{"id":13728,"date":"2013-01-19T18:00:38","date_gmt":"2013-01-20T00:00:38","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.discoverclarksville.com\/articles\/?p=13728"},"modified":"2013-01-19T18:01:09","modified_gmt":"2013-01-20T00:01:09","slug":"austin-peay-state-university-professors-to-publish-scholarly-book-on-zombies","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.discoverclarksville.com\/articles\/2013\/01\/19\/austin-peay-state-university-professors-to-publish-scholarly-book-on-zombies\/","title":{"rendered":"Austin Peay State University professors to publish scholarly book on zombies"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"AustinClarksville, TN<\/strong> – Dr. Antonio Thompson, Austin Peay State University associate professor of history, sat in his office after final exams last December, contemplating the moral implications of killing a zombie.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf it\u2019s caused by a virus, then theoretically it could be cured,\u201d he said. \u201cSo what\u2019s your legal obligation to zombies? Are they humans, monsters, animals?\u201d<\/p>\n

His wife, APSU associate professor of biology Dr. Amy Thompson, was more concerned with how the undead came to take over the world.<\/p>\n

\"APSU<\/a>

APSU associate professor of history Dr. Antonio Thompson and his wife, APSU associate professor of biology Dr. Amy Thompson, discuss the zombie apocalypse with APSU students dressed as zombies. The students include Richard Borges, Kylee Dick, Amanda Gruver, Raistlin Delisle, Maja Paro, Eric Roberts, and Dustin Waters. (Photo by Beth Liggett\/APSU staff)<\/p><\/div>\n

\u201cWhat caused the zombie apocalypse?\u201d she said. \u201cWe often look to the Centers for Disease Control and the World Health Organization for answers, but finding these answers isn\u2019t always easy.\u201d<\/p>\n

The professors were both lucid and in good health. A terrible flu virus recently swept through Clarksville, and a long semester at APSU had just ended, but the two faculty members didn\u2019t show signs of delirium. They were simply talking about the new academic book they are developing \u2013 \u201cThe Real World Implications of a Zombie Apocalypse.\u201d The book, scheduled for release in the fall of 2013, is under contract by the major academic publishing house McFarland Press.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s not a fiction book,\u201d Antonio said, unbuttoning his sport\u2019s coat. \u201cZombies are just a vehicle to push us forward. We\u2019re looking at real-life events and disasters that we thought could be world enders, or at least devastating, such as Hurricane Katrina or the 1918 flu epidemic.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIt can be academic but still be fun and fresh and current,\u201d Amy said. \u201cOne of the big things you have to do as a college professor is reach your audience, reach your students, and do things that they like in order to engage them in learning. Things like this are certainly engaging.\u201d<\/p>\n

The book will consist of 20 chapters that examine the zombie apocalypse from historical, political, military, neurological and biological perspectives. It will also examine the legal and financial implications of such a disaster. The Thompsons solicited top scholars across the country, including Harvard University assistant professor of psychiatry Dr. Steven Scholzman, to contribute essays for this work. They also invited two of their colleagues, APSU biology professor Dr. James Thompson and APSU sociology chair Dr. David Steele, to write chapters for the book.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have contacted the people that we think will best fit with the essays,\u201d Amy said. \u201cThe end product will be something that is very academic and could be used as a tool for planning for real-life catastrophes.\u201d<\/p>\n

[320left]This project doesn\u2019t mark the first appearance of zombies in academia. Several universities are incorporating this element of pop culture into their curriculums as a means of engaging students. Recently, Michigan State University offered a summer course titled \u201cSurviving the Coming Zombie Apocalypse: Catastrophes and Human Behavior.\u201d National Public Radio reported that St. Edward\u2019s University in Austin, Texas, required its freshmen to read Max Brook\u2019s zombie novel \u201cWorld War Z\u201d to \u201cfacilitate conversations about globalization, ethics and mortality.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cPop culture is a rising academic field,\u201d Antonio said. \u201cIt allows you to see history and other trends in a new perspective. And it also gives professors an immediate way to relate to students.\u201d<\/p>\n

The development of this new book actually started at one of the largest pop culture events in this country \u2013 San Diego\u2019s annual Comic-Con convention. Dr. Antonio Thompson was at the event to present an academic paper he wrote on Captain America at the convention\u2019s Cultural Arts Conference. Cambridge Press will soon publish that paper in a new scholarly book.<\/p>\n

\u201cI talked about how Captain America the comic book and the comic book character represent American nationalism and U.S. foreign policy,\u201d Thompson said.<\/p>\n

After the panel ended, the Thompsons walked through the Comic-Con convention among fans dressed as Star Wars and comic book characters. That\u2019s where they happened upon a booth manned by editors from McFarland Press. For years, the couple had discussed developing a serious, academic work on zombies, so they pitched the idea. McFarland loved the concept and issued a contract for the book.<\/p>\n

\u201cZombies really are a metaphor for so much more,\u201d Amy said. \u201cStudents want to read about zombies, but what they get out of it is actually the application of the material. Some people will say, \u2018How could that be academic?\u2019 I think if you look at the finished product, the melding of academia and popular culture will be clear.\u201d<\/p>\n

[320right]That finished product will hopefully be out by next Halloween. Until then, the Thompsons are busying themselves with research, watching the AMC series \u201cThe Walking Dead,\u201d reading books such as \u201cThe Complete Zombie Survival Guide\u201d and examining \u201cThe Night of the Living Dead\u201d and other classics of the genre by film director George Romero.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe zombie books and movies, they really capture what we\u2019re frightened of right now,\u201d Antonio said. \u201cIn the 1960s and 1970s, they really addressed what was going on then.\u201d<\/p>\n

For more information on these works, contact Dr. Antonio Thompson at thompsonas@apsu.edu<\/a> or Dr. Amy Thompson at thompsona@apsu.edu<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Clarksville, TN – Dr. Antonio Thompson, Austin Peay State University associate professor of history, sat in his office after final exams last December, contemplating the moral implications of killing a zombie. \u201cIf it\u2019s caused by a virus, then theoretically it could be cured,\u201d he said. \u201cSo what\u2019s your legal obligation to zombies? Are they humans, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[5],"tags":[17476,17492,17473,5689,23,262,17491,17489,825,17490,17486,17480,17479,17470,10949,6272,16261,17485,17475,17478,17487,17483,12394,17477,17474,14090,17484,17482,17493,17481,17472,10955,17488,17471],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p4xGYI-3zq","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.discoverclarksville.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13728"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.discoverclarksville.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.discoverclarksville.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.discoverclarksville.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.discoverclarksville.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13728"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.discoverclarksville.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13728\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":13734,"href":"https:\/\/www.discoverclarksville.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13728\/revisions\/13734"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.discoverclarksville.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13728"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.discoverclarksville.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13728"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.discoverclarksville.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13728"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}