Horror movies have long exploited ableist representations of disability. The genre's monsters are often violent, threatening, or vengeful creatures with histories of trauma, disordered minds, or physical deformity, while the genre's defining affects—horror, disgust, and fear—are tied to reductive, misleading, and negative disability images and stories. Please join us for a two-part event with Prof. Angela Marie Smith (University of Utah) where she will discuss examples of recent horror films that continue this tradition, and other films that offer more complex imaginings of disability. The event will take place on Wednesday, May 22 and will include a Zoom talk with Prof. Smith from 11am-12:15pm, followed by a further discussion on disability in contemporary horror from 1pm-2pm. Stay tuned for a Zoom link. 

In recent years, we have witnessed a fortunate upsurge in the publication of books dedicated to the exploration of various facets of Iranian modern and contemporary art. These publications have significantly contributed to our understanding of Iranian artistic culture. The Graduate Center for Literary Research at UCSB is pleased to host three separate events that brings together three distinguished scholars, each of whom has recently authored a work on Iranian art in the twentieth century. Please join us on Zoom for the third and final event of this series on Friday, April 19, at 9am PST. To register for this Zoom event, please use this link.