Synopses & Reviews
Zombies in the Academy taps into the current popular fascination with zombies and brings together scholars from a range of fields, including cultural and communication studies, sociology, film studies, and education, to give a critical account of the political, cultural, and pedagogical state of the university through the metaphor of zombiedom. The contributions to this volume argue that the increasing corporatization of the academyand#8212;an environment emphasizing publication, narrow research, and the vulnerability of the tenure systemand#8212; is creating a crisis in higher education best understood through the language of zombie cultureand#8212;the undead, contagion, and plague, among others. Zombies in the Academy presents essays from a variety of scholars and creative writers who present an engaging and entertaining appeal for serious recognition of the conditions of contemporary humanities teaching, culture, and labor practices.
Synopsis
Zombie Culture examines the living dead through a variety of lenses. By looking at how portrayals of zombies have evolved from their folkloric roots and entered popular culture, readers will gain deeper insights into what zombies mean in terms of the public psyche, how they represent societal fears, and how their evolving portrayals continue to reflect underlying beliefs of The Other, contagion, and death.
Synopsis
Why have zombies resonated so pervasively in the popular imagination and in media, especially films? Why have they proved to be one of the most versatile and popular monster types in the growing video game industry? What makes zombies such widespread symbols of horror and dread, and how have portrayals of zombies in movies changed and evolved to fit contemporary fears, anxieties, and social issues? Zombies have held a unique place in film and popular culture throughout most of the 20th century. Rare in that this enduring monster type originated in non-European folk culture rather than the Gothic tradition from which monsters like vampires and werewolves have emerged, zombies have in many ways superseded these Gothic monsters in popular entertainment and the public imagination and have increasingly been used in discussions ranging from the philosophy of mind to computer lingo to the business press. Zombie Culture brings together scholars from a variety of fields, including cinema studies, popular culture, and video game studies, who have examined the living dead through a variety of lenses. By looking at how portrayals of zombies have evolved from their folkloric roots and entered popular culture, readers will gain deeper insights into what zombies mean in terms of the public psyche, how they represent societal fears, and how their evolving portrayals continue to reflect underlying beliefs of The Other, contagion, and death.
About the Author
Andrew Whelan teaches sociology at the University of Wollongong, Australia.
Ruth Walker teaches academic writing at the University of Wollongong, Australia.Chris Moore is a lecturer in media communication at Deakin University, Australia.
Table of Contents
Introduction
Section 1: Zombification in the corporate university
First as tragedy, then as corpse
Andrew Whelan
and#8216;Beingand#8217; post-death at Zombie University
Rowena Harper
University life, zombie states and reanimation
Rowan Wilken and Christian McCrea
The living dead and the dead living: contagion and complicity in contemporary universities
Holly Randell-Moon, Sue Saltmarsh and Wendy Sutherland-Smith
Zombie solidarity
Ann Deslandes and Kristian Adamson
The Journal of Doctor Wallace
David Slattery
Section 2: Moribund content and infectious technologies
Zombie processes and undead technologies
Christopher Moore
The botnet: webs of hegemony/zombies who publish
Martin Paul Eve
The intranet of the living dead: software and universities
Jonathan Paul Marshall
Virtual learning environments and the zombification of learning and teaching in British universities
Nick Pearce and Elaine Tan
Mapping zombies: a guide for digital pre-apocalyptic analysis and post-apocalyptic survival
Mark Graham, Taylor Shelton and Matthew Zook
Infectious textbooks
Gordon S. Carlson and James J. Sosnoski
Section 3: Zombie literacies and pedagogies
Undead universities, the plagiarism and#8216;plagueand#8217;, paranoia and hypercitation
Ruth Walker
EAP programmes feeding the living dead of academia: critical thinking as a global antibody
Sara Felix
Zombies in the classroom: education as consumption in two novels by Joyce Carol Oates
Sherry R. Truffin
Queer pedagogies in zombie times: parody, neo-liberalism and high-education
Daniel Marshall
Zombies are us: the living dead as a tool for pedagogical reflection
Shaun Kimber
Escaping the zombie threat by mathematics
Hans Petter Landtangen, Kent-Andre Mardal and Pand#229;l Rand#248;tnes
Toward a zombie pedagogy: embodied teaching and the student 2.0
Jesse Stommel
Section 4: The post-apocalyptic terrain
and#8216;Sois mort et tais toiand#8217;: zombie mobs and student protests
Sarah Juliet Lauro
Living-dead manand#8217;s shoes? Teaching and researching glossy topics in a harsh social and cultural context
David Beer
Feverish homeless cannibal
George Pfau
A report on the global Viral Z outbreak and its impact on higher education
Howard M. Gregory II and Annie Jeffrey
Bibliography
List of contributors
Index
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