The 2025 Festival of Monsters academic conference, hosted by the UC Santa Cruz Center for Monster Studies , brings together scholars, artists, students, and members of the general public to explore the ways monsters and tropes of monstrosity pervade our culture.  

The conference will take place on the UC Santa Cruz campus on Oct 15-18, 2025, with a day of pubic events in downtown Santa Cruz on Oct. 18. The registration fee includes a welcome reception the evening of Oct. 15, breakfast and lunch on Oct. 16 and 17, a closing Monsters Ball on the evening of October 17th, and all conference events. All conference presenters and attendees should register for the conference at https://bit.ly/2025MonsterEvent by Monday, Sept. 15, 2025. 

Links

Although conference events will be taking place on campus, we have reserved a conference room block at the Fairfield Inn & Suites in Santa Cruz. Please use this link —https://bit.ly/2025MonsterHotel— by Sept. 15 to reserve your room at the conference rate of $169/night plus tax. We will provide transportation between the Fairfield Inn and campus conference events.

Current UC Santa Cruz students, staff and faculty may attend the conference free. The free registration for DOES NOT include food. Visit https://bit.ly/UCSCMonster25 for UCSC-affiliated registration. If you are a UCSC-affiliated presenter at the conference, please contact Center staff for a code and register at https://bit.ly/2025MonsterEvent.

Sponsors for the 2025 Festival of Monsters include Porter College; The Arts Research Institute; The Humanities Institute; the Sigfried and Elizabeth Mignon Puknat Endowment; the UC Santa Cruz Department of Literature; the UC Santa Cruz Department of Performance, Play and Design;  Bookshop Santa Cruz; Atlantis Fantasyworld; Game Santa Cruz; and James Gunderson.