Captivating Criminality 13: Crime Fiction, Conflict, and Representation

We’re delighted to announce our three keynote speakers for Captivating Criminality 13:

• Prof. Gill Plain, University of St. Andrew’s, UK
• Prof. Andrew Pepper, Queen’s University, Ireland
• Dr Dorothea Flothow, University of Salzburg, Austria

The International Crime Fiction Association is delighted to announce the thirteenth Captivating Criminality conference, held from Thursday, 25 June to Saturday, 27 June 2026 at Bamberg, Germany, with a workshop for ECR/PGR on Wednesday, 24 June 2025. This year’s topic, crime fiction, conflict, and representation, attempts to appeal to researchers of crime fiction in all its variety and presented on various media, ranging from the “classical” detective novel via filmic representations of crime to podcasts and social media. 

As a genre of fundamentally human expression, much of crime fiction from all places and times is concerned with discussions of both conflict and representation. Crime fiction contributes to discourses of cultural, political, social, ethical, economic, domestic, and personal conflict and as such provides a means of representation of genders, ethnicities, classes, or zeitgeists. As a globally best-selling, ultimately heterogeneous genre, crime fiction encompasses the plurality of representation, ranging from representations of national identities to representations of individual and personal identities, from historical or cultural differences to discourses of unity. Similarly, crime fiction has the potential to question conflicts on personal, cultural, or global levels. 

Papers presented at Captivating Criminality 13 are invited to examine any forms of conflict and representation and their relation to crime fiction in any form and in any medium, drawing on the multiple threads that have fed into the genre since its inception in all parts of the world. Speakers are invited to explore the crossing of forms and themes within crime fiction to discuss how crime fiction challenges, discusses, or upholds concepts of normalcy that underlie representation and conflict(s). The aim of this conference is to show crime fiction’s engagement with conflict and representation in its multifacetedness, ranging from the domestic and personal (e.g. in domestic noir) to the international and global political (e.g. in eco thrillers or crimate fiction). Papers may deal with both or either concept and are not limited by media, time, or place, or scholarly approach; all scholarship on crime fiction is welcome.

Abstracts dealing with Crime Fiction past and present, true crime narratives, television and film studies, and other forms of new media such as blogs, computer games, websites and podcasts are welcome, as are papers adopting a range of theoretical, sociological and historical approaches.