The World Cup is in full swing! Are you watching?

There are a number of ways to dive deeper into the World Cup – whether you want to explore the impact of the Cup on individual players or the impact that hosting has on countries, you can find a lot of information through our databases. Highlighted below are a few articles we found interesting. Be sure to be logged in for off-campus access or connected to campus WiFi to access these items.

Critical Perspectives on the 2023 FIFA Women’s World Cup: Events, Issues, and Controversies (eBook), edited by Adam Beissel, Julie E. Brice, Verity Postlethwaite, and Andrew Grainger

World Cup Challenges Are Not New: Increasing Complexity and the Evolution of Preparation Across 48 Years of FIFA World Cups by Alan McCall, Guilherme Passos‑Ramos, Gary Lewin, Zoran Bahtijarević, Oscar Luis Celada, Nicklas Dietrich, Les Gelis, Ricard Pruna, Gregory Dupont

Understanding resident support towards the 2030 FIFA World Cup: a co-hosting country’s perspective by Tiago Ribeiro & Victor Manoel Cunha de Almeida

Protecting Mental Health and Wellbeing at the Men’s Football World Cup by Adam Gledhill, Vincent Gouttebarge, Kensa K. Gunter, Kristoffer Henriksen, Andreas Ivarsson, Emma Kavanagh, Carsten Hvid Larsen, Margo Mountjoy

Reach out to us at the Information and Research Help Desk for help finding more information!

Two horror movies were released in close succession this summer and both have been sparking conversation – Obsession and Backrooms.

Obsession, directed by Curry Barker and starring Inde Navarrette, explores what happens when a man who is infatuated with his friend wishes that she would love him more than anyone in the world – and has that wish granted. Even if you haven’t seen the film, you can imagine  how horribly awry things go from there. The film explores the way that gender dynamics, power, and control of romantic partners intersect.

Read more about the portrayal and exploration of gender in the horror genre with these articles (be sure to be logged in for off-campus access or connected to UAA WiFi!):

• ‘“Do you feel held?”: Gender, Community, and Affective Design in Midsommar’ by Cary Elza
• Gender and Mental Health in Possession Film: A European and North American Portrait by Maria Gil Poisa
• The Horrors Persist, But so Do We: A Feminist Rhetorical Critique of Patriarchal Hauntings in Contemporary Horror Cinema by Crystal R. Orellano

Backrooms, directed by Kane Parsons and starring Chiwetel Ejiofo, follows a man living in a furniture store who discovers a portal into a seemingly endless liminal space. The film was based on a web series created by Parsons which was based on “the Backrooms” creepypasta. (Creepypasta is a term used to describe user-generated horror stories that are shared through online platforms, like chatrooms, videos, and forums.) Read more with these articles and books:

• Analog Horror and the Internet: The Mandela Catalogue and the Uncanny Reality of Mediation by Emma Eleanor Jones Culver
• The Creepypasta collection : modern urban legends you can’t unread edited by MrCreepyPasta
• The Emotion of Dread in Cinematic Horror by Matthias De Bondt

Both films are part of a new movement in horror that is shifting the way that horror is evoked and expressed (and both directors are in their 20s!). You can explore more with this ebook, Post-Horror: Art, Genre and Cultural Elevation by David Church.

If you’re interested in learning more about the horror genre or any other topic, get in touch with us at the Information and Research Help Desk – we’re always happy to help!