I’m delighted to say I’ll be giving two presentations this autumn on Dark Academia topics at academic conferences. Both events have online options, and I hope to see some of you there!
I’ll be giving the talk “A Vanished Student Leaves a Haunted Space: An Unsolved Mystery and the Gothic Imagination on the Dark Academia Campus” at Perilous Realms and Haunted Spaces: New England Moot 2023 sponsored by Signum University in October.
I’ll be presenting the paper “Consumed by the Campus: Dark Academia, the Gothic Imagination, and the Missing Student" at the Consuming the Gothic Conference sponsored by Sheffield Gothic in November.
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October 13: Catherine House by Elisabeth Thomas (2020)
Quote:
You are here. You are in. And doesn’t it feel good? You are in the house and the house is in the woods. You are in the house and the house is in you.
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Song: “Old Tom’s Restless Bones”
Quote:
Old Tom on the front porch smoked his cigarette,
And when he was done, another one he lit.
“Hey, now,” Old Tom said,
“You’re the reason that I’m dead.”
Listen to the performance of David Norris…
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Song: “Young Charlotte”
Quote:
They reached the door, and Charles sprang out and held his hand to her. “Why sit you like a monument, have you no power to stir?” He called her once, he called her twice; she answered not a word. He asked her for her hand again, and yet she never stirred.
There are many variations of this song. Read more here.
Listen to the performance of Grandpa Jones…
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Teaching Shirley Jackson’s Hangsaman (1951) by Amy H. Sturgis
I’m happy to say that my “Teaching Shirley Jackson’s Hangsaman (1951)” post, based on my experience of teaching Shirley Jackson in my graduate Dark Academia course in Fall 2022, is now online at Reading Shirley Jackson in the 21st Century.
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Back to the Future Is Female!
I am looking forward to this online event at 6pm Eastern on March 14, 2023!
From Pulp Era pioneers to the radical innovators of the 1960s and ’70s, visionary women writers have been a transformative force in American science fiction. For Women’s History Month, acclaimed SF authors Chelsea Quinn Yarbro, Pamela Sargent, and Sheree Renée Thomas join Lisa Yaszek, editor of LOA’s The Future Is Female!, for a conversation about the writers who smashed the genre’s gender barrier to create worlds and works that remain revolutionary.
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I’ve taught at Signum University for years, but in addition to offering my classes, I’m now also joining Signum’s SPACE Program (Signum Adult Portals for Adult Continuing Education).
I have modules up for candidacy now that I am very excited about! Each will be one month long, with two one-hour meetings per week (one an interactive lecture by me and one a group discussion facilitated by me). All meetings are online. Everyone’s invited!
Here’s the schedule:
January 2024: The Haunting of Hill House by Shirley Jackson
February 2024: A Haunting on the Hill by Elizabeth Hand (the first work officially authorized by Shirley Jackson’s estate to respond to The Haunting of Hill House)
March 2024: The Last Man by Mary Shelley (a science fiction classic and the most relevant novel one can read while living in “unprecedented times”)
Everyone is invited! For more information, please check out this link: Amy H. Sturgis, Upcoming SPACE Modules
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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 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.
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Interview: New collection of Star Wars essays informs and inspires
Many thanks to Eric Clayton and Dork Side of the Force for sharing this kind review of — and interview with my co-editor Emily Strand and me about — our new anthology of essays on Star Wars!
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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.
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Dark Academia novel: Summer Sons by Lee Mandelo (2021)
Quote:
“This is where it gets interesting. The second son loves this girl so much he decides to step onto an unholy path. Now the story varies, but in the one my mama told me, he makes a deal. He takes his youngest sister, goes to a crossroad on the property past the witching hour, and he waits until some evil comes to him. He looks that evil square in the face and offers it his sister in return for his wife.”
… “He kills his sister,” Sam guessed.
“Of course he does,” Mr. McCormick said.
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My latest “Looking Back on Genre History segment is up on the newest episode of the StarShipSofa podcast, and it focuses on Dark Academia!
You can hear it here.
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I’m delighted to say that it’s back! My month-long “Meet The Last Man” module with SPACE (Signum Portals for Adult Continuing Education) online via Signum University is currently up for candidacy for June 2025. Voting is open through May 1. Those who sign up will have a voice in the scheduling of the live discussion sessions.
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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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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Song: “Katie Dear”
Quote:
Then he picked up this golden dagger, And stove it through his troubled heart, Saying, “Goodbye, Katie, goodbye darling. The time has come for us to part.”
There are many versions of this song. Read more here.
Listen to the performance of Brennan Leigh & Noel McKay…
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Dark Academia novel: A Study in Drowning by Ava Reid (2023)
Quote:
And Effy had walked right into the center of it, into this sinking house at the edge of the world…. When Effy was able to move her numb legs again, she ran down the stairs and hurled herself out the door, into the blackness of the night, heart pounding like church bells. She was not afraid of the ghost. But she was horribly, wretchedly afraid of whatever had killed the woman it had once been.
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Dark Academia novel: Don’t Forget the Girl by Rebecca McKanna (2023)
From the cover:
We never remember the dead girls. We never forget the killers.
Quote:
Sometimes it seems like an answer – any answer – to what happened to Abby that night is what Bree needs to move on.
… for one second, she sees the moment in exact detail: Abby crying under the statue of the Black Angel in her Hermione Halloween costume, snowflakes collecting on her coppery hair. Chelsea and Bree watching her, not putting their arms around her, letting her walk away. Her footprints in the snow leading down that blacktop path. The last trace of her they ever saw.
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Song: “In the Pines”
Quote:
“My husband was a hard working man,
Killed a mile and a half from here.
His head was found in a driving wheel
And his body hasn’t ever been found.”
“My girl, my girl, don’t lie to me.
Tell me, where did you sleep last night?”
“In the pines, in the pines,
Where the sun don’t ever shine.
I would shiver the whole night through.”
Read the complete lyrics.
Listen to Lead Belly’s performance…
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