“Marginalised Mainstream 2014: Disguise. 3rd annual international conference held 28th–29th November 2014 at Senate House, University of London, UK.

This year’s conference will consider the varieties, motivations, and meanings of disguise. From secret identities to theatrical performances, from fictional fabrications to factual concealment, disguises of all sorts are part of mainstream culture. This event will explore various manifestations of disguise in popular fiction, media, and culture that have previously been academically marginalised.”

As usual in academia, a tight deadline. Announced on their blog 13th May, with a deadline of 30th May. Expect the deadline to be extended.

This conference might be of interest to Lovecraftians in academia, re: disguise in Lovecraft’s stories (“The Whisperer in Darkness”; “The Thing on the Doorstep”; the various covert behaviours of cultists, such as in “Red Hook”) or in other ways (seriously anti-religious messages disguised inside ‘juvenile pulp trash’; Lovecraft’s playful way with pseudonyms; Necronomicon forgeries/fabulations; later Mythos fiction and its attempted close imitations of Lovecraft’s themes and settings; maybe even Lovecraft’s poetry in terms of its anachronistic 18th century ‘disguise’; etc).