On Friday 21st May, Senior School students were honoured to receive a ‘virtual visit’ at their Gothic Enrichment lesson from Dr Kasia Ancuta, Cultural Studies Lecturer at Chulalongkorn University.
Dr Ancuta provided students with an introduction to gothic conventions, motives and themes, and then went on to explain cultural comparisons between Asian and Western Gothic Culture and how the supernatural is seen in an Asian context. Dr Ancuta also discussed the works of some of the foremost Thai writers connected to the genre including S.P. Somtow and Chart Korbjitti.
Gothic Literature is just one of many diverse Enrichment courses students across Wellington engage in. It is led by Peter J Church BA (Oxon), MLitt, who himself is also completing a Doctorate thesis in Victorian Gothic Literature.
Students embrace the opportunity to access a number of unique and diverse learning opportunities through Enrichment courses in Senior School. Other courses range from robotics to film making and public speaking, with STEM subjects also featuring heavily in the portfolio of choices. Moreover, Senior School students are encouraged and supported in pursuing their own individual interests as far as possible.
Katarzyna Ancuta is a lecturer at the Faculty of Arts, Chulalongkorn University in Bangkok, Thailand. Her research interests oscillate around the interdisciplinary contexts of contemporary Gothic/Horror, currently with a strong Asian focus. Her recent publications include contributions to Neoliberal Gothic (2017), The Routledge Handbook to the Ghost Story (2017), B-Movie Gothic (2018), Twenty-first-century Gothic (2019) and Gothic and the Arts (2019).
