Overview
My dissertation project explores practical effects (i.e., special effects executed live onstage or onset without post-production intervention) that simulate graphic bodily transformation, both onstage in late Middle English drama and onscreen in postmodern horror films from the late 1960s through the early 1980s. I argue that the practical effect serves as a nexus for production, interpretation, and distribution of cultural meaning both in and across the medieval and modern eras. To demonstrate this, each of my chapters mobilize different medieval dramatic and modern cinematic analogues. For instance, my final chapter explores the commodification of the special effect via performative objects from the cult of St. Thomas Becket and the Friday the 13th Franchise. In another chapter, I set the technologies used to practical effects from the Croxton Play of the Sacrament, as articulated in its stage directions, in comparison to modern horror films which use the same technology (e.g. bladder effects, prop limbs, pyrotechnics, etc.) Owing to the degradation of the physical objects used to construct these practical effects, whether they be caused by (a) a natural deterioration of materials over time; (b) a lack of cultural or financial interest in material preservation; (c) or political censorship, my work relies heavily on written archival materials that describe specific aspects of these practical effects. Rather than functioning as a hindrance to my research, these medieval and modern archival lacunae center my project and motivate one of its primary methodology questions: What kinds of transhistorical tools do humanities researchers have to discuss material objects that no longer exist or only exist as mediated through secondary written accounts?
When I am not teaching or dissertating, I enjoy throwing dinner parties with friends, rummaging through thrift shops and antique stores, and watching questionable reality TV.
Research Focus
- Late Medieval Drama & Performance Cultures (c. 1350-1550)
- Postmodern Horror Cinema (c. 1960-1990)
- Material Culture Studies
- Theories of Horror
Courses Taught:
MEDVL 1101: FWS: Aspects of Medieval Culture: “The Medea Myth from Ancient Greece to the Middle Ages”
MEDVL 1101: FWS: Aspects of Medieval Culture: “Conjuring Horror in Medieval Literature”
MEDVL 1101: FWS: Aspects of Medieval Culture: “Conjuring Horror in the Premodern"
Publications
“Medieval Arthuriana Was Always Scary, But Not in the Way That You Would Think,” Bright Lights Film Journal, March 2022.