Warhammer Conference

Warhammer Conference 2024

Why is the grim darkness of the far future so interesting? Warhammer 40k is a decades-old, multi-billion dollar, multi-platform, post-post-post-apocalyptic science fiction franchise with fans around the globe. And yet it has mostly escaped scholarly attention… so far.

Warhammer Conference aims to change this. Together we aim to put Warhammer 40k on the academic map, and explore the many interesting implications of the 40k universe. We invite entries from all fields, including but not limited to: Philosophy, Games Studies, Literature, Politics, Science & Technology Studies or Theology.

Possible questions or themes could include:

• Tech-theology: on the veneration of the apparatus
• Just war: does fighting against extinction justify any means?
• Super soldiers: space marines as ‘ideal abominations’
• Religion and the imperial cult
• Demons & psychoanalysis: the warp as manifestation of the unconscious?
• Setting vs. Story: narrative development in a static setting
• Bolter-porn: on the joys of hyperbole and excess
• 40k as tragic comedy
• The classical and the futuristic
• Inventing the grimdark: how Games Workshop invented a whole new genre of art
• The real and the imaginary – real world decisions and the fantastical setting
• The business of Games Workshop and the Hobby™

To apply to join this conference, please submit an abstract of up to 300 words via our online form.

Presentations should be 15-20 minutes long, with space for questions afterwards. We do not require the submission of written papers. We are happy to make slide decks and any related links and documents available on our website during/after the conference.

The closing date for submissions is 9am on 31st July 2024.