Dracula Confrence
Exploring the shadows of leadership

Our Conference Story

Who We Are

Hosted in Brașov, Romania—at the gates of the legendary Dracula’s Castle—this academic conference marks the official launch of The Oxford Handbook on Bad Leadership. Building on the book’s ambition to deepen, challenge, and redefine the field, the Dracula Conference invites contributing authors and leading scholars to step into dialogue on the dark, the subtle, and the systemic dimensions of bad leadership.

We will explore its definitions, prevalence, and consequences, while also reflecting critically on the very concept of “bad leadership.” Can leadership be both seductive and destructive? How do followers, institutions, or cultural myths enable harmful leadership dynamics? Join us for a gathering where academic rigor meets gothic metaphor—provocative, interdisciplinary, and perfectly unsettling.