Category Archives: folklore

David Puglia on Folklore and Monster Studies

Folklore provides another helpful lens through which we can broaden our understanding of monster studies. In this conversation, David Puglia is the guest. David is Associate Professor and Deputy Chairperson in the English Department at Bronx Community College of The City University of New York, where he teaches courses in folklore, children’s literature, popular culture, […]

Mythicworlds: Straddling the way between sci-fi conventions and transformational festivals?

I’m finishing the editing of a manuscript for McFarland that explores aspects of fantastic fan cultures in relation to the sacred. I am waiting for one more chapter to be submitted and then the manuscript goes off for peer review. In addition to editing and writing he Introduction I am contributing a chapter that contrasts […]

Christmas and Ghost Stories

While listening to Christmas music today I caught a part in one of the lyrics for “It’s the Most Wonderful Time of the Year” that mentioned telling scary ghost stories. I posted an inquiry on Facebook about the origins of this in the evolution of Christmas, and in addition to its incorporation in Victorian practices, […]

Rev. Robert Kirk and the study of elves and faeries

Given my own background and research interests I am always intrigued to learn of others similar to myself, whether past or present. I recently learned of the Rev. Robert Kirk, an Episcopalian minister in Scotland in the 17th century. He pursued research on faeries, published as The Secret Commonwealth of Elves, Faun and Fairies,  that […]

Conference on ‘Folk Horror’ at Queen’s University in Belfast

A Friend in the Furrows: Perspectives on ‘Folk Horror’ in Literature, Film and Music 19-21 September, 2014 Queen’s University Belfast ‘A Fiend in the Furrows’ is a three-day conference in association with the School of English and the Institute for Collaborative Research in the Humanities at Queen’s University Belfast, exploring ‘folk horror’ in British and […]

‘JINN’ horror film and Muslim folklore

The Huffington Post recently featured an essay discussing the forthcoming horror film Jinn. The interesting thing about the piece is that it comes from the Religious News Service, authored by Omar Sacirbey, and HuffPo describes the film with the title “‘Jinn’ Horror Movie Features Elements of Muslim Folklore, Interfaith Themes.” When these elements come together […]

Lilith in Folklore and the Bible

A brief but interesting item in this post. In keeping up with ongoing elements and developments in biblical studies I came across a blog I hadn’t read before. It included a post titled “Lilith in the Bible and Jewish Folklore.” Readers may have heard of Lilith from Jewish folklore with the idea that she was […]

Zombie Nation: From Folklore to Modern Frenzy

Corvis Nocturnum made a copy of his new book available to me, Zombie Nation: From Folklore to Modern Frenzy (Schiffer Publishing Ltd., 2013). I am featured in an interview in the first part of the book where I discuss the religious aspects of zombies. From the publisher’s website: Go on a hunt for the facts, […]

Dom Augustin Calmet: Biblical Scholar and Vampire Researcher

Previously I discussed Sabine Baring-Gould, a Christian minister who also maintained a research interest in the paranormal and the horrific. I recently came across another individual like this when reading a paper from the 2010 conference of the Center for Studies of New Religions. In “Vampires and Alternative Religions,” co-authored by J. Gordon Melton and […]

Call for Abstracts: A “Supernatural” History of Central Europe, 1870-Present

Call for Abstracts: “A ‘Supernatural’ History of Central Europe, 1870-present” Editors: Eric Kurlander (Stetson U.) and Monica Black (U. of Tenn., Knoxville) Deadline: August 1, 2012 Despite the ostensible “disenchantment of the world” proclaimed by Max Weber at the beginning of the twentieth century, Central Europe has a rich modern history of occultism, folklore, paganism, […]

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