Western English professor trick-or-treats year-round
Thursday, October 27, 2011
Halloween is easily Steven Bruhm’s favourite time of year. An English professor at The University of Western Ontario, Bruhm is a Gothic and horror specialist and has recently taken over the editorship position of an international journal entitled “Horror Studies.”
Exclusively examining horror, this biannual journal presents scholarship from a variety of disciplinary perspectives including literature, film, dance, fashion and more.
“Arts, entertainment, the evening news, they all bombard us with images of horror,” says Bruhm. “We recoil, yet we are drawn to these images, so much that we pay millions of dollars a year to entertain ourselves with them. Why do we do this? What needs are being met by the huge cultural industry of horror?”
Such questions are academically examined and challenged throughout Horror Studies. Bruhm hopes that the mass popularity of such “low-brow” Gothic manifestations as the “Twilight” saga will give way to a deeper appreciation of a historically fascinating subject; one worthy of discussion beyond the Hollywood lens.
Bruhm’s research has a wide thematic range from Romantic fiction and gothic aesthetics to queer narcissism, children and dance. With the common link of his work being an interest in the body, Bruhm’s current research on dance considers how the body's reactions to pain come to frame choreographies of mortality from the Romantic ballet to Michael Jackson.
For more information on Steven Bruhm’s research, please visit http://works.bepress.com/stevenbruhm/
To view or order a copy of Horror Studies, please visit http://www.ingentaconnect.com/content/intellect/host/2010/00000001/00000001
For Halloween-related interviews, please contact Jo Jennings, Communications Officer, Faculty of Arts and Humanities at 519-661-2111, ext. 82200.
Media Contact: Jeff Renaud, Senior Media Relations Officer, 519-661-2111, ext. 85165, jrenaud9@uwo.ca
“Arts, entertainment, the evening news, they all bombard us with images of horror,” says Bruhm. “We recoil, yet we are drawn to these images, so much that we pay millions of dollars a year to entertain ourselves with them. Why do we do this? What needs are being met by the huge cultural industry of horror?”
Such questions are academically examined and challenged throughout Horror Studies. Bruhm hopes that the mass popularity of such “low-brow” Gothic manifestations as the “Twilight” saga will give way to a deeper appreciation of a historically fascinating subject; one worthy of discussion beyond the Hollywood lens.
Bruhm’s research has a wide thematic range from Romantic fiction and gothic aesthetics to queer narcissism, children and dance. With the common link of his work being an interest in the body, Bruhm’s current research on dance considers how the body's reactions to pain come to frame choreographies of mortality from the Romantic ballet to Michael Jackson.
For more information on Steven Bruhm’s research, please visit http://works.bepress.com/stevenbruhm/
To view or order a copy of Horror Studies, please visit http://www.ingentaconnect.com/content/intellect/host/2010/00000001/00000001
For Halloween-related interviews, please contact Jo Jennings, Communications Officer, Faculty of Arts and Humanities at 519-661-2111, ext. 82200.
Media Contact: Jeff Renaud, Senior Media Relations Officer, 519-661-2111, ext. 85165, jrenaud9@uwo.ca
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