Last July, I was very fortunate to attend this year’s International Gothic Association (IGA) Conference at the Mount Saint Vincent University in Halifax, Nova Scotia. I am profoundly grateful to the Manchester Metropolitan University and all its members for supporting me in this journey, particularly to my director of thesis, Dr Xavier Aldana Reyes, as well as to the Doctoral College for granting me their Conference Support Award and the funds to attend the conference.
As the largest conference in the sprawling and interdisciplinary field of Gothic studies, which spans the length and breadth of the Humanities, and with hundreds of delegates, the IGA conference is an incredible platform for meeting other researchers, sharing my own research, and attend a dizzying number of fascinating presentations. It is the perfect environment to network and meet established scholars as well as fellow postgraduate students as well as being a very inclusive and supportive community of passionate researchers. I was able to present my research on aquatic hybridity and monstrosity in postmillennial Weird Fiction to my peers as well as receive incredibly constructive feedback. Attending such events is not only hugely beneficial in terms of experience but also in terms of visibility and recognition within rapidly growing fields of inquiry. I am also deeply grateful to the conference committee and all other members of the IGA for choosing me as one of their doctoral student representatives until the next conference in 2026 (at the University of Hull?)
It is a little scary yet always wonderful in my experience to meet the scholars and researchers whose writing you have come across or indeed are quoting extensively in your research. Big conferences always prove fast-paced and exhausting, yet they are also incredibly inspiring. I’ve often felt at the end of a conference day like my social batteries were completely drained, but my scholarly ones were fully recharged, as these events remind me of why I have chosen to pursue an academic career and how passionate I am about my subject, giving me all the clarity and motivation I need.
Visiting Halifax was also a wonderful experience as this was my first time in Canada. I was also able to make one of my dreams come true: to travel by overnight train from Montreal to Halifax across Eastern Canada’s vast forests and winding coastlines, a 25-hour journey that proved as awe-inspiring and beautifully serene as I imagined.
Thank you again, Manchester Met, for helping me make this journey a reality.
