This cross-disciplinary conference will focus on the unique challenges and benefits of researching and writing about forgotten, immoral, ignored and disliked individuals, groups and ideas. Questions to be addressed include who is considered to be a villain, rogue or deviant? What makes them so? And how did ethical frameworks shift over time to change society's views of these people?

Speakers will be discussing a wide variety of topics related to the overarching theme of the conference. The first session will focus on changing perceptions of criminal and non-criminal behaviour over time. The second session, gender and law, will examine laws regarding infanticide, cross-dressing and incest. The session on genocide will include discussions of the Nuremburg Trials, the Khmer Rouge, and portrayals of genocide in modern film. Villains and literature will look at the use of persuasive literature and politically slanted writing in Britain and abroad. In her keynote address, Criminal Lives, Dr. Louise Jackson of the University of Edinburgh will discuss the continued popularity of convicted offenders' biographies since the early modern period.

Attendance is free, but space is limited. To register, please contact the conference's organisers, Lindsey Flewelling and Paula Dumas, at L.J.Flewelling@sms.ed.ac.uk