John A Dowell

John A Dowell’s work and thought have appeared in Critical Insights: The American Thriller, the Encyclopedia of American Popular Beliefs and Superstition, PostModern Culture, the Journal of Popular Film and Television, Grue magazine, Popular Music & Society, at Salon.com, on Detroit's WXYZ-TV, and on his mom’s refrigerator door. His latest book is titled Horrific Humor and the Moment of Droll Grimness in Cinema: Sidesplitting sLaughter—dealing with "SLOFF-ter," the moment when humor and horror are exactly the same thing.

With backgrounds in anthropology, sociology, and folk studies—as well as American popular culture studies—he is into his third decade chairing the Midwest Popular Culture Association/American Culture Association panels for both the humor and the horror/science fiction/fantasy areas. He is also an executive editor for the Journal of Popular Culture.

John has retired from his position as Technology Literacy Specialist for the Collaborative Learning Center at Michigan State University, but still enjoys keeping students’ brainpans nice and wet.