Takeaways
Ghosts can serve as cultural metaphors for unresolved issues, and ghost stories often demand justice for past traumas.
Ghost stories can help us better understand societal values and fears.
Studying the supernatural can provide opportunities to explore individual and collective meaning-making, which can create empathy and expand intercultural understandings.
About Patel
Patel is an assistant professor of early Christianity in the Department of Religion and Culture at Virginia Tech. Her research explores the ways in which so-called magic was used to advance a number of theological ends in early Christian texts, and she teaches courses in New Testament, Christian apocryphal texts, orthodoxy and heresy, and demonology and exorcism.
Learn more
Analyzing cinema’s apocalyptic appeal
About the podcast
“Curious Conversations” is a series of free-flowing conversations with Virginia Tech researchers that take place at the intersection of world-class research and everyday life. Produced and hosted by Travis Williams, assistant director of marketing and communications for the Office of Research and Innovation, university researchers share their expertise and motivations as well as the practical applications of their work in a format that more closely resembles chats at a cookout than classroom lectures. New episodes are shared each Tuesday.