In celebration of Halloween,  long-time SEELC faculty member Daniel Collins presented a webinar about the supernatural terrors that haunt Slavic folklore: sorcerers, witches, werewolves, Evil Eyes, and vampires.

Hosted by the College of Arts and Sciences, Dr. Collins’s webinar was entitled ““Things That Go Bump in the (Slavic) Night!” and it drew over 100 attendees (many of whom were alumni who had loved the Slavic Vampires course while they were undergraduates). The webinar was recorded and it’s available on YouTube.

As Prof. Collins described to his audience, many beliefs still flourish in their traditional form in parts of East Europe. Others have put on modern clothes, like the Evil Eyes and energy vampires of chat and advice websites. Still others have gained employment in the post-socialist market economy, like the spokesvampire for Valjevo Beer. Whatever form they take, these monsters always express the changing anxieties and needs of the cultures that created them.