This week, I am interrupting your normal Sunday links round up to begin a second full week of features and I need the entire week because so many people wanted to join us.
And I am not doing the introduction to this feature because I invited Ben Rubin to introduce himself, the The University of Pittsburgh Horror Studies Collection, and the staff, faculty, and even students who will be sharing their love of horror with you this coming week.
Take it away Ben.
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When I talked with Becky about again contributing to her wonderful 31 Days of Halloween and Why I Love Horror series, I couldn't believe that four years had passed since my essays had previously been featured. Although I could probably provide a new answer to what draws me to the genre every year, I will encourage you to revisit my original response, while I instead use this opportunity to promote and introduce contributions from fellow members of the University of Pittsburgh community that will feature over this coming week.
Before I get to those introductions, I'd first like to reintroduce myself and what we are building at Pitt to contextualize why it is so exciting to see contributions from our Pitt faculty, staff, and students. I oversee the Horror Studies Collection as part of Archives & Special Collections at the University of Pittsburgh Library System, a collection of rare book and archival resources that preserves this history of the genre and illuminates its creative process. I previously wrote about the amazing discoveries to be made and the immense potential this collection provides and I am happy to report that in the past four years, the collection has grown as has its engagement. Some of these additions include the literary papers Clay McLeod Chapman, Elizabeth Massie, Tim Waggoner, and L. Marie Wood; the archives for The Blair Witch Project; first editions of Dracula and The Lair of the White Worm; annotated draft screenplays for films such as Psycho and The Devil Rides Out; screenplays for unproduced films including a version of The Mist by Dennis Etchison and projects by Wes Craven; paperback originals of the Bachman books Rage and The Running Man; and so much more. We've seen visiting researchers explore our collections and produce academic presentations and articles; students produce final papers and projects; the publication of Pay the Piper by Daniel Kraus completing an unfinished manuscript found in the Romero archive; and numerous students present and take part in StokerCon's Ann Radcliffe Academic Conference. Further, I had noted in 2021, that the library collection was only part of a larger goal at Pitt to eventually establish a Horror Studies Center, which would serve as the epicenter to further grow horror studies. Just in time for spooky season, we are proud to announce that such a Center is now a reality, which solidifies the administrative support and belief that horror matters and deserves serious academic engagement at a top tier research university such as Pitt. As the scope and capacities of the Center emerge and evolve, the library collection will continue to grow and serve as a scholarly resource in support of its efforts and all researchers. All of this is to say that there is a thriving community at Pitt to take horror seriously as the essays you'll see this week deftly demonstrate.
Over the next six days, 31 Days of Halloween will feature essays from Pitt faculty, staff, students, and alum all answering Becky’s familiar prompt, "Why I Love Horror". While each contributor provided their own brief bio to appear with their essay, I'd like to include some further comment on how they contribute to horror studies at Pitt and specifically how they've engaged with the horror studies collections.
- Dana Och is a professor of English and Film and Media studies and a fierce advocate for helping connect students to research opportunities (with a knack for finding those that pay!). She is a frequent collaborator in our instruction efforts in Archives & Special Collections, bringing her classes to our A&SC classroom so students can engage first-hand with rare books and archival resources. These visits not only help build crucial research skills, but also serve as a vital first point of contact for students to this part of the library. Her deep enthusiasm for the genre is infectious and reflected by her students and she always focuses on exposing them to the wonderful diversity of the genre in both its creators and forms.
- Julia Hodges is a recent Pitt alum. Julia first encountered our department though a series of class visits and eventually spent extra time in our Reading Room to incorporate research with our materials into her final projects for Honors College credit. She joined A&SC as a student employee helping to process and inventory several horror collections. In a fun coincidence, she helped inventory The Blair Witch Project archive as it arrived – a film that happened to be the subject of that first paper she wrote in our Reading Room.
- Dave V. Riser is a PhD student in English Literature. David knew about our collections when he applied for his PhD program and first saw some of the materials during a grad student orientation session. It only took about a month before he started showing up in our Reading Room to begin researching with our materials. He spent a year serving as a graduate assistant with us in A&SC, processing collections and supporting class instruction efforts. He has written papers and presented on what he has learned delving into our resources and I expect we'll see his name continue to surface as he makes his mark on the genre in both creative and academic works.
- Gray O’Reilly is a Pitt alum and fellow library worker in the University of Pittsburgh Library System. As a student, they were a frequent visitor to our Reading Room focused on examining our draft film scripts. They participated in an installment of our Horror Studies Webinar Series focused on YA horror, expertly presenting on the unproduced Romero script for a Goosebumps film. They also participated in a panel on conducting primary source research at StokerCon 2023.
- Paige Branagan is a senior at Pitt. They have served as an undergraduate representative to Pitt’s Horror Studies Working Group, supporting various initiatives and events. They were also the recipient of research funding via the Honors College and Working Group to support a project examining intersections of gender and horror gaming that developed out of course work. They have also served as a teaching assistant coming with classes to visit A&SC in our instruction room.
- Eli Cooper is a senior at Pitt. Eli is another student that first encountered our department through a class assignment. After completing the assigned work with our resources, he continued to book appointments to our Reading Room to just explore materials as a way to decompress during the stressful end of semester rush. He is now working in A&SC as a student employee processing horror collections.
I hope you enjoy these contributions as they roll out over the next week. I am especially proud to see work authored by our students and thank Becky for featuring their work along the voices of the famous and award winning authors whose entries define this yearly tradition at RA for All. These essays illustrate the continued impact of the horror genre and also underline the vibrancy of horror studies at Pitt!
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