You’re studying in a haunted library with ghosts.
A stack of books sits on the desk in front of you,
and your hands are gloved in ink and dust.

Rain patters against the thick glass windows, and delicate piano music carries through the stacks. No matter how hard you search, you can’t find the piano.

The walls are heavy with art. 

There’s a portrait across from your desk that is aging faster than you do.

Around a corner hangs a photograph of a house. The shadows across its lawn change according to its own internal logic, irrespective of the daylight fading in the library.

The girl who sits at the desk across from you has fingertips covered in paint. You used to worry about her leaving smears of marigold and plum across the pages of her books, but lately you’ve noticed that when she places her books in the return cart, their bindings are always gray, no matter what color they were when she took them off the shelves.

Dust and secrets mingle in the air. You can taste them with each breath.

You should run, you think. Leave this place and its secrets on the walls, on the shelves, in the air.

But instead you press your fingers to the gilt edge of the portrait. When you look at the face painted there, you notice for the first time that it’s smiling at you.

We begin October 30th, 2021!

Okay wait, so what is this exactly?

In this course, you’ll take a deep dive into the uncanny, the Gothic, folklore, and art. You’ll learn what they are, how they overlap, and how their modes and magic feed each other. And you’ll learn how they can ignite your own creative process through writing, visual art, storytelling, and more.

Why are we talking about this now, you might be thinking? On the heels of courses like "Rapunzel’s Circle: Fairy Tales and Burnout," which was all about hope and resilience and practicality, why this hard turn into something that might seem niche at best, gloomy at worst?

Part of it is simply that it’s one of our dream courses, and we just really want to teach it! These are topics we’ve spent years studying and obsessing over. And honestly, we had so much fun (and had such great feedback from you) on our "Gothic Fairy Tales" and "Monstrous Women" courses that we decided to complete the triptych, as it were.

But the bigger, and more important, part is that the Gothic and the uncanny can help us understand the world we live in. Not because it’s full of horrors (though there’s plenty of that), but because, deep down, these modes are about transgression and subverting power. They’re about shadows, how to find beauty in them, and, when necessary, how to dispel them. Even more than that, art and folklore are all about making meaning... even (especially) in troubled times.

Also? We’ve apparently made it our mission in life to extend Halloween goodness into November. One month isn’t enough, and that’s a hill we are prepared to die on.

Choose your option...
(and then click on it to learn more and enroll!)

What Are The Seminars?

"Haunted Art" grew out of a college course syllabus that Brittany wrote, which inspired us to experiment with something brand-new to Carterhaugh. In addition to the usual weekly lectures, for this course, we’re adding a weekly seminar, too! 

This is completely optional. You can take the course without it (just click that option above!), and all the materials will still stand alone and make sense.

But we wanted to try creating a space that would function like a university seminar, for a couple of reasons. 

First, we wanted to include several long-form texts that just wouldn’t fit into the lecture format (or the expected reading workload.) The seminars give us additional course time to talk about these extra texts.

Second, and more importantly, we wanted to give YOU a chance to talk, beyond the chat during the live lectures or the Facebook group. This is your chance to ask us questions directly, share your thoughts and observations out loud with your classmates, and to experience the collaboration and community that we loved in our university seminars. 

If you’ve ever wanted to go more in-depth at Carterhaugh - if you wanted even more scholarship and discussion and a chance to participate on a deeper level - this is for you. Select the seminar option above!

Open your mind to tales and your heart to magic.

The doors are open...

but only until October 29th at Midnight ET!