Acknowledgments

2020 proved to be an (in)auspicious year to launch a class on the zombie apocalypse and to start writing this accompanying book. For the COVID-19 pandemic has seemed apocalyptic, as infected humans are—like zombies—contagious, dangerous, breathing heavily, lurking, and reminding us of our mortality and of the sobering fact that neither we nor the world itself can last forever, as evinced by the millions who have died from the coronavirus. I had no idea that such was on our horizon when I first thought of teaching and writing about the zombie apocalypse, that the whole effort would be encased by a pandemic. But it all now seems rather providential and has really made the class, and hopefully this book, more compelling. It certainly is more timely, thanks to the virus.

Thanks to the virus? What a strange phrase to write, but here we are. Since launching into all this, I’ve often contemplated Slavoj Žižek’s observation that “the point is to reflect upon the sad fact that we need a catastrophe to be able to rethink the very basic features of the society in which we live.” The course was first taught to about a hundred students in a lecture hall at Temple University, my intellectual home and alma mater. During that class, all of a sudden the lights went off. It was Friday the Thirteenth in March of 2020, and the university shut down and all classes went online because of a deadly virus, as did thousands of schools around the world. Time to hoard toilet paper, stock up on Spam and tequila, learn Zoom, and hunker down, I guessed—and contemplate catastrophe and fate.

Two months later I was awarded a generous grant and a contract to write this book, and I am so grateful to the good folks at North Broad Press, Temple University Press, and Temple University Libraries for supporting the cause. North Broad Press has the coolest conference room on campus, at the Charles Library; it is such an inspiration to sit and confer with super smart colleagues while surrounded by copies of every book that Temple University Press has ever published. Thanks especially to Annie Johnson, a wonderful editor and sage counsel. Open Access is a new thing to me, but this has been such a refreshing way to write, and Annie’s insights were illuminating all along the way. Gratitude is also extended to Mary Rose Muccie and Alicia Pucci, who ably took over the editorial stewardship when Annie left Temple for another university. I am also indebted to Stephanie Marshall Ward for her outstanding copyediting of the manuscript and insight. It has been a pleasure working with all of them/you. And, at the library, I have long enjoyed working with Fred Rowland, whose expertise and guidance have helped craft this book in many ways and made the class a better experience for my students and for me.

Several external reviewers read large chunks of earlier drafts of the manuscript, and their feedback has been invaluable and rightfully elicits from me a heartfelt and hearty word of thanks. Serious kudos to North Broad Press for having gotten one of the most important zombie scholars in the world to read key chapters: Kyle William Bishop of Southern Utah University. I also received feedback from J. Lorand Matory, of Duke University, one of the leading scholars of Africana religion in the world. Thanks, too, to a third (anonymous) reviewer who had such helpful advice for revisions. I am also grateful to Peter Kupersmith for welcoming me to do some of my research and writing in the Krauskopf Memorial Library at Delaware Valley University, even if at times I was mesmerizingly distracted by Rabbi Krauskopf’s amazing collection of books and the wonderful room in which it is housed.

Above all, I thank my undergraduate students at Temple, especially those in that fateful semester of spring 2020. When the pandemic hit and we all went home on Friday the Thirteenth, their journals morphed like viral variants, their reflections turning to COVID, like “Wow, this is really happening now! This is the apocalypse!” And some were overwhelmed with concern or grief as friends or relatives were ailing or died, and I am so, so sorry for that. My sincerest condolences. Hopefully, this class provided some perspective, like this: That people have always thought that the world was/is about to end, and that contagion is fearsome and fairly frequent. And that we should never give up hope or give up on love, and that we really can find deepened ways to love through tragedy.

I am especially grateful for my students’ feedback on earlier drafts of the chapters that comprise this book and for the sage advice that each chapter really needs a glossary. So thank you, dear students. Apologies for having thrown terms from over a dozen languages at all of you, but it has been quite a journey, and I am happy and appreciative to have had co-pilgrims along the way. This is in large part yours, and I wish that I could list you as coauthors. But it is Open Access, so have at it. You can download, change things up, add images, mpegs, screen grabs, links, and such, comment, and so on and so forth. Though there are others I would like to acknowledge by name here but have unfortunately lost notes of their contributions, among my students I would like to thank particularly Lee Bryant, Adam Kelly, Felix Makalintal, Maya Posecznick, Austin Smith, and Wendy Stanga, who have taught me much about zombies, popular culture, video games, movies, and the meaning of it all. Additional thanks to my former doctoral student Minjung Noh for having lectured in the class on Korea’s rich zombie apocalypse culture. Yeoleobun deogbun-e.

Several friends and colleagues at Temple, erudite scholars and fine people all, read parts of earlier drafts of the manuscript, hence gratias tibi valde to Professors Zain Abdullah, Khalid Blankinship, Mark Leucther, and Vasiliki Limberis. Putting this class and textbook together benefited from the administrative support of Annette McMenamin Bakely and Jemina Quarles; were I English, I would say “Ta, very much.” In terms of understanding zombies, meanwhile, I have been blessed to have befriended, over many years, learned scholars who know a lot about them, especially Rachel Beauvoir-Dominique, Leslie Desmangles, Benjamin Hebblethwaite, Joel Jean-Baptiste, Alissa Jordan, Ira Lowenthal, Randy Matory, Elizabeth McAlister, Karen Richman, James Sweet, and Drexel Woodson. Plenty of other folks in Haiti and the Congo to thank, also, but they have asked not to be named, and I get and respect that.  

Meanwhile, more broadly, I am sorry to have bored to tears people close to me who have heard too much about this project over the last few years, though their feedback and encouragement have bolstered me all along the way: John Clark, Lynne Haney, Minhong Ji, Maria Eva Jukič, Isabella Rey, María Rey, Rico Rey, Thoraya Rey, Sergio Rey, and Susan Wheeler. Thanks, sorry, keep the faith. Nou pa ka fè ayen poukont nou.