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How are our personal and communal identities shaped by the stories we tell ourselves and the traumas we experience? Today's guest, Dr. Cristina Santos, shares how stories like Twilight, the Hunger Games, and Divergent, repackage old ideas of what it means to be a woman and how these fairytale archetypes translate into our social psyche. She will also share her latest project, which investigates the lived experiences of children of survivors of the forced disappearances in Argentina between 1976-1983 and the psychological impact trauma has on both individuals and society as a whole.\nDr. Santos\u2019 research\xa0investigates monstrous depictions of women as aberrations of feminine nature\xa0in\xa0literature, art,\xa0and film. She has written about the folklore surrounding the\xa0notorious\xa0Bloody Countess Elizabeth Bathory,\xa0who reputedly murdered hundreds of young girls in late 16th and early 17th century Hungary,\xa0and the\xa0Latin American legend of La Llorona,\xa0a woman who drowns her children.\xa0\xa0\nHer 2016 book\xa0Unbecoming Female Monsters: Witches, Vampires and Virgins\xa0explores how\xa0female monsters from literature, art, film, television, and popular culture\xa0embody social and cultural fears of female sexuality\xa0and reproductive powers. She has also co-edited volumes\xa0on cultural ideas of virginity,\xa0monsters and monstrosity in literature, and the Twilight saga.\xa0\xa0\nDr. Santos teaches in the Hispanic and Latin American\xa0Studies\xa0program in the Department of Modern Languages, Literatures and Cultures. She is also a faculty member with the Interdisciplinary Humanities PhD program, where she teaches and supervises PhD students.\xa0She also teaches courses in the Faculty of Social Science.\n\xa0\nLinks\nDr. Cristina Santos faculty bio\nUnbecoming Female Monsters: Witches, Vampires and Virgins\xa0(Lexington Books, 2016)\nVirgin Envy: The Cultural (In)significance of the Hymen\xa0(co-edited with Jonathan A. Allan and Adriana Spahr; University of Regina Press, 2016)\nProgressive Connexions\nDepartment of Modern Languages, Literatures and Cultures\nHispanic and Latin America Studies\nInterdisciplinary Humanities PhD program\n\xa0\nCredits\nThank you for listening to Foreword.\xa0\nFind our footnotes, links\xa0to\xa0more information,\xa0transcripts,\xa0and past episodes on our website\xa0brocku.ca/humanities.\xa0\nWe love to hear from our listeners! Join us on\xa0Twitter,\xa0Facebook, and\xa0Instagram\xa0@brockhumanities.\xa0\nPlease subscribe and rate us on your favourite podcasting app\xa0so you don\u2019t miss an episode.\xa0\nForeword\xa0is hosted and produced by Alison Innes for the Faculty of Humanities at Brock University.\xa0\nSeries two sound design and editing is by Nicole Arnt. Theme music is by\xa0Khalid Imam.\xa0\nSpecial thanks to Brock University\u2019s\xa0MakerSpace\xa0and Brock University Marketing and Communications for\xa0studio and web support.\xa0\nThis podcast is financially supported by the Faculty of Humanities at Brock University.