About
IGA Presidents 2009-11: William Hughes (Bath Spa University) and Andrew Smith (University of Glamorgan)
Executive Officer: Sue Chaplin (Leeds Metropolitan University, U.K.)
Gothic Studies Editor: William Hughes (Bath Spa University, U.K.)
Web Officer: James Bell (Stirling University, U.K.)
The International Gothic Association unites teachers, scholars, students, artists, writers and performers from around the world who are interested in any aspect of gothic culture: fiction, drama, poetry, art, film, music, architecture, popular culture and technology. It promotes the study and dissemination of information on gothic culture from the mid eighteenth century to the contemporary moment. The only association of its kind, the IGA is the academic centre for people interested in an analysis of the gothic.
The Association holds an international conference every two years. Sponsored by host institutions from all over Europe and North America, the IGA has so far met in East Anglia, Stirling, Horace Walpole’s house at Strawberry Hill (where the literary gothic began…) and Liverpool in the U.K.; in Halifax, Vancouver and Montréal in Canada and, most recently (2007), in Aix-en-Provence in France. The next IGA conference will be held at the University of Lancaster in England in July 2009. The Association provides financial help for postgraduates giving papers at the conference in the form of bursaries for which interested participants can compete. In addition, the IGA sponsors joint sessions with other academic organisations, such as BARS (British Society for the Study of Romanticism), NASSR (North American Society for Studies in Romanticism), ACCUTE (Association of Canadian College and University Teachers of English) and ALA (American Literature Association). Finally, small one-day conferences that have a significant gothic content can apply for assistance in underwriting the cost of the conference: successful applicants receive up to £100.
