The Miskatonic Institute of Horror Studies has just announced its Spring 2021 semester, and I’m very excited to be part of the lineup, talking about monster mash! The Miskatonic Institute has been running for over ten years, and features regular talks and events with horror scholars and creators. In their words, Miskatonic are “an international organization that offers undergraduate-level history, theory and production-based masterclasses. The Miskatonic is a largely volunteer-run endeavour through which established horror writers, directors, scholars and programmers/curators celebrate horror history and culture with a unique blend of enthusiasm and critical perspective.”
This term looks particularly promising:
Miskatonic London opens our semester with a class on the newly rediscovered Shirley Jackson and her importance in horror texts. The branch will also host classes on representations of Haiti in American horror cinema, the great Hammer horror films that never were, the mashing of monsters in screen history, and the horror of British author Shaun Hutson.
Miskatonic New York begins with the amazing story of horror zines, then dives into an exploration of the franchise in Spanish horror cinema. We’ll be in urban territory exploring terror and the high-rise edifice, then the ‘rural’ in Antarctica, exploring the unknowable in abject horror. The branch will conclude with a look at the classic thriller The Vanishing, and existential dread in horror.
Miskatonic Los Angeles first takes us to early 20th century Japan and the writing of Edogawa Rampo, before whisking us back home for a masterclass with legendary effects artist Rick Baker. We’ll then head to Europe, with a look at Italian horror comics, then in Germany for the legend of Walpurgisnacht. We’ll finish the semester with an investigation into trans and gender-non-conforming bodies in horror cinema.
Lectures run on Tuesdays (London) and Thursdays (New York and LA) from 12 January to 27 May 2021. You can buy tickets to a single event, or score a City Branch Pass or Global Pass if you want to attend multiple lectures. Details at the Miskatonic website.
