together for many years, while others came along later consolidating our desire to think about the future of monster studies, and to address whether there is such a thing as monster studies. Continue reading “Special Issue on the Monstrous” →

Welcome to the Monster Network’s new website!

We have moved! And we apologise for the mess as we find out feet (and eyeballs and tails and scales) and get the new site up and running. We will soon be publishing a blog as well as write about upcoming events. You are also welcome to check out our previous wrongdoings at our ancient website Promises of Monsters, or visit us on Facebook or tweet at us. We respond to @_MonsterNetwork

Take care! There be monsters out there.

And in here.