The Miskatonic Institute of Horror Studies has announced its jam-packed Spring 2021 Semester of Lectures. Due to the ongoing (sigh) nature of the pandemic, all of the Miskatonic’s classes (from all its branches) will be offered online for the spring semester. This gives access to a much wider audience and horror fans who once were too far to attend now have access to these stellar classes at the touch of their fingertips.
The Miskatonic has announced 15 new classes, taught by critics, academics, and writers devoted to the study and appreciation of horror history, theory, and production. These classes are designed to expand our knowledge and deepen our appreciation and understanding of horror in art and culture.
The Institute be offering a Global Pass for US$90, which offers a discount to attend all 15 Miskatonic classes in the Spring 2021 semester. Individual branch passes will also be offered (£30 for London, US$40 each for New York and Los Angeles), and individual tickets to each class (£8 for London, US$10 each for New York and Los Angeles). All classes will take place in the time zone of their branch, so be sure to double-check the time conversion before booking your class!
Below is the list of classes that can be expected for Spring 2021:
Miskatonic London
The World is Full of Terrible People: Shirley Jackson and Female Violence
Tuesday, January 12th, 7:00 pm GMT
Instructor: Bernice M. Murphy
This class will discuss who author Shirley Jackson (The Haunting of Hill House) was and the reasons why her work remains so important for horror fans and creators, and focus on one particularly timely (and influential) aspect of Jackson’s interest in domesticity and female interiority: her recurrent depiction of deeply troubled young women.
American Voodoo: Fictionalizing Haiti to Meditate on U.S. Policy
Tuesday, February 9th, 7:00 pm GMT
Instructor: Maisha Wester
This course examines a series of horror films and select texts, such as White Zombie and The Serpent and the Rainbow, to consider how these fictions erase Haiti to reveal the monster of American politics.
Hammer Goes to Hell: The House of Horror’s Unmade Films
Tuesday, March 9th, 7:00 pm GMT
Instructor: Kieran Foster
This talk will utilize never seen before archival materials to present a new perspective on British Film Studio Hammer Films. With primary materials such as screenplays, financial documentation, and correspondence, the talk will examine the industrial and production contexts of an eclectic range of Hammer’s unmade films, ranging from Loch Ness Monster project Nessie to Dracula in India script Kali Devil Bride of Dracula.
The Monster Mash: Remix Horror from the Magic Lantern to the Small Screen
Tuesday, April 13th 7:00 BST
Instructor: Megen de Bruin-Molé
This talk will focus on three key moments in the history of the monster mash (Gothic ‘monsters’ of our age—hybrid creations that lurk at the limits of responsible consumption and acceptable appropriation). Monster mash-ups may not seem to offer any meaningful commentary on our socio-political reality, but as each of the examples in this talk will show, they can help us to reveal and remix the most fundamental structures of the status quo.
Less Punk, More Splatter: The Hard Rock Horror Fiction of Shaun Hutson
Tuesday, May 11th, 7:00 pm BST
Instructor: Johnny Walker
This illustrated lecture explores Shaun Hutson’s novels, his cult-like popularity despite a lack of scholarly appraisal, and offers an assessment of Hutson’s novels during his most prolific decade, the 1980s.
Miskatonic New York
Horror Zines
Thursday, January 21st 7:30 EST
Instructor: Stephen Bissette
Details Coming Soon
Spanish Horror Towards the 21 Century: From the Digital to the Franchise
Thursday, February 18th, 7:30 pm EST
Instructor: Vicente Rodríguez Ortega
This class will examine Spanish Horror in the late 20th and 21st centuries through detailed analyzes of the four installments of the [Rec] franchise (Jaume Balagueró & Paco Plaza), films that use the imperfect aesthetics of video, and simultaneously epitomizes the configuration of Horror as the main exportable asset for the national film industry. It will also connect Spanish horror with other international films that deploy the imperfect aesthetic of video as a key stylistic feature, such as The Blair Witch Project, Paranormal Activity, and Cloverfield.
Concrete Maternality: Late Capitalism and High-Rise Horror
Thursday, March 18th, 7:30 pm EDT
Instructor: Émilie von Garan
This lecture focuses on the coupling between residential towers and threatening and/or threatened female bodies in two films—David Cronenberg’s Shivers (1975), and Bernard Rose’s Candyman (1992)—locating in each productive engagements with different stages of neoliberalism and urban development.
The Hollow the Image Leaves Empty: Alterity, Abjection, and The Thing
Thursday, April 22nd 7:30 EDT
Instructor: Shelagh Rowan-Legg
In her essay “Powers of Horror”, Julie Kristeva, “The abject has only one quality of the object—that of being opposed to I”; the abject is exclusion, in a place without meaning, and from that place, it cries out in revolt and brutish suffering. This is the essence of horror: that which can be neither known nor named. Through the lens The Thing, and texts such as Planet of the Vampires and It, this class will examine the horror where alterity and abjection meet.
Chronicle of a Death Foretold: Spoorlos
Thursday, May 20th 7:30 EDT
Instructor: Adam Nayman
This class will analyze how George Sluzier’s 1988 thriller Spoorlos plays with various literary and dramatic conventions from its shivery, premonitory prologue to its startling, retrospectively inevitable climax, while also examining its relationship to various cinematic influences (including Vampyr, Psycho, and The Shining), and a comparison with its 1993 American remake The Vanishing.
Miskatonic Los Angeles
Seeing and Feeling Japanese Horror: Scopophilia and Claustrophilia in Edogawa Rampo
Thursday, January 28th, 7:30 pm PST
Instructor: Seth Jacobowitz
This presentation will discuss scopophilia and claustrophilia as two predominant horror themes in Rampo’s fiction writing and their adaptation in the Japanese film and art worlds. We will explore his “Stalker in the Attic” (1926) and the film The Watcher in the Attic (1976) directed by Noboru Tanaka, the omnibus film Rampo Noir (2005), and Suehiro Maruo’s graphic novel The Strange Tale of Panorama Island (2010), among other works.
Rick Baker: An Intimate Self-Portrait
Thursday, February 25th 7:30 PST
Instructors: Amy Voorhees Searles & Graham Skipper
Rick Baker is a world-renowned titan of the film industry whose curriculum vitae glitters with Oscar® gold. Upon initial experimentation on himself. , the transformative qualities of makeup emboldened Baker to dabble in the performative and the outrageous. Though seemingly contradictory, donning these eerie exoskeletons of his own design is precisely what enabled Baker to come out of his metaphorical shell. Utilizing Baker’s self-portraits in the medium of monsters as our guide, we will track his personal and professional metamorphoses: from a boy to a man, and from a novice to a master.
An Orgy of Terror: Italian Horror Comics of the 1970s and 80s
Thursday, March 25th, 7:30 pm PDT
Instructor: Adam Twycross
At its height, Italian publishing house Edifumetto produced hundreds of individual titles and selling millions of copies every month, with their comics appearing across Europe, Central and South America, North Africa, and French-speaking Canada. This talk will discuss these extraordinary comics from a cultural and historical standpoint, examining both the transnational context within which they evolved and the uniquely Italian environment that shaped their development.
Walpurgisnacht: Folklore and Popular Culture
Thursday April 29th 7:30 PDT
Instructor: Mikel Koven
Walpurgisnacht, the evening of the 30th of April, is said to be one of the holiest days of the witch’s calendar; the night before the feast of Saint Walpurga, who drove the witches out of Germany. This class explores the folklore surrounding Walpurgisnacht and its representation in popular culture, including the poetry of Goethe, the music of Mendelssohn, the folk-rock/folk metal sounds of Faun, and of course the films of Paul Naschy. How does all this fit together? Only the witches know and will reveal all on Walpurgisnacht 2021.
Projecting Horrors Real, Imaginary, and Metaphorical: Trans and Other Gender Non-Conforming Bodies in Horror Cinema
Thursday, May 27th 7:30 PDT
Instructor: Cerise Howard
This lecture will debunk no small number of harmful myths about transgender people, propagated by the screen media-industrial complex and in the horror movies historically produced within it. We’ll explore the ubiquity of trans narratives and imagery within horror cinema – even if they’ve most often been deployed at a metaphorical removal from being transgender narratives and imagery.
Full details of classes and links to passes and tickets are available on The Miskatonic Institute of Horror Studies’ website.
