Thesis Theater: Laurel Stevens, “An Awareness of Debts: Dark Academia and its Source-Texts”
Congratulations to Laurel M. Stevens! It’s been a true joy to be Laurel’s M.A. thesis director.
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I am very happy to report that I will be presenting my paper “Missing Students and Their Fictional Afterlives: True Crime, Crime Fiction, and Dark Academia” at the Guilty Pleasures: Examining Crime in Popular Culture conference (May 2-3, 2024) sponsored by the Popular Culture Research Network. This talk is related to my current work-in-progress book project. I’m looking forward to it!
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My latest “Looking Back on Genre History” segment is now available on the new episode of the StarShipSofa podcast. I discuss the concept of the timeslip.
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Nominations are open for the 2024 Hugo Awards. Several works with which I’m involved are eligible, so here is my Hugos 2024 post.
Eligible for Best Related Work (both published by Vernon Press in 2023):
Star Trek: Essays Exploring the Final Frontier (edited by Amy H. Sturgis and Emily Strand for Vernon Press, 2023)
Star Wars: Essays Exploring a Galaxy Far, Far Away (edited by Emily Strand and Amy H. Sturgis for Vernon Press, 2023)
Also, StarShipSofa is eligible for Best Fancast!
Thank you from the bottom of my heart to all who have read and/or listened!
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This year I’ve been delighted to join SPACE (Signum Portals for Adult Continuing Education) online with Signum University. This week I’m wrapping up teaching my first module, which is on The Haunting of Hill House by Shirley Jackson. It’s been so much fun!
Currently my March module candidate is up for vote for until 2/1. It’s on A Haunting on the Hill by Elizabeth Hand. I hope you’ll join me!
More information on my offered modules is here.
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Current mood: listening to Shirley Jackson’s daughter sing the murder ballad “The Grattan Murders,” which appears in Jackson’s novel The Haunting of Hill House, as her mother sang it to her.
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Welcome! You are invited to join a webinar: Speculating about our AI Future with Cory Doctorow, Ken Liu, and Martha Wells. After registering
This promises to be a terrific online event! Thursday, January 11, 2024.
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Vernon Press - Call for Book Chapter Proposals: “Second Star to the Right: Essays on Leadership in Star Trek”
FYI, here’s a new call for papers for the academic anthology Second Star to the Right: Essays on Leadership in Star Trek. ?
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ACAFANS: The Rigorous Study of Star Wars
It was a delight to join my co-editor Emily Strand to talk about our new anthology Star Wars: Essays Exploring a Galaxy Far, Far Away with Josh of Trash Compactor: A Star Wars Podcast.
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Meet The Last Man!
In March 2024, I will be offering the module “Meet The Last Man” with SPACE (Signum Portals for Adult Continuing Education) online via Signum University.
Mary Shelley’s novel The Last Man is one of the most relevant books we can read right now, and I’m really looking forward to exploring it with students!
Here is more information.
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On this day in 1916, the great Shirley Jackson was born.
Here’s a little piece I wrote earlier this year about teaching Jackson’s remarkable novel Hangsaman. It’s posted at “Reading Shirley Jackson in the 21st Century,” an online resource investigating the past and future landscapes of Shirley Jackson studies.
I’m looking forward to teaching The Haunting of Hill House in January!
Teaching Shirley Jackson’s Hangsaman (1951) by Amy H. Sturgis
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I’ll be starting 2024 with two visits to Hill House! I’m joining SPACE (Signum Portals for Adult Continuing Education) online with Signum University. My first modules include The Haunting of Hill House by Shirley Jackson (January) and its authorized sequel, A Haunting on the Hill by Elizabeth Hand (February).
Registration is now open for January’s module. Voting is now open for February’s module. Here are more details. I hope to see you in SPACE!
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It was a delight to join Emily Strand, with whom I co-edited the anthologies Star Trek: Essays Exploring the Final Frontier and Star Wars: Essays Exploring a Galaxy Far, Far Away (both 2023 from Vernon Press), to talk Star Trek and Star Wars with the Dice in Mind podcast. Dice in Mind is a podcast hosted by Brad Browne and Jason Kaufman that explores the intersection of life, games, science, music, philosophy, and creativity through interviews with leading creatives.
Episode 106: Drs. Amy Sturgis and Emily Strand | Dice in Mind
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I’m delighted to be joining SPACE (Signum Adult Portals for Adult Continuing Education) online with Signum University. My upcoming modules in early 2024 include The Haunting of Hill House by Shirley Jackson, A Haunting on the Hill by Elizabeth Hand, and The Last Man by Mary Shelley. I hope to see you in SPACE!
Registration is now open for January’s module, The Haunting of Hill House.
More information on my offered modules is here.
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On November 18, 1897, junior student Bertha Lane Mellish vanished from Mount Holyoke College. Her disappearance remains an unsolved mystery.
I’m currently working on a research project that involves the Mellish case. I’ll be posting more! Today it feels especially important to say her name.
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Book mood. These novels were inspired by the 1924 Leopold and Loeb case.
From bottom to top, they are These Violent Delights by Micah Nemerever (2020), Compulsion by Meyer Levin (1956), Little Brother Fate by Mary-Carter Roberts (1957), and Nothing but the Night by James Yaffe (1957).
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I’m delighted to say that my essay “Dark Arts and Secret Histories: Investigating Dark Academia” has just been published in the new academic anthology Potterversity from McFarland.
In the piece I define Dark Academia, distinguish the storytelling genre and its history from the aesthetic, and consider why there is an explosion of new DA storytelling happening now.
(One reason of many, I argue, is that authors such as Sarah Gailey, Naomi Novik, Victoria Lee, and R.F. Kuang, among others, were both inspired by the Harry Potter series and moved to push back against J.K. Rowling’s positions through their own works, which offer fresh, diverse perspectives and insightful, timely critiques.)
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HAPPY HALLOWEEN! ? I hope you’ve enjoyed this year’s countdown, and I hope you have a fabulous Halloween!
Dark Academia novel: When All the Girls Are Sleeping by Emily Arsenault (2021)
Quote:
Most of the girls had simply heard the same things about the Winter Girl over their years at Windham that I had: that her name might be Sarah. That she haunted in January or February. That she knocked on doors or could be seen in a white nightgown in the hallway if you got up and ventured to the bathroom after midnight. That she was to blame for the various weird noises in the building on winter nights. That she had been spurned by a young man and killed herself in her room. One girl said something I hadn’t heard before, though: Some girls say that she’s looking for her replacement. That she’s tired of being a ghost, that she’ll strangle or smother you in your bed if you’re not careful. And then you’re the ghost.
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Emily Strand, with whom I co-edited Star Wars: Essays Exploring a Galaxy Far, Far Away and Star Trek: Essays Exploring the Final Frontier (both from Vernon Press in 2023), is a cosplayer and costumer extraordinaire. Check out her latest essay!
A Defense of Dressing Like a Bad Guy
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