PhD 2020
Dissertation Title: “Thinking Through Fear in Film and Haunts”
Eliot Bessette received his Ph.D. in 2020. His dissertation, “Thinking Through Fear in Film and Haunts,” advances a new form of philosophically productive close readings of the emotion of fear, as elicited by horror cinema and immersive theatrical haunted house attractions, or “haunts.” His research has appeared or is forthcoming in JCMS: Journal of Cinema and Media Studies, New Review of Film and Television Studies, and ReFocus: The Films of William Castle (Edinburgh University Press). He has also written reviews and analyses of haunts for a popular audience at Haunting.net. He received an MA in Cinema and Media Studies from UCLA and an AB in Cinema and Media Studies and English Language and Literature from the University of Chicago.
