Libraries to Host Panel Discussion on Science Fiction, Horror and Comics Fandom
Syracuse University Libraries’ Special Collections Research Center (SCRC), a member of the Arts at Syracuse University, is hosting a hybrid panel discussion titled “Destroy All Monsters: A Panel Discussion on Science Fiction, Horror and Comics Fandom” on November 14, 2024 from 3 – 4:30 pm (ET) in Bird Library’s Peter Graham Scholarly Commons (Room 114) and on Zoom. Those unable to attend in person can register to attend virtually.
The panel discussion on fandom in the last 100 years is a public program connected to SCRC’s newest exhibition, Destroy All Monsters: Developments in Fandom and Participatory Culture. Co-moderated by Victoria McCollum, Senior Lecturer in Cinematic Arts (Ulster University) and Danny Sarmiento, SCRC Curator (Syracuse University Libraries) and curator of Destroy All Monsters: Developments in Fandom and Participatory Culture, the event panelists include Syracuse University’s Meg Healy (Department of English), Will Scheibel (Department of English), and Chris Wildrick (School of Art). The panelists will give presentations on issues related to fandom in the genres of science fiction, horror and comics. A moderated discussion will follow, along with audience Q&A.
Communication Access Realtime Translation will be provided. Those who require accessibility accommodations can email Max Wagh at mlwagh@syr.edu by November 5, 2024. This event is co-sponsored by the College of Arts and Sciences and the Syracuse University Humanities Center.
About the participants:
Chris Wildrick (he/him) is an Associate Professor in the School of Art at Syracuse University where he teaches first year core classes as well as courses on cosplay, Fluxus and artists who write. Chris is a conceptual, performance and systems-based artist, which means he tends to make charts about dinosaurs and dress up like comic book characters. For the last few years, one of his main recent “artworks” has been to put on a free comic con at Syracuse, the Geek/Art CONfluence. Chris is also a former semi-professional comics organizer, a moderately-skilled light saber duelist and a reasonably effective destroyer of tiny plastic spaceships.
Meg Healy (she/her) is a third year PhD student and teaching associate in the Department of English at Syracuse University. Her research interests revolve around genre studies, postmodernism and representations of race and gender, with a specific focus on sci-fi film and literature. She is particularly interested in genre formation and Sci-Fi’s ability to move through both “high” and “low” culture.
Will Scheibel is Professor of Film and Screen Studies in the Department of English at Syracuse University and currently serves as Chair of the department. A specialist in the history of popular narrative cinema from the United States, Will is the author of Gene Tierney: Star of Hollywood’s Home Front (Wayne State University Press, 2022) and American Stranger: Modernisms, Hollywood, and the Cinema of Nicholas Ray (SUNY Press, 2017). With Julie Grossman, he co-edited the anthology Penny Dreadful and Adaptation (Palgrave Macmillan, 2023) and co-wrote the “TV Milestones” volume Twin Peaks (Wayne State University Press, 2020). He is writing a new book on the classic Universal Pictures monster movies.
Dr. Victoria McCollum is Director of Development and External Partnerships and Senior Lecturer Cinematic Arts at Ulster University, Derry. Victoria has strong research interests in difficult screen texts (films, TV and video games) that revolve around horror, demonization, war and terror. She engages in lively and interdisciplinary research about what we watch and play, arguing that dark popular culture acts as a cultural barometer, reflecting the social, political and cultural climate of its era.
About Special Collections Research Center and Syracuse University Libraries:
Syracuse University Libraries’ Special Collections Research Center collects, preserves and provides access to materials that document the history of Syracuse University and our global society, including rare printed materials, original manuscripts, photographs, artworks, audio and moving image recordings, University records and more. Collection areas include activism and social reform, radicalism in the arts, architecture and industrial design, photography, the history of recorded sound and more. Located on the 6th floor of Bird Library, the SCRC is a vibrant research and learning environment for Syracuse University students, faculty and the broader scholarly community, providing access to world-renowned rare and archival collections and expert guidance in their use to facilitate personal discovery and the creation of new knowledge.