Tuesday, November 14, 2023

1:00 - 2:30 p.m.

Archives & Special Collections Instruction Room, 340 Hillman Library

Free and open to the public.

In this event and accompanying exhibit, we invite you to join us in the shadows, and learn more about the fascinating history of children’s horror.

Through a presentation of archival and special collections material new and old - spanning classic fairy tales to contemporaneous offerings - we will explore children’s enduring fascination with the weird and macabre. Furthermore, children’s fascination with playing in the dark has reclaimed horror from its roots as a cudgel of religious indoctrination, to a source of agency, exploration and adventure that persists despite societal mores that decry it.

Deemed corruptive and consequential by prior generations, this exhibit showcases the countercultural empowerment children have created with horror for themselves instead. 

Come on back and we'll see if you remember the simplest thing of all – how it is to be children, secure in belief and thus afraid of the dark. - Stephen King, It   

Julia Hodges is a third-year undergraduate student in the University of Pittsburgh’s Honors College, double-majoring in Communication & Rhetoric and Film & Media Studies, and is earning the Children's Literature Certificate. She works in the university’s Archives and Special Collections, and her research covers pop culture as a countercultural force from text and print to the cinematic screen. 

Hebah Uddin is a second-year PhD student in Children’s Literature and a Graduate Student Assistant at the University of Pittsburgh Library System’s Archives and Special Collections at Hillman Library, as well as a published children’s literature author. Her research interests include children’s literature, Black feminist studies, horror studies and the intersections between all three disciplines.

Hillman Library is located at 3960 Forbes Avenue, Pittsburgh, PA 15260. Metered on-street parking is available on various streets surrounding the library. Parking is also available at Soldiers & Sailors Parking Garage (.2 miles from the library). Hillman is also accessible by public transportation. See the Pittsburgh Regional Transit website for planning your trip. 

The entrance to the library is located at the Forbes Avenue address, accessed by a ramp leading from street level to the First Floor plaza. Sidewalks around the library are closed as part of library renovation; follow signs to library entrance.

Please email uls-events@pitt.edu with any questions or accessibility accommodation requests.