Lang Professor Frances Chiu Explores American Culture Through Hollywood’s Vampires
From Gothic literature to contemporary horror films, Frances Chiu, Associate Teaching Professor at Eugene Lang College of Liberal Arts, explores how stories of the supernatural reflect the cultural, historical, and political forces shaping society. Her latest scholarship appears in Routledge's Vampires and the Making of the United States in the Twenty-First Century (2025). In her chapter, "Hollywood: Vampires in Hollywood, 1985–2020," Chiu examines more than three decades of vampire portrayals in American cinema. Building on her extensive research in Gothic literature, history, and popular culture, her work reveals how horror can offer a distinctive lens through which to understand American society.