Instructor Spotlight: Paul Driskill

Tell us about your background and what inspired you to teach this course

Apparently I wasn’t stressed enough throughout the pandemic, so I began watching horror and monster movies. I’d enjoyed horror prior to the pandemic, but I never really considered myself an aficionado. At the same time, I was working on some writing about The Island of Dr. Moreau, one of my favorite pieces of fiction, and one which I still find deeply unsettling. I realized in conversations with friends and family that people love talking about and have lots of interest in monsters. I knew a course focused on the monster would work well for a class; and I knew there were classes focused on monstrosity, but the Experimental College let me design one that was deliberately wonky. Lots of movies, sure; but also fairytales and “deep dives” (going down research rabbit holes), flash fiction, anthologies (Love + Death + Robots on Netflix is excellent if you’re interested in monsters!). I’m particularly excited for our final assignment in which students take a creative role and invent their own monsters, accompanying narratives, visual representations (AI image generation is coming in a bit here), and finally defend why their monster is a monster.

What’s your favorite monster? 

Tough question! Default answer is the xenomorph from Alien or the pale man from Pan’s Labyrinth. But some student presentations on cryptids have introduced me to some new monsters from all around the world. I (and the students) learned about the Manananggal (don’t look up if you don’t like gore), the creepy El Silbón, and the kind of silly and secretly popular Kappa (be cautious in the water). Pretty much if a monster is scary and gross and uncanny and / or kind of silly and in front of me at that moment (hopefully not behind me!), it’s my favorite. Monsters have a way of arresting our attention, even if we’d rather not look at them in the first place. I love the books Dracula and Frankenstein; for a more recent work of fiction, The Terror by Dan Simmons (it’s an Amazon series too)—talk about a slow burn…

What do you hope that students will take away from your course?

I want them to have had a good time chatting with people about some things that they’ve watched, read, researched, and even created. Within this, I want students to think more critically about the monster not only as a concept but as a product—as something that reflects things within us and within our cultures that may not always be easy to address. Many monsters consume us, but consider how many monsters we consume. The class is an opportunity for introspection too; what draws me to this or that monster is different from what draws (or repels) someone else.

What is something that you are looking forward to in your course later in the semester?

We’re planning to hold a viewing of Alien around Halloween. Instead of having class as usual, we’re going to watch a movie together (something that would ordinarily be done for homework) and consider what it’s like to share that experience. I’m very excited. The xenomorph was one of the original inspirations for this course and, even after 40-something years continues to be one of the most terrifying movies. Why am I afraid of something I know doesn’t exist? Why am I afraid of a movie I’ve probably seen a dozen times?

Paul Driskill is a PhD candidate in English at Tufts. His research focuses on the emergence of the species concept in the nineteenth century and considers the role that narrative, imagination, and fiction played in how we understand ourselves as a species.