Bloodied Bodies, Bloody Landscapes: A Talk on Indigenous Horror with Laura Hall

Celebrate Halloween and spooky season with author Laura Hall as she dives into the dark legacy of colonialism in horror film, from Scream to Halloween and beyond. Join us for a reading from her book, Bloodied Bodies, Bloody Landscapes and a talk on all things horror! — Bloodied Bodies, Bloody Landscapes traces connections between Indigenous representations, gender, and sexuality within iconic horror classics like The Texas Chainsaw Massacre and Friday the 13th. Indigenous inclusion or exclusion in horror films tells a larger story about myths, fears, and anxieties that have endured for centuries. The savage killer, the romantic and doomed Indian, the feral “mad woman”—no trope or archetype escapes the shadowy influence of settler colonialism. In the end, horror both disrupts and uncovers colonial violence—only to bury its victims once more. Dr. Laura Hall is a graduate of York University’s Faculty of Environmental Studies. She was raised by her Mohawk mother and English-Canadian father on Anishinaabe territory in N’Swakamok (Sudbury). Her work is about "learning to learn" from within an Indigenous worldview, focused on sustainability, the rights of Indigenous women and Two-Spirit/LGBTQ communities, and Land Back. Her current interests are settler colonial theory and intersectionality, pop culture analysis, and bridge-building between social work and sociology, as well as Indigenous environmental theory and sociology. — This event is free and open to the public! ​Books will be available for sale and signing.