Center for Monster Studies @ UC Santa Cruz
@ucscmonsters.bsky.social
I scream, you scream, we all scream because monsters are awesome! www.monsterstudies.ucsc.edu
Missed the 2025 Festival of Monsters? Catch up on all the panels on our YouTube channel - www.youtube.com/@ucscmonsters See what monster academics is all about.
Center for Monster Studies (UC Santa Cruz)
This is the official channel for the UC Santa Cruz Center for Monsters Studies (monsterstudies.ucsc.edu). Videos from our 2024 Festival of Monsters are now available. Videos from our 2025 Festival of ...
youtube.com
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
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
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
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
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!
Center for Monster Studies @ UC Santa Cruz@ucscmonsters.bsky.social · 10mo agoBring 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
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
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
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.
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?
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.
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)
Center for Monster Studies @ UC Santa Cruz@ucscmonsters.bsky.social · 11mo agoIn 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.
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
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/
Dr Sam Hirst@romgothsam.bsky.social · 11mo agoWhat's that I see before me? A new Romancing the Gothic conference! Celebrating the 200th anniversary of Radcliffe's last publications with a conference on the work of women and people of marginalised genders in the Gothic and horror... romancingthegothic.com/2025/10/15/r...
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 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.
Review: Pantheon: The Irish by Morgan Daimler #gifted scousedruid.com/2025/10/05/r... @moonbooksci.bsky.social @morgandaimler.bsky.social #Bookreview #Pagan
Discover the Irish Pantheon: An Easy Guide for Beginners
A review of Pantheon: The Irish by Morgan Daimler. The latest book brought to you by Moon Books touches on the engmatic Irish pantheon
scousedruid.com
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
Talking Tales of the Undead
Get ready for the season with vampires, ghouls and zombies!
santacruzpl.libnet.info
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
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.
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.
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.
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...
contingentmagazine.org
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.
Publication day is October 2nd tomorrow. Launch tonight for the first day of the London Month of the Dead at Highgate Cemetery!
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...
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.
eventbrite.co.uk
'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...
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?
