The Monster Never Dies: Introduction to Monster Studies with Brennan Kettelle, PhD Researcher, Begins September 28
Eight-Week Class Taught Online Via Zoom
Sundays, September 28 - November 16, 2025
1-3pm ET (NYC Time)
$165 Paid Patreon Members / $150 General Admission
PLEASE NOTE: Classes will be recorded and archived for students who cannot make that time
Across cultures and eras, humanity has always been haunted by the Monster. Even today, new monsters are created and vilified, serving as embodied repositories for the fears, anxieties, and shames of a given society, group, or individual. Monsters reflect back to us the cultural tensions that produce them, and the urge to defeat or exorcise the Monster often translates into real-world taboos and stigmas—frequently targeting marginalized communities and individuals. In this sense, monsters are very real, and worthy of serious study.
This course—taught by esotericism studies scholar Brennan Kettelle—will provide a comprehensive introduction to monster theory, an academic field that investigates the social functions of monsters by examining their origins, narratives, cultural meanings, and material impacts.
We’ll begin by asking foundational questions: What is a Monster? Where do monsters come from, why do they scare us, and who decides what counts as monstrous? Through an interdisciplinary approach, we’ll explore how monsters are constructed and used in literature, film, folklore, and sociopolitics, and how they have been discursively linked to anxieties around gender, sexuality, and race. We’ll examine the ways in which the Monster has been deployed as a means for perpetuating the marginalizations of the social ‘other.’ Alternatively, we will also consider how monsters can be utilized as symbols of subversion and liberation, examining instances in which marginalized individuals of history aligned with the Monster as a means of social resistance. Over eight weeks, we’ll trace the enduring and multifaceted history of the Monster, from its weaponizations to its reclamations.
Brennan Kettelle holds a Research Master’s degree in Religious Studies-Western esotericism (2021), as well as a Master’s degree in Gender and Cultural Studies (2018). She is currently a PhD researcher at the HHP Centre, investigating 19th-century associations between Lilith and queerness. Brennan aims to utilize queer theory and monster studies in examining esotericism, investigating both queer currents within esoteric literature, orders, and figures, as well as esoteric themes within queer subcultures, politics, and histories.
Images: Satiated Hardy, Gustav Adolf Mossa, 1905: Illustration for Jack the Giant Killer, 1881
Eight-Week Class Taught Online Via Zoom
Sundays, September 28 - November 16, 2025
1-3pm ET (NYC Time)
$165 Paid Patreon Members / $150 General Admission
PLEASE NOTE: Classes will be recorded and archived for students who cannot make that time
Across cultures and eras, humanity has always been haunted by the Monster. Even today, new monsters are created and vilified, serving as embodied repositories for the fears, anxieties, and shames of a given society, group, or individual. Monsters reflect back to us the cultural tensions that produce them, and the urge to defeat or exorcise the Monster often translates into real-world taboos and stigmas—frequently targeting marginalized communities and individuals. In this sense, monsters are very real, and worthy of serious study.
This course—taught by esotericism studies scholar Brennan Kettelle—will provide a comprehensive introduction to monster theory, an academic field that investigates the social functions of monsters by examining their origins, narratives, cultural meanings, and material impacts.
We’ll begin by asking foundational questions: What is a Monster? Where do monsters come from, why do they scare us, and who decides what counts as monstrous? Through an interdisciplinary approach, we’ll explore how monsters are constructed and used in literature, film, folklore, and sociopolitics, and how they have been discursively linked to anxieties around gender, sexuality, and race. We’ll examine the ways in which the Monster has been deployed as a means for perpetuating the marginalizations of the social ‘other.’ Alternatively, we will also consider how monsters can be utilized as symbols of subversion and liberation, examining instances in which marginalized individuals of history aligned with the Monster as a means of social resistance. Over eight weeks, we’ll trace the enduring and multifaceted history of the Monster, from its weaponizations to its reclamations.
Brennan Kettelle holds a Research Master’s degree in Religious Studies-Western esotericism (2021), as well as a Master’s degree in Gender and Cultural Studies (2018). She is currently a PhD researcher at the HHP Centre, investigating 19th-century associations between Lilith and queerness. Brennan aims to utilize queer theory and monster studies in examining esotericism, investigating both queer currents within esoteric literature, orders, and figures, as well as esoteric themes within queer subcultures, politics, and histories.
Images: Satiated Hardy, Gustav Adolf Mossa, 1905: Illustration for Jack the Giant Killer, 1881
Eight-Week Class Taught Online Via Zoom
Sundays, September 28 - November 16, 2025
1-3pm ET (NYC Time)
$165 Paid Patreon Members / $150 General Admission
PLEASE NOTE: Classes will be recorded and archived for students who cannot make that time
Across cultures and eras, humanity has always been haunted by the Monster. Even today, new monsters are created and vilified, serving as embodied repositories for the fears, anxieties, and shames of a given society, group, or individual. Monsters reflect back to us the cultural tensions that produce them, and the urge to defeat or exorcise the Monster often translates into real-world taboos and stigmas—frequently targeting marginalized communities and individuals. In this sense, monsters are very real, and worthy of serious study.
This course—taught by esotericism studies scholar Brennan Kettelle—will provide a comprehensive introduction to monster theory, an academic field that investigates the social functions of monsters by examining their origins, narratives, cultural meanings, and material impacts.
We’ll begin by asking foundational questions: What is a Monster? Where do monsters come from, why do they scare us, and who decides what counts as monstrous? Through an interdisciplinary approach, we’ll explore how monsters are constructed and used in literature, film, folklore, and sociopolitics, and how they have been discursively linked to anxieties around gender, sexuality, and race. We’ll examine the ways in which the Monster has been deployed as a means for perpetuating the marginalizations of the social ‘other.’ Alternatively, we will also consider how monsters can be utilized as symbols of subversion and liberation, examining instances in which marginalized individuals of history aligned with the Monster as a means of social resistance. Over eight weeks, we’ll trace the enduring and multifaceted history of the Monster, from its weaponizations to its reclamations.
Brennan Kettelle holds a Research Master’s degree in Religious Studies-Western esotericism (2021), as well as a Master’s degree in Gender and Cultural Studies (2018). She is currently a PhD researcher at the HHP Centre, investigating 19th-century associations between Lilith and queerness. Brennan aims to utilize queer theory and monster studies in examining esotericism, investigating both queer currents within esoteric literature, orders, and figures, as well as esoteric themes within queer subcultures, politics, and histories.
Images: Satiated Hardy, Gustav Adolf Mossa, 1905: Illustration for Jack the Giant Killer, 1881