The Transformative Power of Horror Film in Education

I’ll try to update this entry with the archives afterward, if you can’t attend.

The panel, hosted by Christine Jarvis, and featuring Drs. Paul Armstrong, Michele Paule, Libby Tisdell and myself, was a very engaging and lively discussion of popular culture in the classroom and in the lived experience of its audience today. Paule raised issues related to the changing ideology of “girlhood” in popular film; Armstrong raised questions related to how television shows like The Simpsons play into political engagement; Tisdell raised notions related to the realistic ability of film to actually transform a learner’s thinking; I discussed my teaching of The Exorcist in different contexts, and how horror texts can provide that “activating event” for rethinking assumptions (drawing from my essay, The Unlearning). A lively discussion transpired.

You can now access the archived recording of the discussion, if interested.

By Michael Arnzen

Michael Arnzen holds four Bram Stoker Awards and an International Horror Guild Award for his disturbing (and often funny) fiction, poetry and literary experiments. He has been teaching as a Professor of English in the MFA program in Writing Popular Fiction at Seton Hill University since 1999.

Leave a comment

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *