Campus Directory
Amylou Ahava
| Title: | Lecturer |
| Office: | Warde Academic Center |
| Phone: | 773-298-3458 |
| Email: | ahava@sxu.edu |
| Department: | Language and Literature |
Biography
Amylou Ahava, Ph.D., is a scholar of horror media, disability studies, and intersectional cultural analysis. Her work introduces the concept of forced disabling to examine how colonial, medical, patriarchal, and racial systems produce bodily, psychological, and social harm across film and literature. Blending disability theory, Indigenous studies, feminist theory, and critical race scholarship, her research explores how horror reveals structures of power while also staging resistance and survivance. Ahava serves as a lecturer in the Language and Literature Department, where she is developing an interdisciplinary disability studies minor and courses examining disability, horror, race, gender, and representation in film and literature. She brings more than a decade of experience teaching first-year writing and seven years of ESL/EFL teaching experience to her work at SXU.
In addition, Ahava is the author of "Wheelchairs in Horror" (Indiana University Press, forthcoming 2028) and the founder, owner, and editor-in-chief of Professorhorror, an independent publication that brings scholarly approaches to horror criticism through film reviews, analytical essays, and festival coverage. She is also developing "Making Our Monsters: Disability in Horror," a documentary series based on her doctoral research that is currently in pre-production.
Education
Ph.D. in English Literature and Film
Texas Tech University
Areas of Specialization
- Horror Film and Literature
- Disability Studies
- Mad Studies
- Indigenous and Native American Studies
- Race and Gender in Media
- Film Studies
- American Gothic
- Gender Studies
Certification/Licensure
- Graduate Certificate in Indigenous and Native American Studies
- TESOL Certificate
Professional Appointments, Affiliations and Service
- Editor-in-Chief and Owner, Professor Horror
- Faculty Advisor, SXU Film Society
- Member, Chicago Indie Critics
- Member, Society for Cinema and Media Studies (SCMS) — International professional organization supporting scholarship and teaching in film, television, and media studies
Research Interests
- Forced disabling in horror media
- Disability representation in film and literature
- Wheelchair imagery and mobility symbolism in cinema
- Intergenerational trauma and colonial horror
- Race, haunting, and racial memory in American Gothic
- Gendered abjection and reproductive horror
- Masculinity and aging in horror franchises
- Adaptation from page to screen
Courses Taught
- ENGL 101: Critical Thinking and Writing
- ENGL 102: Research Writing
- ENGL 160: Disability in Film and Literature
- ENGL 160: Horror Cinema
- ENGL 260: Underrepresented Voices in Horror
- ENGL 232: Intro to Women Studies
- ENGL 395: Senior Seminar (Race and Disability)
Awards and Professional Recognition
Sundance Film Festival Press Inclusion Initiative, 2025 — Selected for Sundance's initiative supporting greater inclusion and representation within entertainment journalism and film criticism
Film Festival Scholarship and Media Engagement
Ahava has been invited and credentialed to attend major international and independent film festivals, where her coverage brings scholarly approaches to contemporary cinema and connects emerging films with broader conversations in horror studies, disability, race, gender, and representation. Festival participation and coverage includes:
- Sundance Film Festival
- SXSW Film and TV Festival
- Tribeca Festival
- Fantasia International Film Festival
- Panic Fest
- Chicago International Film Festival (CIFF)
- Additional independent, genre, and international film festivals
Presentations/Publications/Productions
Productions and Media Projects
Making Our Monsters: Disability in Horror
Creator, Writer, and Researcher. Documentary series adapting Ahava's doctoral research
on forced disabling in horror cinema for a broader audience. The project examines
disability alongside race, gender, colonialism, sexuality, and other systems of power
within the horror genre. As of 2026, the docuseries is in pre-production.
Sizzle Reel: Watch on Vimeo
Books
"Wheelchairs in Horror." Indiana University Press, forthcoming 2028.
Peer-Reviewed Articles and Book Chapters
"A Momentary Loss of Coordination: Forced Disabling, Patriarchy, and Haunting in The Shining." In Fifty Years of The Shining: New Essays, edited by Jeffrey Weinstock and Tony Magistrale. Forthcoming 2027.
"Let's Hear It for the Boys!: Stunted Masculinity in Ageing Heroes of Horror Franchises." Journal of Adaptation in Film and Performance, special issue. Forthcoming 2026.
"Say It Again: Haunting, Racial Memory, and the Specter of Forced Disabling in Nia DaCosta's Candyman." American Gothic Studies, special issue. Forthcoming 2026.
"Mad Woman in the Bramford: Adapting Dis/Ability from Page to Screen in Rosemary's Baby." In Adapting Horror in Popular Culture, edited by Joseph J. and John Darowski. McFarland & Company, forthcoming 2026.
"Wombs of Discontent: Unveiling Gender Abjection Through Dolls in Lucky McKee's May." In Supernatural Mothers and Wombs of Discontent: Exploring Horror's Deviant Reproductions, edited by Lorna Piatti-Farnell. Lexington Books, forthcoming September 2026.
"Conjoined Twins Disjoined: Making a Case for Basket Case." In Doppelgänger Gothic, edited by Simon Bacon. 2026.
"The Great Horned Serpent (c. 1450–present) – Iroquois Myth." In The Deep: A Companion, edited by Simon Bacon. Peter Lang Publishing, 2023.
"Patrick Hockstetter: Natural Madness in Stephen King's It." In Encountering Pennywise: Critical Perspectives on Stephen King's It, edited by Whitney May. University Press of Mississippi, 2022.
Book Reviews
Review of Catholic Horror on Television: Haunting Faith, by Ralph Beliveau, Laura Bolf-Beliveau, Ruth DeFoster, and Erika Engstrom. Revenant Journal, forthcoming 2026.
Review of Sinful Maternal: Motherhood in Possession Films, by Laura Rocha. Journal of Film and Video, vol. 78, no. 2, Summer 2026, pp. 57-59.
Review of Final Girls, Feminism, and Popular Culture, edited by Katarzyna Paszkiewicz and Stacy Rusnak. Science Fiction Film and Television, vol. 17, no. 1, 2024, pp. 133–136.
Conference Presentations
"Silencing the Rhymes: Unveiling the Disempowerment of Indigenous Women in Rhymes for Young Ghouls." Celebrating Indigenous Resistance Conference, April 2025.
"Forced Disabling in The Only Good Indians." Association for the Study of American Indian Literatures Conference, April 2024.
"Let's Hear It for the Boys: Stunted Masculinity in Ageing Horror Heroes." Fear 2000 Conference, July 3, 2022.
"Wheelchairs and Horror Films: Breaking Disability Tropes in The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (1974)." International Association for the Fantastic in the Arts Conference, 2020.