These courses are a scream

Welcome, foolish mortals! Whether you identify as a thrill-seeker, horror fan, goth or phobophile (lover of fear), FIU offers courses that will have you shrieking with excitement. Explore an array of spooktacular courses that dive into the macabre and the mysterious. There’s no turning back now …

Frightful fiction
For those drawn to eerie tales, Rhona Trauvitch, associate teaching professor of English, offers both a general science fiction course and another, "Short Stories of Horror and the Weird," that have students tackling works such as Frankenstein, Never Let Me Go, Wicked Weeds, the graphic novel The Wake and the short story Bloodchild. 

Trauvitch says she loves seeing the students’ excitement as they read about characters in hair-raising situations: children reared to have their organs harvested to save others, a gentleman zombie searching for a cure to regain his humanity, a young human who must become a host for the eggs of an intelligent alien species.

Those are just a few of the plots she throws at them with great success.

“They seem to like the opportunity to discuss these genres and tropes with their peers,” she said in perhaps the greatest understatement ever.

Shakespeare's scariest
The English department is full of classes that dive into the ghoulish. This includes Shakespeare. His tragic plays are filled with hauntings in the form of ghosts and witches, and death is a recurring theme.

James Sutton, associate professor, notes that in Hamlet, 10 people die and in Titus Andronicus 26 people get killed in what are very bloody scenes that include cannibalism. Sutton adds that many of Shakespeare’s tragedies can be described like the movie The Sixth Sense: "We see dead people."

His spookiest lesson involves the three witches in Macbeth. “Students really latch on to the ghostly,” he said.

“I try to be serious, but a lot of this literature ends up being a lot of fun, too.”

The art of gore
If blood and guts are more your fascination, Professor Anthony Galaska from the theatre department has you covered. His stage makeup course is a dive into special effects artistry, where students learn how to create bruises, cuts, burns, broken noses, bites and more. (Spoiler alert! You’ll never look at oatmeal the same way again. Scabs anyone?)

In this hands-on course, students read real police reports and then design makeup effects to match, using materials such as mortician’s wax, toilet paper and cream makeup. 

Galaska also teaches lighting design, where fear and tension in films like Texas Chainsaw Massacre, Hellraiser and Psycho are used to show how lighting and shadow work to build suspense. These techniques translate to the stage as well, appearing in classics such as Macbeth and Hamlet.

“With film you can really direct the framework of what an audience sees, so you get more jump scares out of that,” Galaska said. 

(For a frightening on-campus experience, check out the student production of The Moors, on stage on campus November 14-23.)

Fashion of the afterlife
Also from theatre, Associate Professor Marina Pareja explores darker fascinations in her costume history and costume design courses. 

“Costume history is a favorite of mine to teach,” Pareja said. “I approach it much like an art history course."

The course examines the Victorian era’s obsession with death and the afterlife, including trends like "spirit photography," séances and mourning rituals. 

“Fashion reflected these obsessions,” Pareja added. “The result is equal parts eerie, poetic and theatrical, which gives my students plenty to explore.”

Pareja keeps her classes lively and interactive.

“Instead of sitting through slides, we connect fashion to art, politics and daily life. I try to keep things moving, so it feels more like piecing together stories than memorizing timelines,” she said.

Witchcraft, wonders and worldviews
The "Magic and Religions" elective dives into themes related to the supernatural. It covers beliefs, practices and symbols related to magic and witchcraft in different global traditions. The course also explores the relationship between magic and modern science and technology.

“I most enjoy watching the students grapple with different perspectives and develop their own ideas on why beliefs in the supernatural are still so prevalent in today’s society,” said Erin Weston, associate teaching professor in the religious studies department in the School of International Public Affairs. “Once they start looking, they see how widespread these ideas are.”

Other assorted frights
If you’re craving still more chills, FIU offers other frightful courses including "Hispanic Gothic: Horror and the Fantastic in Spain and Latin America" and "Writing Mystery and Suspense," to name a few. And pre-med students absolutely must check out Ana Benaduce’s anatomy class. Her lesson on the skeletal system is bone-chilling but in a humerus way.