The Ninth Interdisciplinary Conference of the International Crime Genre Research Network, Ireland

The Crime Genre and Crisis

Friday 16 – Saturday 17 June 2023

University of Galway, Ireland

In 2022 Collins Dictionary chose ‘Permacrisis’ as their word of the year, reflecting a sense of moving from one crisis to another: pandemic; warfare; mass migration; climate change and environmental breakdown. We read about energy crisis, economic crisis, supply chain crisis, mental health crisis, political crisis, global crisis in gender-based violence. Crisis breeds fear and uncertainty but can also represent a turning point and the potential for urgent, radical action. The aim of this ninth interdisciplinary conference is to examine how the crime genre reflects and engages with ideas of crisis. Indeed, crisis is at the heart of the genre, with crimes affecting individuals, families, communities, nations, forcing them to confront terrible acts and face up to devastating truths. Furthermore, the embeddedness of the modern subject within transnational and global networks of travel, commerce, exchange, influence, raises complex questions of complicity and responsibility in local and global crises. We invite submissions on the theme of crisis within the genre, from the individual to the global. We also invite scholars to consider to what extent genre production reinforces a sense of helplessness in the face of these crises and to what extent it suggests or proposes potential solutions. 

As always, we welcome submissions from those working on crime fiction and film, and wider media production. We invite proposals for papers or panels from a wide range of disciplinary perspectives: literature and languages, criminology, anthropology, economics, politics, sociology, gender studies, health, law, etc. Our ambition remains to bring together researchers from a broad range of disciplines, countries and cultures to share knowledge and insights. We welcome established, early career and postgraduate scholars.

Papers can be on any aspect of crisis and can be on crime fiction production from the inception of the genre to the present day. Papers are welcome from any language area, but must be delivered in English and should be no more than twenty minutes in length.

Gender-based violence: Within the broader call, we include an invitation to scholars working on gender-based violence in the crime genre to register their interest in joining a research network to share expertise in this area.

Submission of abstracts and proposals for panels:

Please send abstracts (of 200 words maximum) along with brief CVs to kate.quinn@universityofgalway.ie by Friday, February 10, 2023. Please use the same contact for any other conference or network related questions.

Conference organisers:

Dr Kate Quinn and Monika Jurkiewicz (PhD candidate), Spanish and Latin American Studies, University of Galway

Conference committee:

Marieke Krajenbrink, German Studies, University of Limerick

David Conlon, Spanish and Latin American Studies, Maynooth University

Dominique Jeannerod, French, Queen’s University Belfast

Diana Battaglia, Spanish Studies, University College Dublin

Jean-Philippe Imbert, SALIS, Dublin City University.