RRG on Truth: Vampires
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Since its founding, UCHRI has funded Residential Research Groups (RRGs) for faculty and graduate students to engage in collaborative work around a specific topic. In Spring 2019, the topic was Truth, broadly conceived. UCHRI welcomed convener Aaron James in philosophy at UC Irvine, and participants Wayne Spencer Coffey in History of Consciousness at UC Santa Cruz, Robin Derby in History at UCLA, Liron Mor in Comparative Literature at UC Irvine, Poulomi Saha in English at UC Berkeley, and Abigail Stepnitz in Jurisprudence and Social Policy also at UC Berkeley. The following is an intimate look into one of their weekly interdisciplinary seminars held here at UCHRI, featuring a conversation that spans vampires, transcontinental witchcraft, and leads ultimately to Hilary Clinton and Pizzagate, which they read as a modern witch story.
For the second installment of this special series—”Conspiracies”—check back on Foundry later this fall.
In the background:
Luise White, Speaking with Vampires: Rumor and History in Colonial Africa • Russell Muirhead and Nancy L. Rosenblum, A Lot of People are Saying: The New Conspiracism and the Assault on Democracy
