- Classic horror films
- Talks
- Locally made short films
October 28th
Our speakers
If you've attended CULTure Babylon’s previous events, you’ll know that we put the CULT into culture, by showing great films and further exploring their themes with the insight of our brilliant speakers.
This year is no exception and we're proud to introduce some truly outstanding speakers once again.
Dr Tabith Stanmore
Dr Tabitha Stanmore is a Postdoctoral Researcher at the University of Exeter and a specialist in medieval and early modern magic.
She is interested in the role magic and the supernatural has played in everyday life, culture and politics.
Her doctoral research explored the use of ‘service’ magic - practical spells sold by professional magicians - in premodern England.
Her first monograph, Love Spells and Lost Treasure: Service magic in England from the later Middle Ages to the early modern period was published by Cambridge University Press in December 2022.
She will also publish Cunning Folk: Life in the Era of Practical Magic with The Bodley Head in May 2024.
Tabitha is currently working on the Seven County Witch Hunt Project, investigating the witches and accusers of the so-called Matthew Hopkins witch trials.
Tabitha has appeared on BBC Radio and TV discussing magic, witchcraft and medieval life, as well as writing for print including
The Spellbinding History of Cheese and Witchcraft .
Gary Parsons
Gary Parsons is a film-maker who has made 12 short films, some of which deal with esoteric subject matter.
His last film Conjuration was premièred at The British Museum as part of the Folk Horror Revival day.
An MA film graduate from Goldsmiths college London, he also lectures on film.
His talks including British Witchcraft Documentaries of the 1970s and Aleister Crowley and the Cinema of Magick regularly sell out to audiences in the UK and Europe.
Gary is also author of a book on Brian Eno, Eno in the 70s: Decades
www.thelemafilms.com
https://vimeo.com/user39540574
Dr Justin Woodman
Justin Woodman is a Senior Lecturer in Social Anthropology at Goldsmiths College (University of London) who has specialised in the study of the cultural impact of H.P. Lovecraft and the Cthulhu mythos upon contemporary esotericism, paranormal beliefs, and conspiracy culture.
His doctoral research focused on the concept of the “demonic” in the context of contemporary Chaos Magick and forms of Left-Hand Path esotericism, and his current research focuses on the ways in which contemporary occultural ideas have become increasingly embedded in the fabric of everyday life, popular culture, and the current political landscape.
He has published academic articles on Lovecraftian occultures in Strange Attractor, the Journal for the Academic Study of Magic, Religion, The Occult, and The Paranormal (published by Routledge in 2016), and most recently in Fictional Practice: magic, narration and the power of the imagination (published by Brill in 2021); he has also supplied entries on contemporary Lovecraftian occultism for Brill’s forthcoming Dictionary of Contemporary Esotericism.
Justin has also lectured publicly on these topics at various Fortean and esoteric events, including collaborations with practitioners such as Phil Hine; he is also regularly involved as a panellist and speaker at the famed Lovecraftian convention, NecronomiCon, which takes place in Providence, Rhode Island (the birthplace and home of H.P. Lovecraft) biennially.
He maintains Whispers from the Ghooric Zone: an occasional blog exploring the world of Lovecraftian popular culture, and showcasing samples of his Lovecraftian/folk horror microfiction, which can be found at ghooriczone.blogspot.co.uk