CFP: Terminal Futures: JG Ballard In The 21st Century (Conferfence)
Kingston Upon Thames, UK
Organization: Kingston University
A Conference Call for Papers
Kingston University, UK, 28th and 29th October 2025
Terminal Futures: JG Ballard In The 21st Century
Kingston School of Art, Kingston University
#Kingston2025
October 28th and 29th 2025
Call For Papers
2025 is an apt time to celebrate the work of the writer and essayist JG Ballard as it sees 50 years since the publication of one of his seminal novels High Rise (1975) as well as nearly 20 years since his final novel Kingdom Come (2006) (a novel whose dystopian setting, a shopping centre, was based on Kingston-Upon-Thames own Bentall Centre). Ballard, of course is indelibly associated with Kingston and its surrounding areas having lived for 50 years in nearby Shepperton. Hence this conference is also designed to segue with the current #Kingston2025 heritage festivities which celebrate Kingston’s rich social and cultural history from the crowing of Athelstan 1100 years ago to the present day.
This interdisciplinary conference, which is organised through (and with thanks to) the Visual and Material Cultures Research Centre, Kingston School of Art, which will take place over two days and invites researchers and creative practitioners who are engaged with Ballard’s work and legacy; its seeks to excavate Ballard’s association with Kingston and its surrounding (Psycho)geographies (Heathrow, the M25, the Westway Shepperton and its studios, Brooklands racetrack etc) and architectures; to discuss Ballard’s work in all its forms (novels, short stories, essays, journalism and more) and his legacy across a diverse range of the arts and media cultures.
The conference will aim to consider Ballard’s legacy in the 21 century especially in the creative arts and in architecture. To that end it will take place in Kingston University’s very own Ballardian “High Rise” – our RIBA and Mies Van der Rohe award winning Town House building. It not only invites papers of 15-20 minutes but also the work of creative practitioners (artists, writers, filmmakers) whose own work engages with and exhibits Ballard’s legacy
The conference also aims to celebrate 50 years of ‘High Rise’ with a dedicated panel discussion around the novel.Presentations may engage with (but of course are not limited to) the following:-
Ballard and the geographies of greater London
Ballard and the Mass Media
Ballard, Capitalism and Consumerism
Ballard in the Archive: the Ballard papers and the British Library
Ballard, Architecture and the built environment
Psychogeography and Hauntology
Ballard, cars and crashes
Dystopias and Ecotopias
Environmental Collapse, Climate Crisis and Apocalypse
Ballard, Internment and the second world war
Ballard and science
Autobiography in Ballard
Flight
50 years of High Rise
20 years of Kingdom Come
Ballard and Adaptation
Ballard in the Jungle / Post-colonialism
Ballard’s 21st century legacy
Ballard and Film/Ballard on film
Ballard and Music
Ballard’s place in 20th century literature
Ballard, photography, art and design
Ballard’s abandoned projects
Please send abstracts of no more than 250 words to both Dr Matt Melia (m.melia@kingston.ac.uk) and Dr Chris Horrocks (c.horrocks@kingston.ac.uk) by no later than August 15th 2025
Matthew Melia
