Frank*ology 2025

Frank*ology Links

-Frankenstein and His Creation as Autistic-Coded Other
-Victor Frankenstein, the ‘Monster’, and the contemporary war against gender
-The Philosopher’s Curse: Alchemy, Creation, and ‘Playing God’ in Frankenstein: or, the Modern Prometheus and Full Metal Alchemist

-Terence Fisher’s Frankenstein: a phenomenological approach
-The Monsters We Create: Aberrant Sexuality and Queer Monstrosity in Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein and Gerardo Sámano Córdova’s Monstrilio
-Playing with the Pieces: Board Game Adaptations of Frankenstein

-Adam of the North
-Stille Nacht
-Paradise Mislaid

Frank*ology, or the Thoroughly Modern Prometheus: A Re-vision of Sensualities in Romanticism from Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein (virtual conference)

West of Canon Press seeks papers and presentations on Frankenstein from academics, artists, and folks across disciplines for a virtual conference celebrating the long legacy of this incredible book. We are looking for academic style papers as well as creative responses to Frankenstein and its related media.

A non-comprehensive list of what we’re hoping to see and include:

  • Transgender identity (specifically transmasculinities) in Frankenstein and other works by the Romantics.

  • Lake Geneva studies- Looking at Shelley-adjacent Romantics in a different light (discussions of polyamory and free love welcome.).

  • The poetics of monstrosity

  • Incest and queerness in Frankenstein

  • Disability studies and Frankenstein

  • Indigiqueer and racialized perspectives on Frankenstein

  • Cinematic depictions of the creature, including Karloff, Warhol, Zelda Williams, Hammer Horror, James Whale etc.

  • Theatre, music, and dance iterations of Frankenstein.

  • Adaptations and responses ie. Frank Kiss Stein, Ex Machina, Penny Dreadful, Wallace and Gromit and the Curse of the Were-Rabbit, Frankenstein in Baghdad, Junji Ito’s manga, Young Frankenstein, Danny Boyle’s stage adaptation with Benedict Cumberbatch

  • Guillermo del Toro’s longstanding love affair with Frankenstein.

  • Nautical queerness, eco-queerness and homoeroticism in Frankenstein

  • The epistolary

  • Phenomenology

  • The cadaver and the soul; complicating ‘new life’ in Frankenstein via crime, race, religion etc.

  • Filmic lore about Frankenstein which is parallel to canon but taken as truth; peg necks, Elizabeth as the Bride etc.

  • Everyone’s Met Frankenstein: Frankenstein’s pop culture encounters with The Munsters, Scooby-Doo, Abbott and Costello, Alvin and the Chipmunks etc.

  • Mary Shelley and Percy Shelley

  • Frankenstein and queer collaboration.

  • Mental Illness and neurodiversity.

  • Frankenstein, editorial processes, and collaboration.

  • Artificial Intelligence as Adam

  • Short stories, poems, plays, songs, dance, art-works, etc.,

The conference will hopefully conclude with a viewing of Guillermo del Toro’s new adaptation of the work, which Netflix says is scheduled for November of this year, but we will have a firm date of Friday November 21, 2025. CV, artist’s statement, and abstracts of 200-500 words for a 20 minute presentation, panel or creative project can be sent to Oscar Anderson at editor@westofcanon.com by September 15. While we’re not requiring content warnings for abstracts, please inform ahead if there’s any part of your presentation or abstract that flashes and/or contains bright light.