The Scarlet THE STUDENT NEWSPAPER OF CLARK UNIVERSITY OCTOBER 27, 2017 | THESCARLET.ORG
The Science of Undeath By Daniel Juarez General Manager
Settling swiftly and silently into their seats, students and faculty filled the Higgins Lounge last Wednesday, keen to listen to the lecture of the evening, “The Science of Undeath: Zombies and Animated Corpses in Historical Perspective.” As part of the Roots of Everything series of lectures started this year — aimed at bringing together scholars of medieval and early modern Europe and America — the lecture featured Winston Black, Assistant Professor of History at Assumption College, and Clark’s very own Professor of Biology, Deborah Robertson, speaking about how medieval scholars drew the line between life and death, and the links that existed with our modern understanding of life. “Medieval ‘zombies’ were not simply a folk superstition,” Professor Black began, “but were the subject of serious analysis, what I call the science of death, by philosophers, doctors, and theologians.” He then turned to his slides, outlining some images from movies and television. “Modern pop-culture would have us believe that zombies were everywhere in the Middle Ages, but,” Black revealed, “that was simply not the case.” “There are only about two dozen recorded in the entire Middle Ages, during the one-thousands,” he explained, “and they were usually called ‘corpses’ or simply ‘revenants’ — Latin for ‘those who return.’” It was here that Black started tracing back said records of revenants. “The most famous report of revenants in the Middle Ages was named William of Newburgh, as he is one of the few medieval authors who managed to record anything close to what we would call a zombie epidemic,” Black recalled. “He relates in detail four stories about dead men who rose from their graves and terrorized neighboring
communities in England.” Black also specified a clear distinction between these revenants, which were presented in medieval sources as historical facts, and incorporeal “ghosts and spirits,” who had their roots in myths and legends such as Europe’s “Wild Hunt” or “Hellequin Host.” Other medieval citizens that Black listed as having kept accounts of these revenants included William of Malmesbury, Abbot Geoffrey of Burton, and Caesarius of Heisterbach, up until the thirteenth-century, where records of them suddenly stopped. When describing whether reanimated monsters were simply works of fiction used by the church to frighten its followers, or beings theorized by medieval scientists during the early stages of science, Black ended the first half of the lecture by explaining, “revenants were a relatively short-lived experiment in probing the inner sections of science and theology. In the end, they were unacceptable to both philosophers and theologians in fulfilling the need for communication with the dead and explaining residues of power, eventually being succeeded in the medieval ages by ghosts and ancient relics.” As Black ended his half of the lecture and sat down amidst applause from the audience, Robertson stood up to begin her commentary. “The science of biology is the study of life,” she began, “yet scientists can’t agree on an absolute definition.” Accompanying her description was a slide focusing on the worm species Osedax, or “zombie worms” as termed by scientists, and using them to explain that such organisms without brains, stomachs, or mouths can survive the deep depths of the ocean. She then went in depth about which of Earth’s organisms qualify as being “alive” as well as why and how the term had evolved since the medieval period. “Cell biologists stand by the modern cell theory, virologists con-
sider heredity, evolution, and manipulation of energy flow to be sufficient for organisms like viruses to be considered ‘living,’ and astrobiologists are thinking of different living systems that might allow for different chemistries or processes.” She then refocused her point as she came to the end of her lecture. “As our definitions of life get ranked based on our value belief, it allows for collaboration across the disciplines.” In closing, she emphasized, “while scientists might not necessarily ever embrace philosophy, having communication with philosophers is critical to understanding the way in which we are approaching our scientific questions.” As Robertson ended her talk, it opened up the opportunity for questions. Ranging from whether or not these medieval records inspired religious literature such as Dante’s “Inferno” to asking whether the accounts ever managed to describe the smell or the appearance of the revenants in clear detail, one question in particular asked about what points of contact between the medieval period and more recent times could be made via the undead. “What most zombie theorists do, whether for medievalists, vampires in seventeenth-century Romania, or modern zombie films,” Black answered, “is look for anxieties or what might be going on in the society: What are they thinking about, what are they worried about– and I think the answer with modern zombies is… everything.” Black went on, “since the cold war, nuclear panic, fears about globalization, every era has its own ‘monster to slay,’ whether it’s racism or dealing with the fear of modern medicine, similarities exist for every period.”
Pushing for Prison Education By Brett Iarrobino Contributing Writer
The necessity of educating inmates is a topic that has caused fierce debate within the last decade, but for Professor Jill McDonough, the answer is as clear as the memories she has gleaned from her time as a prison educator herself. She easily recalls teaching a course to prisoners on Shakespeare, and a particular student firmly believing he would be forced to drop the class when he failed to comprehend the complex language; however, she predicted that he would succeed. Just as McDonough predicted, her pupil not only deciphered “Othello” with great ease, but found himself immersed in the writing, and would insist on playing the titular lead every class. McDonough cites these lifechanging experiences, which she has observed during her teaching in men’s, women’s, and juvenile prisons, as one of the many benefits of prison teaching programs. Beginning her career in Boston University’s (BU) prison education program, McDonough made a name for herself amongst inmates as a professor with a backbone, teaching courses that forced students to think critically and refused to coddle them. During her 13-year tenure with the organization, McDonough began to understand how much of a cathartic experience learning was to prisoners, especially those who faced a lifetime behind bars. “Prison is where some people live,” she explained to her audience in the Dana Commons. “Everyone deserves the chance to lose themselves in their work.” One of McDonough’s favorite classroom topics is dissecting poetic meter - the process of unraveling a difficult verse or sonnet can take hours, and gives students time to dwell on the subject matter. Also speaking at the lecture was Arthur Bembury, a former student of McDonough’s in the BU prison program, and now the Executive Director of the College Behind Bars Mentoring Program. Though he was warned not
to take her class, he registered for McDonough’s English seminar, and was immediately pushed to his academic limits. “An A in my opinion was a B in hers,” he said, recalling a particular essay he wrote that the two still disagree on to this day. Despite some struggles with his courses, Bembury found his perspective growing and changing during his enrollment in the program, trading his grim thoughts on his capacity to succeed beyond imprisonment for a newfound hope for a better future. The dignity and humanity the penal institution stripped from him was regained when he attended classes. Intimidation from the guards was replaced with civil discord between a professor and a pupil. For Bembury, these were the moments that did not feel like prison. That’s not to say the experience was entirely smooth for the students or the teachers. McDonough can recall numerous absences that were due to confrontations between inmates, and Bembury remembers the strenuous task of balancing his immersion with academic life with prison culture; he was handed a frequent reminder of his place in society through the line,“you’re in jail, not Yale.” Complications also arose in terms of the materials presented to prisoners, preventing them from writing their essays and other assignments on anything but pencil and paper. Nonetheless, both McDonough and Bembury had nothing but praise for the educational organizations they both are involved in, and cited concrete evidence of the success as well - only two percent of the program’s graduates found themselves returning to prison, compared to the nationwide return rate of 67 percent. In an open forum held during the few remaining minutes of the lecture, audience members began to ask if Clark was looking into forming a prison education program, or offering similar curriculums to non federal penal facilities. The enthusiastic response to the concept of educating the imprisoned only reiterates Bembury’s statement, “you cannot incarcerate someone without giving them the resources needed to be successful when they return to society.”