Join professor Carol Margaret Davison for a discussion of the historical events that inspired her first novel — but not her first book — Bodysnatcher, on Thursday, Sept. 28, at 4 p.m. in Leddy Library’s Collaboratory.

“I am extremely excited to launch Bodysnatcher in North America at my academic home, the University of Windsor,” says Dr. Davison. “I am especially thrilled to do so in the Leddy Library whose fabulous librarians (who never get enough credit, in my opinion) have supported my research for over two decades.

“I hope people will join me to discuss the historical materials that inspired my debut novel: the Burke and Hare murders, the treacherous 19th-century traffic in corpses for anatomical dissection, the 1820 Radical Rising in Scotland, and the mysterious Arthur’s Seat coffined dolls.”

Davison teaches in the women’s and gender studies program within the Interdisciplinary and Critical Studies Department. She is a specialist in Gothic and Victorian literature, African American literature, women’s writing, thanatology studies, and cultural teratology. She is the series editor for Anthem Studies in Gothic Literature, and the editor of The Gothic & Death, winner of the 2019 Allan Lloyd Smith Prize for best edited collection devoted to Gothic Criticism, for which three of her recent publications made the shortlist of four books.

The book launch includes a short reading, a brief author question-and-answer session moderated by Martin Deck, and a book signing.

As intimate partner violence is central to this novel and has recently been declared an epidemic in Windsor and Essex County, donations for Hiatus House will be accepted at the door.

—Susan McKee