eldritchhobbit

ICYMI, there is a documentary series that highlights the contributions of women and non-binary people in the Star Wars fandom and in related discussions of resilience and resistance. I was delighted to play a small role as a consultant on this project, and I will be sharing it with my graduate students this semester as we discuss Star Wars and popular culture. It’s Looking for Leia, and all seven episodes are free to watch! ALT View the full post.

Just in case you’d like your October to be extra haunted, I’ll be back in SPACE (Signum Portals for Adult Continuing Education) online with Signum University. Voting is now open for my October module, The Haunting of Hill House by Shirley Jackson. Early voters will determine when our live discussions will meet online. I had so much fun with this before, we’re doing it all over again! More information is here. View the full post.

The Meaning of Star Wars - Signum University I’m delighted to be teaching my “The Meaning of Star Wars” class for M.A. students and non-degree-seeking auditors online for Signum University in Fall 2024. I have taught a college course on Star Wars (either at the undergraduate or graduate level) every year since 2015. View the full post.

ALT ALT Octavia E. Butler’s “must read” masterpiece Parable of the Sower (1993) begins its first chapter on July 20, 2024. View the full post.

“Let yourself be silently drawn by the strange pull of what you really love. It will not lead you astray.” - Rumi View the full post.

dramyhsturgis: Happy birthday to the mother of the Gothic, Ann Radcliffe (9 July, 1764 – 7 February, 1823). “A well-informed mind is the best security against the contagion of folly and vice. The vacant mind is ever on the watch for relief, and ready to plunge into error, to escape from the languor of idleness. Store it with ideas, teach it the pleasure of thinking; and the temptations of the world without, will be counteracted by the gratifications derived from the world within.” ― Ann Radcliffe, The Mysteries of Udolpho (1794) View the full post.

ALT Book mood. 📚 These novels were inspired by the 1924 Leopold and Loeb case. View the full post.

Emily Strand and Amy H. Sturgis, “Star Wars: Essays Exploring a Galaxy Far, Far Away” (Vernon Press, 2023) by New Books in Film It was a joy to join my co-editor, Emily Strand, to talk about our anthology Star Wars: Essays Exploring a Galaxy Far, Far Away with the New Books Network! View the full post.

dramyhsturgis: May the 4th be with you. Happy Star Wars Day! View the full post.

ALT Grab your garlic, paprika, and train timetables. It’s Dracula Daily/Re: Dracula time again. View the full post.

I was happy to be able to contribute to the University of Louisville’s year-long examination of Alexis de Tocqueville by discussing A Fortnight in the Wilderness. I’ll also be leading a seminar for Kentucky teachers on this text. View the full post.

It’s wonderful to hear Martine G. Ræstad on this episode of Women At Warp discussing how the Federation’s economy works. Martine contributed the excellent essay “The Future Burning Brightly: The Dual Impact of Energy in Star Trek’s Post-Scarcity Universe” to our new Vernon Press anthology Star Trek: Essays Exploring the Final Frontier. Episode 234: How Does the Federation Economy Work? Star Trek: Essays Exploring the Final Frontier View the full post.

I’m delighted to share that both of my co-edited academic anthologies with Vernon Press are now available in hardback, ebook, and (new!) paperback format: STAR TREK: ESSAYS EXPLORING THE FINAL FRONTIER and STAR WARS: ESSAYS EXPLORING A GALAXY FAR, FAR AWAY. More information is here. ALTALT View the full post.

Good mail day! New Palgrave Macmillan publications related to my current research/book project. ALT View the full post.

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. View the full post.

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! View the full post.

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. ALT ALTALT View the full post.

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! ALT ALT View the full post.

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. View the full post.

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. View the full post.

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. View the full post.

ashleywritesstuff: Trek Talks – The annual streaming telethon inspired by Star Trek to benefit Hollywood Food Coalition Trek Talks is coming! It’s practically here! Join me for Trek Talks 3, an annual Star Trek telethon in support of The Hollywood Food Coalition on January 13, 2024. View the full post.

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. 🖖 View the full post.

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. View the full post.

Alfred, Lord Tennyson said it all in “Ring Out, Wild Bells”: Ring out, wild bells, to the wild sky, The flying cloud, the frosty light: The year is dying in the night; Ring out, wild bells, and let him die. Ring out the old, ring in the new, Ring, happy bells, across the snow: The year is going, let him go; Ring out the false, ring in the true. Ring out the grief that saps the mind For those that here we see no more; Ring out the feud of rich and poor, Ring in redress to all mankind. Ring out a slowly dying cause, And ancient forms of party strife; Ring in the nobler modes of life, With sweeter manners, purer laws. Ring out the want, the care, the sin, The faithless coldness of the times; Ring out, ring out my mournful rhymes But ring the fuller minstrel in. Ring out false pride in place and blood, The civic slander and the spite; Ring in the love of truth and right, Ring in the common love of good. Ring out old shapes of foul disease; Ring out the narrowing lust of gold; Ring out the thousand wars of old, Ring in the thousand years of peace… Read the complete poem here. View the full post.