In this Halloween-episode of Monster Talks, we talk about fiction writer Becky Chambers’ novel The Galaxy and the Ground Within (2021) This is a rich novel that brings out questions of colonialism, power and vulnerability through a chance meeting of three travelers from various species on a transport hub in the galaxy. Chambers weaves their different stories through how they listen (or not) to each other, and through how they pay attention to (or not) the small details of everyday life and survival for each one of them.
Dr. Donna McCormack (Strathclyde University, Scotland) and Dr. Ingvil Hellstrand (University of Stavanger, Norway) from the Monster Network excitedly share their thoughts about the novel and what we can learn from its negotiations of normativity, accessibility and power dynamics.
There is a downloadable transcript for the podcast that can be accessed here.
Ghosts and monsters thrive in online storytelling – but why? What are the interconnections between digital media and the supernatural? And can you become cursed by listening to a podcast? Join Erika Kvistad and Line Henriksen in a discussion of their shared love of online horror stories. The topics range from creepypasta (digital urban legends), to the annual Jezebel Halloween scary story contest, Twitter horror stories, digital haunted houses, and the history of found footage storytelling as well as cursed literature – digital as well as analogue.
Guest star:
Erika Kvistad is associate professor of English at the University of South-East Norway, and works on sexuality, horror, digital narratives, and the nineteenth century. She is currently writing about digital haunted houses, and her most recent publication, in The Palgrave Handbook of Contemporary Gothic (2020), is on haunted spaces in creepypasta and Twitter horror.
Host:
Line Henriksen is postdoctoral researcher at the IT University of Copenhagen and co-founder of the international research and art network The Monster Network. Her research interests include creative methods, hauntology and monster theory, and she is the author of the monograph In the Company of Ghosts – Hauntology, Ethics, Digital Monsters (2016).
The Monster Talks jingle: Narration and violin by Sara Orning. Voiced by Ingvil Hellstrand, Aino-Kaisa Koistinen, Donna McCormack, Sara Orning and Line Henriksen. Mixed by Line Henriksen. Sound-art:
In this episode of Monster Talks, Aino-Kaisa Koistinen (University of Jyväskylä) and Line Henriksen (IT University of Copenhagen) talk about the people, thoughts, creatures, objects and events that keep us company when we write, and that make writing possible – or sometimes impossible, even monstrously disturbing. They talk about their own writing companions, a cat and procrastination, and Kaisa Kortekallio (University of Helsinki) shares a story about writing with darkness, Katrine Meldgaard Kjær (IT University of Copenhagen) talks about writing with music, and Nina Lykke (Linköping University) introduces us to a series of writing companions and their stories.
Guest stars:
Katrine Meldgaard Kjær is an assistant professor at ITU. She works with interdisciplinary approaches to studying digital health, and is currently working on a project about medicinal cannabis. She has her PhD from the Department for the study of culture at University of Southern Denmark, and is based in Copenhagen.
Kaisa Kortekallio works on environmental speculations and embodied estrangement at the University of Helsinki. Whether dealing with climate change or winter depression, she prefers strategies of adaptation to those of warfare.
Nina Lykke is Professor Emerita, Dr. Phil. Gender Studies, Linköping University, Sweden, and Adjunct Professor, Aarhus University, Denmark. Author of numerous books, such as Cosmodolphins. Feminist Cultural Studies of Technology, Animals and the Sacred (with Mette Bryld, 2000), Feminist Studies (2010), and Vibrant Death. A Posthuman Phenomenology of Mourning (forthcoming, 2021).
Monster Talks is a podcast series that explores the figure of the monster and the concept of the monstrous as important thinking tools for addressing dynamics of power, inclusion and exclusion, discrimination and violence. The podcast is made possible by the support of Nordic Culture Point and produced by The Monster Network in collaboration with Network for Gender Studies at UiS. All episodes are available from the podcast’s website at UiS.
How is disgust defined? How is it related to, for example, the sublime (and awe), cuteness, or taboos? And can disgust be a source of hope?
Dr. Aino-Kaisa Koistinen from the Monster Network discusses all things disgusting with Doctoral researcher Heidi Kosonen and PhD, Postdoctoral researcher Susanne Ylönen (both from the Department of Music, Art and Culture Studies, University of Jyväskylä, Finland), organizers of the Disgust Network. The topics range from period blood to eating insects. But what is that disgusting drinking noise? We wonder why it is there…
This podcast has been made in collaboration with The Disgust Network, a multi-disciplinary network for the study of disgust from the perspectives of humanities. The network was established in November 2018, and has its base at the University Jyväskylä department of Music, Art and Culture. The network welcomes members from all research backgrounds and institutions. If you want to learn more, contact Heidi S. Kosonen (heidi.s.kosonen(a)jyu.fi) or Susanne Ylönen (susanne.c.ylonen(a)jyu.fi)
Monster Talks is a podcast series that explores the figure of the monster and the concept of the monstrous as important thinking tools for addressing dynamics of power, inclusion and exclusion, discrimination and violence. The podcast is made possible by the support of Nordic Culture Point and produced by The Monster Network in collaboration with Network for Gender Studies at UiS. All episodes are available from the podcast’s website at UiS.
The monstrous and the wondrous often co-exist in speculative fiction and science fiction – related genres and storytelling practices that allow for imagining otherwise. Working with the speculative, then, raises questions of what and how to imagine, and how things can be told, and from which location or position. What happens if stories are told from a non-human perspective, or from a different timeline? What kinds of monsters are invoked, and what is their significance? Whose world is at stake in the apocalypse? How might speculative and science fiction differ as the mainstream is increasingly challenged and exciting writing emerges from Black, Indigenous and people of colour authors? In this podcast we discuss the power of speculative and science fiction, and what it offers to our thinking. In conversation: Dr Donna McCormack (University of Surrey), Dr Line Henriksen (IT University of Copenhagen), Dr Ingvil Hellstrand (University of Stavanger) and the Unruly Fire Alarm, all members of the Monster Network.
Monster Talks is a podcast series that explores the figure of the monster and the concept of the monstrous as important thinking tools for addressing dynamics of power, inclusion and exclusion, discrimination and violence. The podcast is made possible by the support of Nordic Culture Point and produced by The Monster Network in collaboration with Network for Gender Studies at UiS. All episodes are available from the podcast’s website at UiS.
The Monster Network 