Julia Larsen
Thesis title: The Monster, the Body, and the Medium: Reimagining the Monster for Post-Millennial America
Phd in Intermediality
Year of study: 1
- Intermediality: Literature, Film and the Arts in Dialogue
- School of Literatures, Languages and Cultures (LLC)
Contact details
- Email: s2343649@ed.ac.uk
PhD supervisors:
Background
Julia is a first year PhD student in Intermediality, working under the supervision of Prof Marion Schmid and Dr Inma Sánchez Garcia. Her current research centers on the representation of monsters in post-millennial American screen media.
She recently completed her MSc in Intermediality: Literature, Film and the Arts in Dialogue. Her thesis explored race, queerness, and the vampire in Anne Rice's Interview with the Vampire and its 2022 television adaptation. Before coming to Edinburgh, Julia worked as a high school English teacher, sharing her love of literature and creating a safe space for young people to be themselves.
When she isn't watching corny vampire movies (for research, of course) Julia enjoys crocheting and walking with her toy poodle, Mia.
Qualifications
MSc Intermediality: Literature, Film and the Arts in Dialogue - Distinction - University of Edinburgh
BA English Teaching - Brigham Young University
Research summary
Julia's research aims to answer the question: What does America see as monstrous? She focuses on monsters in post-millennial American screen media, examining the relationship between the monster's markers of difference and politicized bodies in American culture, and analyzing how the monster morphs to both reflect and develop current cultural ideas of what is normal and what is monstrous. She traces modes of othering in foundational monster media -- from Victorian Gothic literature to early American travel writing -- and how those modes change or persist in contemporary American screen representations of monsters.
Current research interests
Adaptation, Intertextuality, The Gothic, Monster theory, Contemporary American screen media, Critical race theory, Feminist theory, Queer theory, Horror filmPapers delivered
"'To Become Literally a House:' Intermediality and the Female Gothic in Guillermo del Toro's Crimson Peak (2015)" - Theories and Practices of Intermediality Today: An International and Interdisciplinary Workshop, 14-15 March 2024