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Center for Monster Studies @ UC Santa Cruz @ucscmonsters.bsky.social · 15h

Rosemarie Garland Thomson gave her keynote speech today at the 2026 Festival of Monsters in Santa Cruz. She talked of angels and embodiment and freakery. Monsterstudies.ucsc.edu. #MonsterFest26

Rosemarie Garland Thomson gives her keynote at the 2026 Festival of Monsters.

Rosemarie Garland Thomson discusses a medieval angel painting as part of her keynote at the 2026 Festival of Monsters.

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Center for Monster Studies @ UC Santa Cruz @ucscmonsters.bsky.social · 14/10/2026

The 2026 Festival of Monsters has officially started! Panels on “Refanging the Conversation” and “Monster Games” are happening now!! “Monster Law” and “Children & Monsters” to come. Monsterstudies.ucsc.edu. #MonsterFest2026

Spencer Keralis, John Martin and Sam Langsdale are introduced by Center for Monster Studies Co-Director Elizabeth Swensen at the “Refanging the Conversation” panel opening the 2026 Festival of Monsters.

Saramanda Swigart presents her paper at the “Monster Games” panel of the 2026 Festival of Monsters.

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Center for Monster Studies @ UC Santa Cruz @ucscmonsters.bsky.social · 03/10/2026

Join the Center for Monster Studies as we celebrate our upcoming Festival of Monsters with a stop at the Santa Cruz Natural History Museum’s Museum of the Macabre! Free! Tonight until 8. More on the Festival at monsterstudies.ucsc.edu.

A toy zombie stands near a sign saying “Make a Monster Bookmark” at the Santa Cruz Natural History Museum’s Museum of the Macabre.

A table of arts and crafts at the Museum of the Macabre

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Center for Monster Studies @ UC Santa Cruz @ucscmonsters.bsky.social · 06/11/2025

Thank you to everyone who donated to the 2026 Festival of Monsters yesterday during Giving Day at UC Santa Cruz. We raised $4155 towards next year, but have a long way to go. Want to help? bit.ly/give2monsters

The creature from the Black Lagoon holds Medusa in his arms. A text bubble says "Thank You"

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Center for Monster Studies @ UC Santa Cruz @ucscmonsters.bsky.social · 06/11/2025

Bring the 2026 Festival of Monsters to life! It's Giving Day at UC Santa Cruz and Monster Matches turn $1 into $2. bit.ly/monstergive Help the monsters live to lecture another day, #give2ucsc @dsas #monsters

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Jen @jkmahal.bsky.social · 06/11/2025

Bribing people to donate to @ucscmonsters.bsky.social . We’re raising money for the 2026 Festival of Monsters and the $ is matched. So, if you would like me to make you an emotional support ghost, donate $30+ and send proof/address to ucscmonsters at gmail and I’ll make you one! bit.ly/monstergive

A crocheted ghost with a UCSC Center for Monster Studies button on a table with marigolds and candles.

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Center for Monster Studies @ UC Santa Cruz @ucscmonsters.bsky.social · 05/11/2025

Know how to do the Monster Match? This Giving Day, every dollar given to make the 2026 Festival of Monsters come to life turns into $2! bit.ly/monstergive #give2ucsc @dsas #monsters

A black and grey monster with 7 eyes and 4 tentacles says "We Need Funds"

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Alma Katsu (INCARNATE is out now!) @almakatsu.bsky.social · 05/11/2025

This was a FANTASTIC conference, and if you want to help support it for next year, today is a great day to donate. Make your donation go twice as far!

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Center for Monster Studies @ UC Santa Cruz @ucscmonsters.bsky.social · 05/11/2025

Bring the 2026 Festival of Monsters to life! It's Giving Day at UC Santa Cruz and monster matches magically turn $1 into $2. bit.ly/monstergive Your support means the monsters live to lecture another day, #give2ucsc @dsas #monsters

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Faculty of Arts at Saint Mary's University @smuarts.bsky.social · 29/10/2025

It's looking strangely monstrous this week around Saint Mary's University, as the university hosts Nova Scotia’s first #MonsterFest. It's a sister event to the @ucscmonsters.bsky.social Festival of Monsters in California. Read about it in SMU News: loom.ly/KsXIDOI #MonsterFest2025 #artswithimpact

A photo of two Saint Mary's University professors (Dr. Lindsay Macumber at left and Dr. Michele Byers on the right). They are wearing monster costumes created by students at NSCAD University.

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Jeffrey J Cohen @jeffreyjcohen.bsky.social · 31/10/2025

Fun fact about the cover of Monster Theory: I did not realize there was a monster's head embedded within the green and blue swathe until I saw the cover projected behind me at the recent @ucscmonsters.bsky.social conference. The book is almost 30 years old and yes I just realized.

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Paul Booth @pbooth81.bsky.social · 24/10/2025

Hoping for some academic help...updating my readings in a Monsters class & would love a book that focuses on different monsters (zombie, vampire...) from histor/cult perspective. I've used (& enjoyed!) Asma's On Monsters and Poole's Monsters in America, but both are a bit dated by now. Thoughts?

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Jen @jkmahal.bsky.social · 19/10/2025

Thank you for being part of our Festival of Monsters!! We enjoyed having you and @gretchenmcneil.bsky.social and @natcassidy.bsky.social at @bookshopsantacruz.bsky.social yesterday. Safe flight.

Gretchen McNeil, Nat Cassidy and Alma Katsu hold up their books after the Oh the Horror panel at Bookshop Santa Cruz, part of the 2025 Festival of Monsters

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Center for Monster Studies @ UC Santa Cruz @ucscmonsters.bsky.social · 19/10/2025

Thank you for coming! It gives us great joy to see the connections made between interdisciplinary arts through monster studies.

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Stella Mayerhoff | Science Journalist ✍🏼 @stellamayerhoff.bsky.social · 18/10/2025

As a cognitive scientist and science journalist, I never expected to attend an academic conference on monsters, and I didn't expect to be blown away by what I learned. (🧵in comments)

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Alma Katsu (INCARNATE is out now!) @almakatsu.bsky.social · 19/10/2025

Winding down my time in California. Gig at @bookshopsantacruz.bsky.social was wonderful! Monster Symposium at @ucscmonsters.bsky.social was a delight. My brain is bursting w/new ideas, resources. As always, I took too few photos, though

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Dr Sam Hirst @romgothsam.bsky.social · 15/10/2025

The conference takes accessibility seriously. This means all our conferences are online and they are free to speakers. We offer accessibility training. We provide slides ahead of time with alt-text, encourage written copies of papers, provide a code of conduct and clear guidelines on the day 1/

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Jen @jkmahal.bsky.social · 16/10/2025

The Festival of Monsters has begun!!

Michael Chemers, director of the UC Santa Cruz Center for Monster Studies, opens the 2025 Festival of Monsters.

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Center for Monster Studies @ UC Santa Cruz @ucscmonsters.bsky.social · 16/10/2025

In genuine cases of dehumanization that person is transformed not into a louse or a rat, but a monstrous demonic human being — paraphrasing David Livingstone Smith at his opening keynote for the 2025 Festival of Monsters.

David Livingstone Smith gives his opening keynote for the 2025 Festival of Monsters in Santa Cruz.

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Jen @jkmahal.bsky.social · 16/10/2025

David Livingstone Smith is giving the keynote speech for the 2025 Festival of Monsters. He is sharing his view that dehumanization is the attitude of conceiving of others as less-than-human creatures.

David Livingstone Smith gives the opening keynote at the 2025 Festival of Monsters in Santa Cruz, Calif.

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Center for Monster Studies @ UC Santa Cruz @ucscmonsters.bsky.social · 06/10/2025

If you’re in Santa Cruz at 6:30 pm this Wednesday, join Center Director Michael Chemers, Renee Fox and Kim Lau as they talk tales of the dead at the Santa Cruz Public Library’s Downtown Branch. santacruzpl.libnet.info/event/14673822

santacruzpl.libnet.info

Talking Tales of the Undead

Get ready for the season with vampires, ghouls and zombies!

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curious ordinary @curiousordinary.bsky.social · 06/10/2025

Another really cool book recommendation for #MythologyMonday is Japandamonium by @hirokoyoda.bsky.social and @mattalt.bsky.social. It's a translation of Toriyama Sekien's 18th century yokai encyclopedias and includes the illustrations with translation and annotations, see the images below. 1/2

Open page of book showing illustrations with translation and annotations.

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curious ordinary @curiousordinary.bsky.social · 06/10/2025

My next #MythologyMonday book recommendation is 'The Book of Japanese Folklore' by Thersa Matsuura (@uncannyjapan.bsky.social). It introduces a collection of yokai with Thersa's wonderful storytelling and gorgeous illustrations by Michelle Wang. She's also got a #yokai oracle deck on the way.

Front cover of 'The Book of Japanese Folklore'

Illustration of a white nine-tailed fix and red torii in a forest.

Illustration of a tengu, winged being with long red nose.

Open page of book with text about bakeneko and nekomata and illustration to match.

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curious ordinary @curiousordinary.bsky.social · 06/10/2025

My final book recommendations for today's #MythologyMonday are for anyone looking for Japanese folktales. The first book by Yei Theodora Ozaki is a collection of the most well-known Japanese tales and the second book by Keisuke Nishimoto is a larger collection containing many lesser known tales.

Two books, Japanese Folktales has an illustration of Kintaro on the cover, Strange Tales from Japan has a ghostly figure on the front.

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Erin Grievances @erinbartram.bsky.social · 05/10/2025

If you are a supporter and reader of @contingent-mag.bsky.social one of the biggest things you can do to help us at the moment is get this CFP to the NTT folks in your life. The fracturing of social media has made it very difficult to get the word out esp. to adjuncts and VAPs.

contingentmagazine.org

CFP: A Time of Monsters

The monster has been here all along. It is a historical constant that manifests in wildly different ways across time, place, and culture. Whatever form it takes, the monster claws at categories; it un...

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Dr. Spencer D. C. Keralis @hauntologist.bsky.social · 22/08/2025

Excited to return to #FestivalOfMonsters at @ucscmonsters.bsky.social in October with @samlangsdale.bsky.social and @passableghost.bsky.social. Our panel, Monstrous Transformations: Bodies, Gender, and the Disruption of the Social Self, is all about body horror, ecological collapse, and St. Vincent.

Metastatic Masculinity: Penetrating the Male Body in Crimes of the Future. Dr. Spencer D. C. Keralis, Univeristy of Missouri - Kansas City

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Abigail Larson @abigaillarson.com · 01/10/2025

It's pumpkin month!!

illustration showing a large werewolf holding a pumpkin seated next to a woman holding a giant pumpkin in her lap carving it with a small knife. They are in a pumpkin patch under a full moon

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Roger Luckhurst @theprofrog.bsky.social · 01/10/2025

Publication day is October 2nd tomorrow. Launch tonight for the first day of the London Month of the Dead at Highgate Cemetery!

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The Folklore Society @folkloresociety.bsky.social · 01/10/2025

Join us on Tues for our next online talk: Fee Greening in conversation about her work, influences, and her illustrated edition of Briggs’s Dictionary of Fairies, published last month. Tues 7 Oct, 19:00 BST on Zoom. Tickets £6.00 (£4 for members with promo code) www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/fee-greeni...

eventbrite.co.uk

Fee Greening in conversation: Katharine Briggs’s Dictionary of Fairies

Artist Fee Greening, inspired by Gothic fairytale and medieval illumination, illustrates a new edition of Briggs’s Dictionary of Fairies.

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Ceri Houlbrook @cerihoulbrook.bsky.social · 01/10/2025

'as a rich and fascinating overview and introduction to British folklore this book is really essential reading for anyone interested in the subject. I know I’ll be returning to my copy again and again' - a lovely review of #Folklore on @shinynewbooks.bsky.social shinynewbooks.co.uk/folklore-a-j...

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James Parsons @parsonsfiction.bsky.social · 01/10/2025

Here we are in horror month. Are you set to read certain books or watch specific horror movies in the weeks ahead? any you haven't read or seen before? or returning to old classics or personal favourites?

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Center for Monster Studies @ UC Santa Cruz @ucscmonsters.bsky.social · 01/10/2025

Only 2 weeks before the Festival of Monsters! Keynote 10/15 by David Livingstone Smith, conference 10/16-17, and a day of events including a panel with @almakatsu.bsky.social Nat Cassidy, and @gretchenmcneil.bsky.social at @bookshopsantacruz.bsky.social on 10/18. Details monsterstudies.ucsc.edu

A skeletal monster with a skeleton bird on its tongue is the poster image for the 2025 Festival of Monsters, Oct. 15-18 in Santa Cruz, Calif.

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Center for Monster Studies @ UC Santa Cruz @ucscmonsters.bsky.social · 10/03/2025

How is the human defined in relation to such things as apes and #zombies ? Join us at 4pm tomorrow, March 11, at @ucsantacruz.bsky.social Cowell Provost House to hear Dr. Surekha Davies talk on her new book Humans: A Monstrous History and perhaps provide an answer. monsterstudies.ucsc.edu/davies

monsterstudies.ucsc.edu

Surekha Davies — The Center For Monster Studies

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Center for Monster Studies @ UC Santa Cruz @ucscmonsters.bsky.social · 07/03/2025

Reminder that the amazing Dr. Surekha Davies comes to UC Santa Cruz next Tuesday for a talk. Join us!

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Marion McGarry @marionmcgarry.bsky.social · 27/02/2025

My new piece @rtebrainstorm.bsky.social is on banshee beliefs in Ireland. It may not be Halloween, but many will profess that she may make an audible appearance at any time of the year! @atu-ie.bsky.social @oflynnatu.bsky.social www.rte.ie/brainstorm/2...

rte.ie

Do you believe in the banshee?

The common belief was the banshee was a ghostly female messenger of death who would let out a sorrowful wail in an unearthly voice

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Owen Davies @odavies9.bsky.social · 27/02/2025

My Art of the Grimoire is now out in Dutch, Spanish, German, and Japanese! Italian version due in July. Always nice to see one’s work in other languages.

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Mike Muncer @mikemuncer.bsky.social · 21/02/2025

New episode of The Evolution of Horror out now! @daddydisco.bsky.social joins me to discuss Jordan Peele’s epic banger, NOPE! 👽

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Center for Monster Studies @ UC Santa Cruz @ucscmonsters.bsky.social · 27/02/2025

Join us 4:30 pm Monday, March 3 at for a special screening of the Irish folk horror film Fréwaka. Director Aislinn Clarke will be on hand to talk about her “nightmare fuel” film. www.monsterstudies.ucsc.edu/frewaka-screening. #monsters #film #folklore

Poster — closeup of a woman’s face with red crosses reflected in the eyes. Poster text says “The UCSC Center for Monster Studies presents Fréwaka. An Irish-language horror film written and directed by Aislinn Clarke. Monday, March 3, 2025. DARC 108. 4:30 p.m.-6:00 p.m.: Film Screening. 6:00 p.m.-6:45 p.m. Discussion with Aislinn Clarke, Renée Fox, and Johanna Isaacson.

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Dr Sam Hirst @romgothsam.bsky.social · 26/02/2025

I'm very excited about this Saturday's (1st) talk on HAIR HORROR! Come join us ONLINE to hear Dr L. Marie Woods discuss hair's place in horror! 3pm GMT - www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/9645994920... 9pm GMT - www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/9646058310...

eventbrite.co.uk

Hair Horror with L. Marie Wood

A talk exploring hair in horror!

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Center for Monster Studies @ UC Santa Cruz @ucscmonsters.bsky.social · 27/02/2025

We are so excited to have you talk at UC Santa Cruz on March 11! www.monsterstudies.ucsc.edu/davies

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FolkloreThursday @folklorethursday.bsky.social · 26/02/2025

REMINDER! Tomorrow (27th Feb) is the our weather-themed hosted #FolkloreThursday! Our hosts will share your weather-themed folklore at the following times (GMT): 9am-2pm 3.30-4.30pm 5.30-7.30pm Don't forget to include the hashtag! (Image: Woodcut c.1489, public domain)

Woodcut illustration of two women adding a chicken to a cauldron or cooking pot over an open fire, with a rain showering rain above.

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curious ordinary @curiousordinary.bsky.social · 26/02/2025

In #JapaneseFolklore jubokko are #yokai trees often found on the sites of old battlefields. It is believed that because they absorbed the blood of slaughtered bodies through their roots, they developed supernatural powers, including a vampiric taste for blood. Considering... #LegendaryWednesday 1/3

A tree with red leaves and skulls around the base.

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The Folklore Society @folkloresociety.bsky.social · 24/02/2025

Folklore and the Digital online conference: following our ‘Digital Folklore’ conference in June 2024, we're holding a one-day online conference on ‘Folklore and the Digital’ on Saturday 29 March, 09:30-17:30 GMT. Tickets £30 (£20 for FLS members with Promo Code) folklore-society.com/event/folklo...

folklore-society.com

Folklore and the Digital: One-day Online Conference - The Folklore Society

On the digitisation of folklore collections, large language models, computational analysis, digital folklore communities, creativity with digitised folklore, and the pros and cons of digitisation

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National Folklore Survey for England @nfsengland.bsky.social · 24/02/2025

Our new website is live! Please visit and learn all about the project, the team and what we hope to achieve: www.nationalfolkloresurvey.co.uk

nationalfolkloresurvey.co.uk

National Folklore Survey for England

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