Urban legends Sheffield: 40th Contemporary Legend Research conference will be held at city university

Sheffield Hallam University has been chosen as the host for this year’s Contemporary Legend Research (ISCLR) conference. It is a gathering of scholars and enthusiasts specialising in supernatural goings-on, red-string theories and ‘friend of a friend’ stories.

This year will be the 40th anniversary of the gathering after the first was held at Halifax Hall in Sheffield in the summer of 1982, spurred on by the era’s rampant and everlasting tales of phantom hitchhikers, alien abductions and sewer alligators. Today, the modern urban myth has been replaced with social media horror stories as well as political conspiracies.

The original Perspectives on Contemporary Legend seminars launched the academic study of what was, at that time, a new genre of folklore: the ‘urban legend’ or ‘urban myth’. Urban legends are modern stories told as true but which include traditional motifs that are usually attributed to an ‘I heard’ level of credibility.

Delegates at the 40th conference will discuss how legend scholarship has evolved and expanded its remit to incorporate new stories, conspiracy rumours, fake and folk news in the age of pandemics and perma-crises.

One of the panel themes asks ‘Is the Truth still out there?’ and marks the 30th anniversary of The X-Files. In the TV show that premiered in 1993, David Duchovny and Gillian Anderson played FBI agents who investigated cases of monsters, serial killers, UFOs and alien abductions and other popular urban legends.

When is the Contemporary Legend Research (ISCLR) conference in 2023?

The week-long 2023 conference opens on June 26, 2023, in the Mary Badlands lecture theatre at City Campus. It will be hosted by the Centre for Contemporary Legend (CCL) research group that includes Dr David Clarke, Dr Diane Rodgers and Andrew Robinson from the College of Social Sciences and Arts.

In addition to the legend presentations the are plans for live music and dance, film screenings and an excursion to legend locations at Castleton and Eyam in the Peak District National Park.

Associate Professor David Clarke, who co-founded the Contemporary Legend research group at SHU said: “We are proud to announce that experts from across the world are “coming home” to Steel City to celebrate the 40th anniversary of urban legend studies.

“Since 1982 Sheffield has become known across the world as a centre for excellence in the study of folklore and contemporary legend. The choice of Sheffield Hallam as the host reflects the impact of stories, legends and beliefs on every aspect of our lives in the 21st century.”

Dr Diane Rodgers said: “Public interest in folklore and contemporary legend is apparent with the unabating proliferation of folk horror media, and the re-engagement of younger generations with anti-establishment themes inherent in folklore can be seen splashed across all forms of social media. We are excited that the continued vital relevance of the discipline to modern developments across society will be reflected in the variety of papers and discussions at the conference.”