As we welcome a new spin around that great glowing orb in the sky, The Miskatonic Institute of Horror Studies can celebrate a smooth and successful transition. We’ve hosted some really fantastic and thought-provoking lectures that ripped apart our more common conceptions of this dark genre of ours, and there are more to come in the new year!
The livestream classes have been a success; we’ve ironed out a few of the little glitches, and we’ve been really pleased with how people have engaged with the ability to catch up on events they’ve missed. (Although we always want you with us live, of course) Online Director Claire Donner is really embracing the format this semester and reaching out across the globe for a truly international selection of speakers. London is still going strong with its live classes, having fully recovered from the immediate post-pandemic slump with two fully sold-out classes and a solid uptick in Semester Pass sales.
And so, as we charge headlong into another exciting semester of mind-bending horror analysis, once again, we look forward to seeing you and hearing from you!
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Tickets & Passes Now Available!
SPRING 2024 CLASSES
MISKATONIC LONDON
Branch Director: Josh Saco
For Miskatonic London’s Spring Semester, admission to individual classes is £9 concession, £12 advance, & £15 door. A full semester pass is £45. All classes take place live at The Horse Hospital, Colonnade, Bloomsbury, London. These are not live streamed.
London will manage a full semester without falling into the world of Folk Horror, which has dominated so much recent discourse. I’m excited to be able to explore a wider array of topics, beginning with the Myth of Harm: Children, Horror & Controversy with Dr Sarah Cleary, who will examine the furor over the horror comic books of the ‘50s. Thea/Rae Bamber embraces the spirit of Valentine’s Day with their thoughts on the romantic cannibal: To really love someone, you must consume them. Miskatonic IHS family friend Johnny Walker returns with an overdue lecture on Roberta Findlay, queen of the exploitation. Meanwhile, Amy Bride examines the shocking legacy of lynching photography in contemporary horror cinema, a fascinating and vital discussion. Finally, Sophie Haywood will track the spectre of classic Gothic texts The Monk and Castle of Otranto which continues to haunt the cinema we enjoy today.
Josh Saco, Director of the Miskatonic Institute of Horror Studies
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MISKATONIC ONLINE
Branch Director: Claire Donner
Online branch classes will first broadcast live on Zoom; within 24 hours of the event, anyone unable to attend the livestream can watch the lecture by request on our Vimeo channel for 72 hours. We are working very hard to come up with the best possible way of making our entire archive available for online viewing. We are hoping to have this ready in the early part of 2024.
Individual tickets for the Online Classes will be £10. An Online Semester pass will be available for the full semester of live broadcasts at £40.
We are thrilled with our Spring slate, which includes lectures on site-specific horror spanning from south of the (United States) border to outer space. Anna Marta Marini joins us from Madrid to analyze the role of Mexico as a savage land in U.S. popular culture, while William Burns tunes in from New York to introduce hauntology, which uses ghostly metaphor to reconcile the grim past with our precarious present. Filmmaker Vincenzo Natali (SPLICE, CUBE) will log on from Toronto to tell us how architectural environments in horror films are encoded with human fears and anxieties, and Elizabeth Abele in Kuwait delves into the interior of the human mind with her look at sex and identity issues in Red Riding Hood adaptations. Finally, author David Goodwin presents his surprising research on the influence of place on the career of H.P. Lovecraft; the original Miskatonian may have “I AM PROVIDENCE” engraved on his tombstone, but Goodwin proves that the famously phobic writer was forged by his years in the polyglot melting pot of New York City. We hope you’re as excited by these offerings as we are, and that we’ll see you in class!
Claire Donner, Online Branch Director
Keep your eyes peeled for special events, we work hard behind the scenes to put together fun extras as and when we can.
For further information, images or interview requests, contact The Miskatonic Institute at miskatonicihs[at]gmail.com.
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View Schedule for Class Details & Descriptions