Profs and Pints Online presents: “Werewolf Women,” with Jazmina Cininas, visual artist, lecturer at the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology, and creator of The Girlie Werewolf Hall of Fame: Historical and Contemporary Figurations of the Female Lycanthrope.

[This talk will remain available in recorded form at the link given here for tickets and access.]

Get ready for a Halloween treat so fun it just might leave your tail wagging: A visually stunning look at the female werewolf throughout history.

Taking us on this moonlit journey through time will be Australian visual artist Jazmina Cininas, who has spent nearly 30 years studying lupine manifestations of women throughout history as inspiration for her original portraits. She has spoken about female werewolves at conferences in Australia, the UK, Hungary, Estonia, and the United States, and promises to deliver her Profs and Pints Online audience a visual feast drawing upon sources such as early modern werewolf trials, folklore, gothic literature, medical case studies, cinema, and television.

While the female werewolf may have enjoyed less celebrity than her male counterparts, she is far from an isolated phenomenon. Nor is she as rare as her relatively modest profile suggests, even if she has largely been relegated to the shadows. Cininas will introduce you to the historical figures behind her portraits and unpack some of the social and mythological factors that have contributed to the shifting figurations of the female lycanthrope throughout the centuries.

Her talk will reveal the female lycanthrope's presence at all stages of the werewolf’s paranormal and supernatural evolution. In turning the spotlight on feminine manifestations of the werewolf, she’ll offer a unique perspective on the role played by shifting cultural perceptions of women in shaping the mythology of the werewolf.

You’ll gain a complex understanding of how the female werewolf stood as the embodiment of the “Other” at each turn. Alongside other gender, it could be other religion, other morality, other mental state, other body type, other nationality, or other species. By learning about this process of “othering,” we’ll gain a fresh understanding of ourselves. (Tickets: $12)

Image: “Christina sleeps on both sides of Grandma’s bed,” a 2010 reduction linocut by Jazmina Cininas. (Courtesy the artist and Australian Galleries.)

Profs & Pints Online: Werewolf Women