The internet feels like it was designed to rot our brains and keep us doomscrolling. Attention spans are getting shorter, nuance is getting lost, and sometimes it feels like the cruel and the ignorant are winning.But it doesn’t have to be this way! Join me, Dr Alex Carabine (PhD in Gothic literature), for a series of seminars that use Gothic literature and films to explore key cultural theories.This month, we will be watching Ryan Coogler’s Sinners (2025) to explore postcolonialism. As a theory, postcolonialism considers the ways in which cultures have been impacted by the processes of colonialism or colonisation.

Photo by Sergei Skrynnik Sometimes, the scariest thing in horror is the truth. ‘The Forbidden’ by Clive Barker is the short story that inspired the 1992 classic horror film, Candyman. It blends urban decay with claustrophobia, classic folk horror tropes with the darker realities of city living. Join me, Dr. Alex Carabine (PhD, Gothic Literature), for a creative writing workshop that plunges into the distressing worlds of dark fiction. Drawing on my expertise as a Gothic scholar, as well as my years of university teaching, I’ve designed a workshop that blends literary analysis with creative exploration.

I am so excited for the Victorian Vamps lecture later today! Why were Victorian writers so fascinated with vampiric femmes fatale? Join me, Dr Alex Carabine, for ‘Victorian Vamps,’ an online lecture exploring the vampire women of Bram Stoker’s Dracula and Sheridan Le Fanu’s Carmilla. Stoker wrote his vampire Count in response to the dark anti-heroine of Carmilla. What was it about this female vampire that so compelled and repulsed him that he was inspired to write an entire novel in response? In this online lecture, I will reveal how Victorian gender ideology led to the queer vampire of…

Un Chien Andalou A childish nightmare, a strange figure in the night. A woman whose silence is both eerie and beautiful... Enter the dark tale of E.T.A Hoffman, whose story 'The Sandman' so disturbed Sigmund Freud that the psychologist created the concept of The Uncanny. The Uncanny, wrote Freud, 'undoubtedly belongs to all that is terrible — to all that arouses dread and creeping horror; ... One iscurious to know what this peculiar quality is which allowsus to distinguish as “uncanny” certain things within theboundaries of what is “fearful.”' - Sigmund Freud, …

Are you a writer of Gothic or horror fiction? Are you looking for a supportive community of like-minded authors to give you feedback on your work? Horrors in Progress is a creative writing support workshop where you can share your work in progress with a group comprised of your target audience, led by a world expert in Gothic literature. What to expect: Bring 800 words of a piece of writing. You will read this aloud to the group. I know! Scary! But I promise everyone in the room will be rooting for you.

Still from the upcoming horror film The Death of Snow White (2025). I haven't seen this yet, so future folks - don't judge me if it's terrible! x A dark forest. The bite of an apple. A coffin made of glass. Enter the vampiric fairy tale of Tanith Lee—where the victim is the villain, and the witch must fight to survive. Snow White is a story brimming with vampire symbolism, but what was Tanith Lee saying when she rewrote the fairy tale in blood and shadows? Join me, Dr. Alex Carabine (PhD, Gothic Literature), for a creative writing workshop that plunges into the decadent, uncanny world of the Gothic fairy tale.

The term ‘Black Magic’ conjures up all sorts of images. Maybe you visualise a terrible ritual, with blood and a Baphomet and some poor victim pinned to the center of a pentagram. Then again, maybe you picture Faust, begging the stars to stand still so that the devil Mephistopheles won’t drag him to Hell. Or perhaps you conjure a witch, huddling over some loathsome doll as she stabs it full of pins. All good options. But what about the term, ‘black magic’? Where does it come from, and how should we understand it?

The Sinister Worlds of Shirley Jackson What is Gothic literature? How can we create dark atmospheres and complex characters without falling into stereotype and cliché? How does Shirley Jackson make the mundane so sinister? Join me to answer these questions and write a creepy short story of your very own. Write Gothic Literature with a Gothic Scholar. Writing the Horrors is a two-hour creative writing workshop where we’ll read, discuss, and write Gothic fiction together. Drawing on my expertise as a Gothic literature scholar, as well as my years of university teaching, I’ve designed a workshop that blends literary analysis with creative exploration.

Quite the surreal experience, attending a law conference. I presented a paper which was a collaboration with Dr Hannah Baumeister. (We became friends after I worked as her research assistant on the Drawing on Forced Marriage: Teaching Tough Topics Through Comics project.) Our paper ('Fatal Words of Consent': On Marriage and the Law in Wilkie Collins's The Woman in White) was presented on the 'Law, Literature and the Humanities' stream of the Socio-Legal Studies Association Conference. I was a little anxious about attending a law conference. For one, it was…

Alt: Tom Cruise looking like an aghast puppet with long hair.