Debadrita Saha is a PhD candidate in English Literature at Ashoka University, India, specialising in Gothic literature, film criticism, South Asian studies, and gender studies. Her work bridges Gothic studies with postcolonial and feminist literary criticism, offering fresh perspectives on Gothic traditions in Asian literature, particularly Bengali literary narratives. Debadrita has contributed significantly to Gothic scholarship through her analysis of female Gothic in the Sinister House of Secret Love series and Gothic elements in nineteenth-century Orientalist fiction. Her conference presentations include “Mapping the reimagination of the ‘travelling Heroine’ of Female Gothic” at the Ann Radcliffe Academic Conference and “The Gothic Castle as a Restraining Space for Unbridled Female Sexuality” at MAPACA, demonstrating her expertise in Gothic literary criticism. Currently serving on the Editorial Board of The Journal of the Motherhood Initiative (Demeter Press), Debadrita was formerly an Assistant Professor of English at Brainware University. Debadrita’s essays have been published in peer-reviewed journals like Rejoinder (Rutgers University), Genre en séries (OpenEditions), and The Journal of Intercultural Studies (Taylor & Francis). Her essay on consent and coercion in medieval Bengali literature was published in an edited volume titled Reconsidering Consent and Coercion in Medieval Literature by Brepols in June 2025.
MonsterTalk has been promoting science and critical thinking since 2009. We use monsters as a springboard to talk about a variety of monster topics. We’re skeptical of the existence of monsters, but we want to understand the mysterious experiences people report.
Dr Chawarote Valyamedhi is a full-time Assistant Professor at National Chengchi University, Taiwan. He holds PhD in Thai Dance, MA in Sanskrit, BFA in Music from Chulalongkorn University, Certificate in Japanese Culture and Language from Ryukoku University and Senshu University, Japan, and Certificate in Chinese Language and Culture from National Taiwan University. His research interests include connection between performing arts and literature, performing arts and beliefs, world performing arts, cultural history and intellectual history of dance. From July 2018 Chawarote is a visiting fellow at Taipei National University of the Arts. He has experience as lecturer at Thammasat University, Assumption University of Thailand, and as an adjunct faculty at Chulalongkorn University, Webster University Thailand, and Taipei National University of the Arts. He has served as a full-time faculty at National Chengchi University since 2021.
The New York Times bestselling author, Chloe Gong, is one of the most exciting voices in Fantasy novels and she takes inspiration from Shakespeare. Her ‘Secret Shanghai’ series was a YA Fantasy retelling of Romeo and Juliet and she has just adapted Antony & Cleopatra for her Adult Fantasy trilogy, ‘Flesh and False Gods’. In Gong’s hands, Shakespeare’s women characters have become forces to reckon with.