Happy Halloween 🎃 Our new interdisciplinary series, Manchester Studies in the Supernatural, launches today. If you work on ghosts 👻, witches 🧙‍♀️, demons 😈, or other spooky beings, please do reach out. @devilprof.bsky.social @mikkibrock.bsky.social @vetur.bsky.social ‪‪@manchesterup.bsky.social‬

Release the Steinbeck werewolf novel!

40 years ago today Concerts and their atmosphere that are simply unforgettable. Bad Brains, Wabash Hall, October 11, 1985, San Diego, California #punk #punks #punkrock #hardcorepunk #hardcore #badbrains #history #punkrockhistory

Something about a camel and the eye of a needle ...

PhD-level experts? Literally every student essay I've marked (and failed) that's been produced by AI reads like one of the following: A) A spoiler-free IMDb review B) Advertising copy C) A vague non-apology by a celebrity on the verge of cancellation

You mean the profound mortification of going to M&S with your mum to get fitted for a bra and hoping to god no one from school sees you. Why must TERFs cling to such saccharine, idealised notions of essentialist femininity?

*Academics in early August

Jesus and the Devil, caught at a Coldplay gig

Poisoning the air of a Black community for a fucking chatbot.

Tomorrow at the @tlrhub.bsky.social! Looking forward to this 🤓📚

UPenn site has been updated, so you can now find our CFP for the Horror Studies special issue on women and horror here: cfplist.com/CFP/44405 @intellectbooks.bsky.social @melanieamarotta.bsky.social

My husband has taught human reproduction and development to the Cambridge medics for over three decades. When people start banging on about "only two biological sexes" he starts with "which sex: genetic, hormonal, or gonadal"? Biological sex is not binary. www.scientificamerican.com/article/sex-...

I am so excited to be working on this special issue of Horror Studies with @melanieamarotta.bsky.social Send more cops, or, you know, abstracts.

@melanieamarotta.bsky.social and I are co-editing a special issue of Horror Studies on post-2010 horror texts by women. Abstracts due August 1st call-for-papers.sas.upenn.edu/cfp/2025/04/...

Our call for papers is out! @middleagewitch.bsky.social and I are co-editing a special issue of Horror Studies: Women and Horror @intellectbooks.bsky.social Abstract submission date: August 1, 2025 call-for-papers.sas.upenn.edu/cfp/2025/04/...

Hail, Satan! Very excited to see that my edited collection on Satanism and feminism in popular culture is now up on the AUP website. I worked with some amazing people on this collection, and I can't wait to see their work out in the world. www.aup.nl/en/book/9789...

It's hard enough to see a beloved pet fall ill without having to worry about incurring debt to save them.

Today I lost an NIH grant training clinicians to do research about intimate partner violence with perinatal women. More women are murdered in the perinatal period than die of obstetric complications. I didn't just lose a grant. We lost an entire cohort of people building careers to prevent that.

If you want to hang with some fantastic American Studies scholars (and generally awesome people), we will be accepting abstracts for the IAAS annual conference (April 24-26) until tomorrow evening. call-for-papers.sas.upenn.edu/cfp/2024/12/...

Men, everywhere, on #iwd

Very excited to be heading up to Dublin to witness the resurrection of the Irish Network for Gothic and Horror Studies (and give a keynote). @irishgothichorror.bsky.social

Huge congratulations to BA English graduate Kel Menton, who launched their debut novel A Fix of Light last night in Dubray Cork. I know that everyone here in the English Department is so proud of their achievement.

FYI (And yes, this counts as activism - so stop doomscrolling and get it done)

My response. I'm not even from the US, but I'm frankly exhausted by the greed and petty cruelty of the current administration.

Just a reminder that abstracts for this year's IAAS annual conference are due this Friday, February 14th. iaas.ie/iaas-annual-...

👇 👇 The long-awaited issue #6 of Cine-Excess is out and #openaccess with all sorts of talk about devils, monsters, and hellspawn. And when Barbara Creed does your keynote, you know you're doing something right on Team #Horror.

Join us in April for the 2025 Irish Association for American Studies annual conference. Abstracts due February 14th. iaas.ie/iaas-annual-...

this has always been my favorite picture set of david lynch

thats ok im already fluent in anxiety

The loss of David Lynch just feels immense. I cannot think of a single other filmmaker whose work has the capacity to explore the absolute darkest parts of humanity while always countering it with portraits of goodness, joy and love. For every Bob, there's a Special Agent Dale Cooper.

This is such a wonderful idea (and a great cause). Looking forward to attending!

Saw this yesterday in Florence, so will have to back and check out the non-dubbed, English-language version, but this was very much the plague-ridden, hysterical, high gothic vampire film of my dreams. It certainly deserves its place alongside Murnau's and Herzog's versions.

I'm so excited and honoured to be giving a witchy keynote at this event.

Gotta watch out for those Uncle Franks

If you see this, drop a pic from the last place your passport was stamped. Morocco

Magic in the U.S. S 3 E 5: Teen Witch! www.magicintheunitedstates.com/s3e5 Teen witches are all over the media -- but *real* ones are shrouded in mystery. Featuring @middleagewitch.bsky.social, Addy Ebrahimy, @heathergreene01.bsky.social and Susan Ridgely. #witchsky #spiritsky #podcast #witch

I was recently interviewed for the podcast Magic in the United States. Alongside Addy Ebrahimy, Heather Greene, and Susan Ridgely, I talk about the history of teen witches in US media and culture. @prx.org @heathergreene01.bsky.social @heatherfreeman.bsky.social www.magicintheunitedstates.com/s3e5

'The Bitter Tears of Petra von Kant' Rainer Werner Fassbinder 1972

If you're sad you missed my book launch at Watkins, London, back in October, the good news is that the entire talk is now available on YouTube. You can listen to me talk about monsters and complain about the American rail system from the comfort of your own home www.youtube.com/watch?v=JO_K...