Weird Fictions Research Group

Head: Joanna Kaniewska (with dr Kotwasińska consulting)

Weird Fictions Research Group emerged in early 2020 out of the W.E.I.R.D. Students’ Reading Group which was established in 2018 at the American Studies Center, the University of Warsaw.

Our research group invites students and early career researchers interested in all types of weird fictions.

If you enjoy weird fiction, SF, horror, and fantasy, our research group is a place for you! Join our discussions, movie screenings, seminars, guest lectures, and special events. We meet twice every month.

Our Fall 2018 schedule was devoted to questions of taste and paranoid reading, SF graphic novels, nostalgia and 80s animation. In the spring of 2019 we looked at cyber-punk and the posthuman. During Fall 2019 we discussed body horror in different cultural texts.

In Spring 2020 we talked about hybridity, monstrosity and transgression in SFF/horror/the weird and in Fall we organized a series of meetings called “EcoGothic Landscapes.” In Spring 2021 we discussed about monsters, both old and new, as part of our “Monsters ReVisited” series. Academic year 2021/22 was devoted SF in music and music in SF. We launched “Weird Music” and “Weird Music Vol. 2,” a series of talks and meetings about horror in music and music in horror. In March 2023, we launched “Mythos, Inc.”, a series of talks about Greek and Roman myths in contemporary American culture.The 2023/24 academic year will be devoted in its entirety to “Weird Medicine” and biomedical imaginaries in American culture.

OZN points

ASC students receive 3 OZN points for attending each meeting organized by the WFRG (2 OZN if the meeting’s online.)

If a student plans, organizes and delivers a workshop/lecture as part of the WFRG, they will pass their OZN requirement and receive “5” in OZN.

Facebook page

Follow us on Facebook! Stay up to date with the events we host, share news about some latest research in weird fiction, and get some of the best cultural recommendations!

Events archive

 

Weird Medicine
Fall 2023/2024

Mythos, Inc.
Spring 2022/2023

 

Weird Music Vol. 2
Fall 2022/2023

Weird Music
Fall—Spring 2021/2022

 

Monsters ReVisited
Spring 2020/2021

 

EcoGothic Landscapes
Fall 2020/2021

 

The Day of the Hybrids
Spring 2019/2020