DoctorErin Harrington

My research explores horror media and storytelling. I am currently investigating the following areas: the relationship betwen aesthetics, gender and embodiment; women in  / and / of horror; film-philosophical approaches to horror; representations of violence; national and transnational models of horror; the relationship between horror and comedy; New Zealand and Pacific horror; horror media outside of feature film, and outside of the United States; anthology formats across media; paratexts; cinematic accounts of space and place; digital humanities approaches to film and media studies. 

My research monograph Women, Monstrosity and Horror Film: Gynaehorror was published by Routledge in 2019 in the series "Film-Philosophy on the Margins". It considers the role of women in (mostly American) horror film since the 1960s, through an exploration of ‘gynaehorror’: films concerned with all aspects of female reproductive horror, from reproductive and sexual organs, to virginity, pregnancy, birth, motherhood and finally to menopause. I am currently finishing a monograph on transnational genre, mockumentary form, and space / place in the What We Do in the Shadows universe for Auteur / Liverpool University Press.  

I sit on editorial boards - the Intellect journal Horror Studies, and Edinburgh University Press's book series 21st Century Horror. I have acted as a reviewer and manuscript assessor for a wide range of international journals and presses, large and niche, most recently Rutgers UP, Colombia UP, Edinburgh UP, Amsterdam UP, Routledge, New Review of Film and Television Studies, MediaNZ, Media International Australia, Comedy Studies, Feminist Theory, ASAP/Journal, Cinémas Revue d'études cinématographiques and Media Culture Journal.

I am broadly interested approaches to culture, especially the 'everyday'. I enjoy exploring how diverse areas can intersect in novel ways, including digital culture, fandom, spectatorship, science and technology, ttrpgs, audio storytelling (e.g. radio drama), genre, activism, issues of taste and consumption, camp and queerness, and so-called 'low' culture (kitsch, exploitation media, trash cultures). 

I am not taking on any additional thesis supervisions (MA and PhD) as my supervision load is at capacity. I am open to discussions about potential supervision from 2028 onwards in areas relating to my research interests. For the MA by thesis, students should have a strong honours degree (first class honours or a 2.1) that includes high marks in the degree's research component. For PhD study, students should have completed a full-length Masters thesis with merit or distinction. I am not able to act as a senior supervisor on projects grounded in social science / human research (e.g. qualitative research interviewing, focus groups) or quantitative methods (eg. surveys, data analysis).