USF's Zombie Invasion Begins Wednesday

Zombies are on their way to the , and they’re expected to be in full force at the campus Wednesday.

The USF Humanities Institute will be hosting a series of events throughout the week as part of their conference, Brain(s) Matter: Zombies in Contemporary Culture, which takes place Wednesday and Thursday. All events are free and open to the public.

While there are many mythological creatures that go bump in the night, the zombie seems to have strong cultural staying power and has seen a particular resurgence in popularity over the last five years, according to a USF press release. Major advertising campaigns by Honda and Toshiba feature zombies, and the Center for Disease Control launched a disaster preparedness campaign based on the satirical concept of a zombie apocalypse, which went viral in a couple of days, crashing their server. 

“The goal of the conference is to look at this cultural phenomenon from different intellectual perspectives,” said Elizabeth Bird, director of the Humanities Institute, in the release. “Guests will hear from film scholars, theater technicians, and anthropologists.”

On Wednesday, Sarah Juliet Lauro, visiting professor at UC Davis and coeditor of the new book, Better Off Dead: The Evolution of the Zombie as Post-Human, will kickoff the events at 5 p.m. in the Marshall Student Center (MSC), room 3704. She will explore the evolution of zombie folklore from its roots in Haitian voodoo, to its modern American incarnation as the cannibalistic living-dead in her lecture, A Brief History of the Modern Zombie: Revolutionizing Resurrection in the Empirical Age.

Afterward, the Institute will be screening classic zombie films in the MSC Oval Theater as part of the conference, including White Zombie (1932), the first full-length zombie film, and Night of the Living Dead (1968), the George Romero classic. The double feature begins at 7 p.m.

“We’re excited to show these classic films the way they’re meant to be seen—on the big screen,” said Liz Kicak, Humanities Institute program assistant, in the release.

On Thursday, Zombies 101, an interdisciplinary panel featuring USF faculty and Howl-O-Scream staff, will begin at 5 p.m. in MSC 2709. Topics and presenters include:

• Fashionably Dead: Genres in Zombie Costuming
  Marilyn Gaspardo Bertch, assistant professor in the USF College of the Arts, will talk about creating different zombie genres with costumes and makeup. One of her students will be performing a live demonstration.
• Undead Cinema: Reanimating the Present
  Amy Rust, assistant professor in the USF Department of Humanities and Cultural Studies, will explore the similarities between zombies in films and stories.
• Bringing the Undead to Life
  Scott Swenson, director of production and entertainment for Busch Gardens Tampa, will discuss the making of the park’s .

At 8:30 p.m., Zombieland (2009) will be shown on the MSC lawn.

On Sunday, a Zombie Prom will take place from 8 to 11 p.m. in the MSC Ballroom. Attendees are encouraged to dress as their favorite zombie character.

Head to the campus at your own risk. From Tuesday to Saturday, Humans Vs Zombies (HvZ), a campus-wide game of tag, will be taking place.

“It started as a small event, but there was such enthusiasm and creativity that we were able to significantly expand our scope,” Kicak said of all the zombie-related activities in the release. “We’re really pleased to be able to offer a program that’s both educational and fun. People can come in costume, get their makeup done by our student volunteers, and walk away with a new understanding of zombie lore, their function as cultural metaphor, and their evolution in film and new media.”