Evil

Welcome to the Evil Hub

The Evil Hub explores the possibility of  making sense of the ‘darker’ aspects of human existence. Almost on a daily basis we encounter spiteful and malicious acts done on an individual or communal basis, witness unbearable moments of tragedy and go through all sorts of experiences of pain, suffering and loss. In struggling to make sense of the things we do, the things which happen to us, and the things we see around us, we develop all sorts of concepts, ideas and language, create all kinds of images and visual representations, perform wide varieties of rituals and practices, as we continually strive to understand what, if anything, we can say and do about these things.

The research and publishing activities of the Evil Hub, along with the meetings and conferences of the individual projects within the Hub are committed to the idea that these darker aspects are inseparably and intimately tied to the wider problems of what it is to be human. They are not separate or separable questions. Being human is not easy; being human is a struggle. And in the course of being human we somehow give birth to evil, suffering, pain, hurt, tragedy, violence, genocide, slaughter and death. Not only do we give birth to it, but the sheer multitude and variety of ways in which we give birth to it are bewildering and astounding. To grapple with these problems is therefore to grapple with our very humanity.

All the projects within the Evil Hub take their starting point from the conviction that what we are struggling to understand is a multi-layered, multi-level set of problems – and consequently only an inter-, multi- and trans-disciplinary set of methodologies and approaches are able to tackle the complex issues they generate. The projects bring together people working within all the academic disciplines, from the caring and vocational professions, from business contexts and from ngo and activist contexts. All these insights and perspectives are vital if we are to wrestle and hope to begin to understand the meanings of our lives.

Hub Leaders

Stephen Morris is an independent scholar in New York City, grew up in Seattle and moved east after high school. He has degrees from Yale, and St Vladimir’s Theological Academy, as well as Hunter (in NYC). Folks said it was proof of Original Sin that he could grow up in Seattle and prefer Manhattan!  In addition to research and writing on late antiquity/patristics and Byzantine theology and liturgy, he teaches teens with autism and writes historical fiction. He has served as the Eastern Orthodox chaplain of Columbia University (hence, he is the “Rev. Evil” of ID.Net).
Stephen can be contacted via email by clicking here

Sorcha Ni Fhlainn Sorcha Ni Fhlainn received her PhD in English at Trinity College Dublin, specialising in Postmodernism and Horror Subjectivity in Vampire Narratives in Fiction, Culture, and Film 1974-2008.   She is a regular contributor to the Irish Journal of Gothic and Horror Studies, has edited two eBooks on Monsters, and Human Wickedness, and a recent hard copy, Our Monstrous (S)kin: Blurring the Boundaries Between Monsters and Humanity for Inter-Disciplinary Press in Oxford. She has also recently completed an essay collection on the ‘Back to The Future Trilogy’ for McFarland, North Carolina. Sorcha is also a lecturer at the Centre for Talented Youth Ireland, specialising in Gothic Studies, based in Dublin City University and associated with Johns Hopkins University in the United States. At present, she is teaching American Literature and cinema in the School of English, Trinity College, Dublin. She is particularly interested in The Gothic, (literary, cinematic and music); Postmodernism; Vampires and Serial Killers; The Horror Genre; Whistleblowers (and their narratives); Celebrity; and American History/ Presidents.
Sorcha can be contacted via email by clicking here

Rob Fisher was known as the source of all evil by his students at Westminster College in Oxford, being honoured with the title ‘Dr Evil’. Rob received his D.Phil from Oxford University and has spent 25 years writing, researching and reflecting on the problems of evils, the nature of suffering and the question of how to live with their devastating consequences and effects in our lives. He is passionately commited to the view that only interdisciplinary approaches offer any possibility of wrestling with the multi-layered phenomenon that is evil  and how we can begin to make sense of what it means to be human in the face of challenges it poses. Rob is also an ardent listener to prog rock  and a huge fan of science fiction.
Rob can be contacted via email by clicking here.