Tue. Oct. 20  - Doomsday Scenarios
Dr. Kelly Baker

Sign, sign, everywhere a sign: Tim LaHaye's End-Times Theologies
12 p.m. in Patterson Bay, Laird Hall

I'll talk through some of LaHaye's more recent apocalyptic visions and how they are different, and less popular, than his previous Left Behind series. Signs of end times emerge as political events.

Evening: With a Shamble and a Moan: Zombie Apocalypses in American Culture
4 p.m. in Patterson Bay, Laird Hall

Zombies bring about the end of the world over and over again in popular culture. These monster tales provide not only visions of a dystopian end, but also say much about current moment's humanity and inhumanity.

Kelly J. Baker is a freelance writer with a religious studies PhD who covers higher education, gender, labor, motherhood, American religions, and popular culture. She has regular columns at the Chronicle for Higher Education's Vitae project, Women in Higher Education, Killing the Buddha, and Sacred Matters. She’s written for The Atlantic, The Rumpus, The Manifest-Station, the Washington Post's Faith Street, and Brain, Child. She is the author of the award-winning book, The Gospel According to the Klan: The KKK’s Appeal to Protestant America, 1915-1930,  and The Zombies Are Coming!: The Realities of the Zombie Apocalypse in American Culture. When she’s not writing essays or wrangling children, she’s hacking away at collection of essays on apocalypses in America tentatively titled “The End of Us.”

Supported by the Orr Forum, proud sponsor of the Return of the Apocalyptic lecture series