October 29 2020

At the Haunted Places Event staged by Sheffield Hallam University’s Space and Place group, Carolyn read her poem On The Thinnest of Nights.

The poem is from her poetry collection Apus inspired by #Frida Kahlo. Dr Elizabeth Uruchurtu spoke on Mexican Day of the Dead and the arrival of monarch butterflies to Mexico which form the backdrop to the poem.

Thursday, 29 October 2020, 7.00-9.30pm

If you missed this event, you can view it online here.

Apus is published by The Red Ceilings Press.

Thursday, 29 October 2020, 7.00-9.30pm

This event – comprising eight short presentations – is the first in an irregular series which across 2020-21 will explore new ways to investigate the relationship between places and hauntings.

Introduction: the haunted paddock 

Luke Bennett, Associate Professor (Real Estate), Dept of the Natural & Built Environment, Sheffield Hallam University 

Introducing the theme for this evening, and it’s melding of contemporary folklore and dark real estate, this introductory presentation will seek to widen the ways in which place-based haunting is perceived, by arguing that a place can be as much haunted by the dead-hand of the expectations and practices sedimented within it, as by supernatural forces. 

On the Thinnest of Nights
Carolyn Waudby, Senior Lecturer (Journalism), Dept of Media, Arts & Communication, Sheffield Hallam University

In this contribution I will read a poem from my collection Apus, (published 2020) written for a Mexican Day of the Dead event. It draws on the arrival of millions of monarch butterflies to the oyamel fir forests in the mountains of Mexico, coinciding with Day of the Dead (Nov 1st – 2nd), and the traditional belief that the butterflies represent the souls of the dead. Dr Elizabeth Uruchurtu will give a brief introduction about this belief. 

The Return of the Plague: a haunted village 

Andrew Robinson, Senior Lecturer (Photography), Dept of Media, Arts & Communication, SHU 

For over 350 years the village of Eyam has been haunted by the visitation of the bubonic plague in 1665-66 during which the majority of villagers perished. The legend of the ‘plague-stricken Derbyshire village’ has been repeatedly revisited across the years, most recently by the media in relation to the Covid-19 crisis, while the sites of haunting remain key to the iconography of the village. 

Haunting Histories: are historic hospitals haunted by their pasts? 

Carolyn Gibbeson, Senior Lecturer (Real Estate), Dept of the Natural & Built Environment, SHU 

Does a building’s history haunt it through time? How does this history affect the life and ongoing future of that building? Are buildings tainted forever more because of an event or events during their lifespan or is there a way of exorcizing their “ghosts”? Looking at historic former asylums, this presentation will seek to answer these questions through the perceptions of the stakeholders involved in their redevelopment. 

Triangulations 

Joanne Lee, Senior Lecturer (Graphic Communication), Dept of Media, Arts & Communication, SHU 

Fragmentary extracts from a pandemic journal* which focus on the activities of a group of young people who hang out on the vague terrain behind our triangular house. Their presence haunts the year and amplifies past illicit activities on this land. 

(*150000 words written – almost – daily since 31 March 2020) 

The Devil’s Elbow: the genius loci of a Dark Peak landscape 

David Clarke, Associate Professor (Journalism), Dept of Media, Arts & Communication, SHU 

The Longdendale valley of northern Derbyshire is a liminal place that sits on boundaries between past/present, urban/rural and natural/supernatural. Drawing upon traditional and personal narratives collected during fieldwork for my PhD alongside image and audio this presentation explores extraordinary experiences reported by ordinary people in their interactions with the landscape.  

A Survey of the Supernatural. 

Louise Kirsten, Senior Lecturer (Real Estate), Dept of the Natural & Built Environment, SHU 

I propose to present an eery review of how inspections of property can really go bump in the real estate night. In my career as a surveyor I have visited many different types of property and for most times I have comfortably referenced, measured, and photographed with no ghostly encounters. However, not all have been so accommodating, very occasionally the building has quite literally come back to haunt me, whether it is a faint whisper, a cold breeze or something more malevolent in the dark recesses of the structure. These are the spectral visitations I wish to share. 

Ghosts in the Machine: Haunted screens  

Diane A. Rodgers, Senior Lecturer (Film), Dept of Media, Arts & Communication, SHU 

Television programmes with supernatural themes have often spooked the nation and, on occasion, fooled viewers into thinking what they were watching was real. On Hallowe’en in 1992, the BBC broadcast Ghostwatch which, presented in the guise of live television, became one of the most complained-about television programmes of all time.