I study serial killers. Primarily fictional serial killers, but the real world often rears its increasingly more ugly head. My dissertation suffers from the normal roadblocks of procrastination and self-doubt, but a recent development has nearly stopped my scholarship altogether. Two years ago I had a baby girl. And I’ve found it is increasingly harder to study serial killers, who generally do terrible things more to women than men, with my own little woman at home. The question becomes, is it possible for parents, and educators who consider their students to be their “kids,” to study horror in a world that is becoming more and more horror-ible? This presentation is a continuation of last year’s discussion.
About the presenterAntares Russell Leask
Antares Leask, PhD, NBCT (she/her) is an academic moving into the tech world and excited to find ways for these communities to successfully interact! She also teaches English for Northern Virginia Community College and is a National Board Certified Teacher. Her dissertation focused on the impact of white privilege on paranormal reality television, and other research interests include Disney, popular culture, horror, and cryptozoology.
She has also trained, implemented, and trained others on equitable grading, trauma informed teaching, culturally responsive teaching, transparent assignment design, assessment contracts, project based learning, personalized learning, and differentiation.
She presents at several pop culture conferences each year and is the Mid-Atlantic Popular and American Culture Association co-chair for the newly created Disney Studies area. She is on the editorial boards for the International Journal for Disney Studies, the Journal of American Culture, and the Popular Culture Review.
She published the chapter “‘Don’t Stand Out When You’re Fittin’ In’: Segregationists, Assimilationists, and Antiracists in Disney’s Zombies 2” in The Undead in the 21st Century: A Companion (2022), edited by Simon Bacon.
She has recently published the chapter, “Che Guevara and Debussy to a Disco Beat: Intellectualism and the Pet Shop Boys” in the collection The Pet Shop Boys and the Political: Queerness, Culture, Identity, and Society edited by Bodie Ashton.