Sorry for the delay in posting this:
Science Fiction, Fantasy, Horror, and Legend Area Panels 2015
Michael A. Torregrossa, Area Chair
Current as of 30 October 2015
Complete schedule at
https://nepca.wordpress.com/fall-conference/2015-conference-schedule/.
Session I: Friday, October 30, 2:30-4:00 PM
Panel 4: Science Fiction, Fantasy, Horror, and Legend I: Making Monsters (Ivey 201)
Chair: June-Ann Greeley (Sacred Heart University)
1. “Imagining Monsters: Contemporary Horror and Cognitive Monstrosity”
Jack Dudley (Mount Saint Mary’s University)
Jack Dudley received his PhD in English from the University of Wisconsin-Madison in 2013, and he is currently an Assistant Professor of English at Mount Saint Mary’s University in Emmitsburg, Maryland, where he researches and teaches modern and contemporary British and American literature. Jack also works on horror fiction and film, an interest that drew him to our area. He recently taught a much-sought after class on American horror and is also working on a book entitled Modernism and Horror.
2. “Butchering Identity: Depictions of Unconscious Repression within The Midnight Meat Train”
Courtney Peters (Flagler College)
Courtney Peters is a senior at Flagler College and majoring in Media Studies and Advertising. Her main areas of interest are horror cinema and the future of media convergence, and she has recently presented a paper on the allegorical role of post 9/11 horror at PCA South’s 2014 conference. After graduating this winter, she hopes to gain employment with one of the many theme parks in Florida and use her knowledge of media and audience behavior to develop and promote exciting new ways of interactive entertainment.
3. “The Alien Human: Monstrous Humanity in Science Fiction”
Selena Middleton (McMaster University)
Selena Middleton is a PhD candidate in English with the Department of English and Cultural Studies at McMaster University in Hamilton, Ontario. She is a writer and scholar of science fiction. Selena’s research interests include religion, myth, and ecocriticism, and her dissertation, “Old Myths in the New Anthropocene: Negotiating the Terms of Exile in Ecological Science Fiction,” engages trauma and affect theory to examine the exilic experience in environmental science fiction.
4. “Are They Among Us? The Battle of Los Angeles and UFO Disclosure”
Donald Vescio (Worcester State University)
Don Vescio is a two-year veteran of our area and a faculty member of Department of English at Worcester State University. After serving ten years as Worcester State’s Chief Information Office/Vice President of Information Technologies and two years as Vice President of Enrollment Management and Marketing, Don now focuses his energies on teaching undergraduate and graduate students in a variety of disciplines. His research interests are in critical theory, narratological analysis, and information design.
Session II: Friday, October 30, 4:15-5:45 PM
Panel 9: Science Fiction, Fantasy, Horror, And Legend II: Transforming the Monster (Ivey 109)
Chair: Asher Ellis (Colby-Sawyer College)
1. “C. M. Kornbluth’s Postwar American Vampire at the Dawn of the Atomic Age”
Kristin Bidoshi (Union College)
A two-year veteran of our area, Kristin Bidoshi is Associate Professor of Russian at Union College, where she teaches courses on Russian language, literature and culture. As a researcher, Kristin has conducted fieldwork in Eastern Europe and published on the use of the oral tradition in the works of Nikolai Gogol, Anton Chekhov, and Liudimila Petrushevskaia and on the evil eye in Albania. Happily for our area, she also teaches a course on the Vampire as Other in East European and American Culture and shares the continuation of her thought-provoking work on C. M. Kornbluth with us this afternoon.
2. “Invisible Reflections: Queer Erasure and the Monstrous Visibility of Vampires in Comics”
Gabriel Morrison (Rhode Island College)
Gabe Morrison is a graduate student at Rhode Island College studying creative writing, and he currently serves in a faculty position as the writing coach for the Master of Social Work program at Rhode Island College’s School of Social Work as well as a tutor in the college’s writing center. Gabe’s research focuses on graphic narratives, children’s literature and picture books, creative nonfiction, and teaching and tutoring writing. His academic work has focused on the intersection of visual and textual narratives, and, with a studio art minor at the undergraduate level, he frequently incorporates graphic elements into his work in creative writing.
3. “Super Monsters: Frankenstein in the Superhero Genre”
Michael A. Torregrossa (Independent Scholar/Science Fiction, Fantasy, Horror and Legend Area Chair)
Michael A. Torregrossa is a graduate of the Medieval Studies program at the University of Connecticut (Storrs). His research interests include adaptation, Arthuriana, comics and comic art, medievalism, monsters, and wizards. Michael has presented papers on these topics at regional, national, and international conferences, and his work has been published in academic journals and edited collections. Michael is founder of The Alliance for the Promotion of Research on the Matter of Britain and co-founder, with Carl James Grindley, of The Virtual Society for the Study of Popular Culture and the Middle Ages; he also serves as editor for these organizations’ various blogs and moderator of their discussion lists. Besides these activities, he is currently Science Fiction, Fantasy, Horror, and Legend Area Chair for NEPCA, a position he has held since 2009, and organizes sessions for their annual conference in the fall and maintains the area’s blogs.
Session III: Saturday, October 31, 8:45-10:15 AM
PANEL 15: Science Fiction, Fantasy, Horror, and Legend III: Rethinking Horror (IVEY 109)
Chair: Michael A. Torregrossa (Independent Scholar/Science Fiction, Fantasy, Horror and Legend Area Chair)
1. “Where the Wild Things Are: Horror, Atavism, and the Unspeakable”
Christopher McVey
Our first presenter this morning is Christopher McVey. He currently serves as a full-time Lecturer for the Writing Program at Boston University, where he teaches courses in dystopian fiction and film, modernism, the avant-garde, and twentieth-century literature. Christopher’s published work has appeared in the Journal of Modern Literature and Twentieth-Century Literature, and his current book project is entitled Syncretic Cosmopolitanisms: Citizenship and Belonging in Twentieth-Century Literature.
2. “The Boogeyman Catalyst: Transformative Fear in the Gothic and Child-like Power in Jennifer Kent’s The Babadook”
Anna Lockhart (Rutgers University-Camden)
Our next presenter is Anna Lockhart. She is in her second year at Rutgers University-Camden, where she is pursuing a Master’s in English Literature with a concentration in Childhood, Literature and Culture and working as an adjunct professor in writing. Her research interest lies in the relationship that female protagonists have with space and natural vistas. Anna has also previously written and presented a paper on the figure of the female child in Southern Gothic literature
3. “Monstresses: The Representation of the Monstrous Feminine Onscreen”
Dalina Aimee Perdomo (University of Puerto Rico at Mayagüez) [WITHDRAWN]
4. “The Fallen Angel of the House: Women and Monsters in Penny Dreadful”
Kavita Mundan Finn (Independent Scholar)
Our final presenter is Kavita Mundan Finn. She just finished a year as Visiting Assistant Professor of English at Southern New Hampshire University. Kavita received her PhD from the University of Oxford in 2010 and published her book, The Last Plantagenet Consorts: Gender, Genre, and Historiography 1440-1627, in June 2012. In addition to queenship and gender studies, her research interests include popular history, medievalism in popular culture, and the intersection between fan studies and early modern literature.
Session IV: Saturday, October 31, 10:30 AM - 12:00 PM
(Note: The Area has two panels running concurrently this session.)
Panel 20: Science Fiction, Fantasy, Horror, and Legend IV: New Ideas on Science Fiction (Ivey 107)
Chair: Michael A. Torregrossa (Independent Scholar/Science Fiction, Fantasy, Horror and Legend Area Chair)
1. “Fans of Bronze: Writers of Fan Letters Printed in Doc Savage Magazine, 1933-1949”
October Surprise (Independent Scholar / Rogue Sociology)
Our first presenter is October Surprise. He is a sociologist and now attached to the College of St. Joseph in Rutland, Vermont, as a sociology instructor. October is also currently completing a book, under contract with McFarland, that views fascism and totalitarianism in the interwar period through the lens of the Doc Savage pulp fiction novel series.
2. “Stylometry and the Seldon Crisis: Using Statistics to Categorize Novels in Asimov’s Foundation Universe”
Daniel M. Look (St. Lawrence University)
Our second presenter is Daniel Look. He is an associate professor of mathematics and chair of the Department of Mathematics, Computer Science, and Statistics at St. Lawrence University in Canton, New York. His research interests lie in Complex Dynamics and Stylometry (the statistical analysis of language.) Recently, Daniel’s research has focused on using stylometry to provide evidence in cases of disputed authorship, especially in the pulps.
3. “Imperial Fictions: Doctor Who, Post-Racial Slavery, and Other Liberal Humanist Fantasies”
Susana Loza (Hampshire College)
Our next presenter is Susana Loza. She is an associate professor of media culture at Hampshire College. Susana teaches courses in cultural studies, critical race theory, film and media studies, popular music, feminist theory, and ethnic studies. She has published a wide range of topics, including Doctor Who, film noir, popular music, steampunk, and vampires, and her current project, Speculative Imperialisms: Monstrosity and Masquerade in Post-Racial Times (forthcoming in 2016 from Lexington Books), explores the resurgence of racial masquerade in science fiction, horror, and fantasy and contemplates the fundamental, albeit changing, role that ethnic simulation plays in American and British cultures in a putatively post-racial and post-colonial era.
4. “Female Warrior Heroes from Athena to Agent Carter”
Cheryl A. Hunter (Southern New Hampshire University)
Our final presenter this morning is Cheryl Hunter. She is currently an adjunct professor at Southern New Hampshire University in Manchester and Colby-Sawyer. Cheryl’s background is in philosophy, and her research has focused on the heroic tradition, including a number of conference presentations and a book, published in 2011, entitled Myths and Archetypes in The Lord of the Rings and Harry Potter.
Session IV: Saturday, October 31, 10:30 AM - 12:00 PM
(Note: The Area has two panels running concurrently this session.)
Panel 21: Science Fiction, Fantasy, Horror, and Legend V: Nature and the Unnatural in the Fantastic (Ivey 109)
Chair: Deborah Wills (Mount Allison University)
1. “ ‘Safe at Last in the Wood outside the Garden’: Classic Animal Fantasy and the Environment”
Amie A. Doughty (SUNY Oneonta)
amie.doughty@oneonta.edu
Amie A. Doughty is Associate Professor and Chair of the English Department at SUNY Oneonta and now a five-time presenter in our area. She teaches courses in linguistics, composition, children’s literature, science fiction, and fantasy. Amie’s primary area of research is children’s and young adult fantasy, and she is author of the books Folktales Retold: A Critical Overview of Stories Updated for Children (2006) and “Throw the book away”: Reading versus Experience in Children’s Fantasy (2013), both published by McFarland. Amie is also the Area Chair of the Children's Literature and Culture area of the National PCA/ACA.
2. “Souls of Creation: Trees in Selected Works of J. R. R. Tolkien”
June-Ann Greeley (Sacred Heart University)
June-Ann Greeley is Associate Professor of Theology and Religious Studies at Sacred Heart University. Her research and scholarship focus on women and religion/women’s spirituality; religion and literature, especially in contemporary fiction and fantasy; religious themes in modern art; contemporary expressions of religious life and modern spiritual movements; and comparative spirituality.
3. “What’s the Use?: Man’s Search for Purpose in Bradbury’s Short Stories”
Laura A. Brown (SUNY Potsdam)
Laura A. Brown is an assistant professor at the State University of New York in Potsdam, where she is the program coordinator for Adolescent English Education. Laura is a member of the Assembly on Literature for Adolescents and the National Council of Teachers of English and has presented at the council’s annual convention numerous times. She has co-authored two books on young-adult authors and their writings and has been published in both The ALAN Review and the Journal of Adolescent and Adult Literacy. Laura’s current research is an analysis of Ray Bradbury’s short stories and the Nancy Drew series for unique content and stylistic markers.
4. “Monstrous Machines: Technology, Nature and the Importance of Balance in Andre Norton’s Witch World Novels”
Kathleen Healey (Worcester State University)
Kathleen Healey is a Visiting Assistant Professor at Worcester State University. She holds a PhD in American literature to 1865 and is currently co-editor, with Sharon Yang, of the forthcoming book Gothic Landscapes: Changing Eras, Changing Cultures, Changing Anxieties. Kathleen’s research interests include Gothic literature, environmental literature, and the intersection between literature and the visual arts.
Session V: Saturday, October 31, 1:45-3:15 PM
Panel 27: Science Fiction, Fantasy, Horror, and Legend VI: Writing Horror (Ivey 109)
Chair: Amie A. Doughty (SUNY Oneonta)
1. “ ‘We’re Not All Dead Yet’: Humor Amid the Horror in James Whale’s Bride of Frankenstein”
Martin F. Norden (University of Massachusetts Amherst)
Martin F. Norden teaches film history and screenwriting as a Professor of Communication at the University of Massachusetts Amherst. He has published more than one hundred books, book chapters, journal articles, encyclopedia essays, and reviews, almost all of which have been about film.
2. “Tales from the Encrypted: Decoding the Index in Mark Z. Danielewski’s House of Leaves”
Deborah Wills (Mount Allison University, Sackville, New Brunswick)
Deborah Wills teaches in the English Department at Mount Allison University in Sackville, New Brunswick, where she holds the Charles and Joseph Allison Chair in English Literatures. Her research interests include representations of violence in literature, metaphor and race in news media, and contemporary gothic and horror fiction.
3. “Hunting the Hunters: Lovecraft’s Epistemology and the 21st Century Monster Hunter”
Jonathan Elmore (Savannah State University)
Jonathan Elmore is an Assistant Professor of English and the University Writing Center Director at Savannah State University. He teaches courses in British literature, composition, writing center theory and practice, popular culture, and philosophy. Jonathan’s research interests include composition theory and pedagogy, British modernism, multimodal literacies, and the future of English departments. He has published and presented on a number of writers, including Joseph Conrad, James Joyce, H. P. Lovecraft, Iris Murdoch, Bram Stoker, and H. G. Wells, and his current projects include a book length project for Routledge entitled Engagements with Gothic Horror: From the Gothic Revival to The Walking Dead.
4. “Becoming the Monster: A Jungian Analysis of Monster Erotica and the Acceptance of the Animus through the Shadow”
Saraliza Anzaldua (National Taiwan University)
Saraliza Anzaldua is an American in the master’s degree program of the Department of Foreign Languages and Literatures at National Taiwan University. Her current studies focus on monstrosity, and she is engaged in a research project that argues that there is no monster in Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein. Saraliza hopes to continue her work on the monstrous in the future, and, after her Mandarian has improved to an academic level, she would like to attempt a cultural study regarding the impact of literary horror in American and Taiwanese society.
Session VI: Saturday, October 31, 3:30-5:00 PM
Panel 37: Science Fiction, Fantasy, Horror, and Legend VII: Re-Writing Horror (Cleveland Reading Room)
Chair: Lance Eaton (North Shore Community College)
1. “A Recurring Nightmare: A Teaching Opportunity in Pop Culture”
Joseph Sgammato (SUNY/Westchester Community College)
Joseph Sgammato is a writer and teacher. His background is in both English and Film Studies, and he teaches English and Film at SUNY/Westchester Community College in Valhalla, New York. He is also a Fellow of the CUNY Writers’ Institute in New York City. Joseph writes poetry, fiction, and nonfiction. In the last category, his subjects have included film, literature, art, medicine, and memoir, and his work has appeared in the journals Patient Care, Sight and Sound, and The Wordsworth Circle and in the collection The Book of Firsts (Anchor Books, 2010).
2. “Evil that Devours: Modern Re-imaginings of the Wendigo”
Elizabeth J. Nielsen (University of Massachusetts-Amherst)
Elizabeth J. Nielsen is a PhD student at the University of Massachusetts-Amherst in the Department of Communication with a focus on Media Studies/Popular Culture. Her research interests include monsters and the monstrous, gender studies, and fan studies. Her most recent publications include essays on the James Bond film series and the Supernatural television series. Elizabeth will also be guest editing an upcoming edition of the Journal of Fandom Studies dealing with virtual and physical fan spaces, an extension of a panel she organized on the same topic for the Fan Studies track at the national PCA/ACA conference in 2015. She also serves as one of the organizers of the popular Pseudo Society panel at the annual International Congress of Medieval Studies at Western Michigan University.
3. “The Four Texts of World War Z: Unity, Violence, and Transformative Vulnerability”
Eric Boyer (Colby-Sawyer College)
Eric Boyer is an Associate Professor of Political Studies at Colby-Sawyer College. He received his PhD from the University of Minnesota in the department of Political Science. Eric’s research focuses on the intersections of Marxism, pragmatism, and popular culture.
