The Worcester State University English Department was well represented at the 2014 New England Popular Culture (NEPCA) Conference at Providence College, Providence, R.I.
For the session “Creature Features,” master’s degree student Michael Pecora presented “Dracula: Monster of Masculinity,” a paper adapted from work done in a graduate course at WSU, and Professor Sharon Yang read “Nature Selects the Horla: Darwinian Influences on Guy DeMaupassant’s Horror Tale,” a version of an article that will appear in a collection she is co-editing with Kathy Healey, an adjunct professor in the English Department, Gothic Landscapes: Changing Eras, Changing Cultures, Changing Anxieties.
In the session “Manufacturing Monsters,” Associate Professor Donald Vescio presented “Should Your Car Kill You,” a paper exploring the use of charged rhetoric in expressing fears of new technology.