The Northern Star Symposium is a three-day academic gathering in Bodø, Norway. The goal of this symposium is to have a place to discuss topics and questions that are not among the mainstream of conferences and journals.
Weird: Call for presentations
For the Northern Star Symposium 2027, 24th–26th of May, we invite submissions from all disciplines, as long as they explore and discuss the Weird.
The weird is what we are both drawn towards and away from. Weirdness invites curiosity and aversion, a closer look and turning away. It is that which in some way unsettles our perception of order and normality, something which, we feel, should not be able to exist according to how we understand the world and yet defiantly, stubbornly does. That confrontation of the boundaries of our world can trigger discomfort, fear, confusion and excitement.
Because of this, ‘weird’ can be a derogatory label. It is attracting attention to what is outside the norm. The damaging potential – and indeed history – of this is plain to see. The weird can be a disciplining tool, corralling and coercing people and their creations back within established norms. It can be and has also been reclaimed and worn with pride, an intentional eschewing of norms, an escape from the ordinary. In both senses, weirdness has been related to queerness, but also to any norm-defying or transgressive person or practice.
The word ‘weird’ is related etymologically to ‘fate’. In English, it comes to us via Middle English references to ‘weird sisters’, trios of goddesses who weave fate in many Indo-European faiths and folklores, such as the norns of Norse mythology. Later we have Shakespeare’s weird sisters or three witches in Macbeth. The ‘weirdness’ of those sisters comes from the Old English wyrd, meaning ‘fate’ as a noun. As a verb, weorþan, it means more generally ‘to come to pass’ or ‘to become’. The weird is that which exists, but whose existence is in itself notable, remarkable, strange, disconcerting or unexpected.
Thinking through and with the weird helps us to both see those harms and to embrace its revelatory potential. It removes us from the normal, established ways of seeing and thinking that are comfortable but ultimately limiting. In that spirit, we ask you to think weirdly and to propose presentations on, but not limited to:
- Weirdness as a normative or disciplinary concept
- Weirdness as a reclaimed, emancipatory concept
- The meaning of weird creations
- Weird experiences
- Weird academia
- Queerness and its relationship to weirdness
- Explorations of the weird and unknown
- Representations of weird creations and people
- Weird fiction, weird horror, the New Weird
- Weird temporalities and spatialities
- Weirdness and transgression
Deadlines
- Early deadline 17th of March. We start accepting from this date
- First date of decisions: 23rd of March
- Late deadline 19th of April
- Submit by email to northern.star.symposium@gmail.com
Who can submit
We invite all scholars working on topics relevant for the call. Please add your affiliation or alma mater to your submission, but let us know if you do not want it used in public.
Format
We invite abstracts of up to 500 words (not including literature lists), for the following formats: Paper abstract, work in progress, reflection.
- Reflections: This is a flight of fancy, a description of potential ideas and connections that the concept anger fosters
- Paper abstract: This is a summary of a relevant research project you have done, and which you would like to present to the others
- Work in progress: This is work you would like feedback on
We also invite more formats:
- experiences,
- performance,
- experimentation and
- roleplay
Feedback: You will get a commenter, and be asked to provide feedback on the work of another person
Selection process
Submissions are not anonymously reviewed. Program decisions will be made by the program committee:
- Dom Ford and his substitute Tom Legierse
- Agata Zarzyka
- Usva Friman
- Tomasz Majkowski
- Egil Trasti Rogstad
- Torill Elvira Mortensen
Supported by the local organizing committee:
- Kristian Andreas Bjørkelo
- Isadora Inger Silva Smaadal
- Rodrigo Bielma Silva