Call for Contributions: 'Creature, Stranger, Monster, Other: A Photography Conference'

Call for Contributions: 'Creature, Stranger, Monster, Other: A Photography Conference'

BA Photography, University of Greater Manchester Closing date: Sun, 10 May 2026

Artform: Photography
Role: Research
Contract: Temporary
North West

Fri, 01 May 2026 "> published -

Job Summary

We invite proposals for 15-minute presentations that challenge dominant accounts of the Other in contemporary photography – from the traditional to the experimental to the genre-bending.

Job Description

£150 speaker fee, plus UK-based travel expenses to Bolton.

We have a limited hotel budget for those travelling the furthest; if you would like to stay over in Bolton the night before/after, please indicate in the application, and we will do our best to accommodate you.

Overview: In 1994, writer, critic and historian Dame Marina Warner delivered the prestigious Reith Lectures for the BBC on the theme 'Six Myths of Our Time: Managing Monsters'. Thirty years on, her analyses of social anxieties blister with relevancy: six wide-ranging and pin sharp reflections that wheel from the fury aimed at single mothers, to the foundations of toxic masculinity, the loss of childhood innocence, an anthropomorphism of nature, the fear and dehumanisation of migrants, and to nostalgic lies about national identity. Through the grand narratives of the Monster and the Other, Warner asks us to look again at examples of oppression, prejudice, and stereotype, in the context of mythology and the retelling of histories.

This intersectional and interdisciplinary photography conference, entitled 'Creature, Stranger, Monster, Other', revisits Warner's social critique in today's digital-obsessed world: one still attuned to male desire, increasingly shaped by biased machine-learning, hostage to beauty cults, and bombarded with misogynist and fascist media.

- Deadline for Applications: Sunday 10 May 2026, 23:59 BST
- Live Event: 10:00-17:00 BST, Friday 26 June 2026 (in-person)
- Venue: Room Y0.02 (Ground Floor), Greater Manchester Business School, University of Greater Manchester, Great Moor St, Bolton BL1 1SW (next door to Bolton Train Station)
- Public, free entry (booking essential, to be released shortly)

Job Requirements

Eligibility: For this particular conference, we are inviting a wide range of contemporary photographic practitioners and image-makers, working in traditional, experimental, expanded or hybrid forms. Photographers, artists, critics, curators, theorists, writers, archivists, historians, performers, other... If your research interests respond to photography in any shape or form, we want to hear from you.

As we are a disability-friendly and socially inclusive university working on widening participation in academia, proposals from underrepresented researchers are especially encouraged. We welcome those who identify as marginalised, or speaking from the margins: (including but not limited to) if you have been impacted by misogyny, are working class, disabled, neurodiverse, minority ethnic, or LGBTQIAAP+.

Proposals are welcome from those at any stage of their career.

Job Responsibilities

Speaking about your research at a one-off event open to the academic community and general public. As the conference is open to the public, it is intended to reach a broad, diverse audience that is as accessible as possible.

Presentations will question, respond to, or skirt the edges of 'Creature, Stranger, Monster, Other'. Consider submitting proposals that use a key word from the title, dig into the following thematic provocations, or propose your own interpretations:
- Future, intersectional feminism and its possible afterlives
- Other, underrecognised or uncategorised knowledge
- The excluded or displaced body
- Transformation, shape-shifting and alter-egos
- Mimicry, duplication, fakery and appropriation
- Creaturely or post-human forms

Useful Links

Job Overview

  • Job Title: Call for Contributions: 'Creature, Stranger, Monster, Other: A Photography Conference'
  • Salary: Under £10K
  • Hours: Part time
  • Artform: Photography
  • Role: Research
  • Contract: Temporary
  • Closing date: Sun, 10 May 2026
  • Location:
    North West
    | view on Google Maps

Job: Call for Contributions: 'Creature, Stranger, Monster, Other: A Photography Conference'

Job: Call for Contributions: 'Creature, Stranger, Monster, Other: A Photography Conference'

Organisation: BA Photography, University of Greater Manchester

Postcode: BL1 1SW

How to Apply

How to Apply: If you are interested in contributing to ‘Creature, Stranger, Monster, Other’, welcome! Please fill in this short online application form by Sunday 10 May 2026, 23:59 BST: https://forms.cloud.microsoft/e/UNMi6bazzK

Alternatively, if you need to apply via voice note or video recording, please email Laura (details below) and we will arrange contact over WhatsApp.

Form breakdown:
- Contact details
- Proposal: a rough outline of what you wish to present at the conference. Presentation slots will be 15 minutes in duration and may be accompanied by additional group discussion/Q&As. If you have a film you’d like to screen, tell us about it here (300 words max)
- About you (100 words max)
- Links e.g. Instagram, personal website
- Indication of format (e.g. slides, audio, film)
- Hotel request.