PHANTOMETRICS Season Ticket

PHANTOMETRICS is a new four-part lecture series presented by Dr. Laura Bui at Dead Ink, which explores the relationship between scientific crime research and the study of the paranormal - examining their similar themes and histories, and aiming to answer the question; how do we know what we know? 

There are four 60-minute sessions taking place on the 16th, 23rd and 30th October, and the 6th November. Each includes a brief discussion / Q&A following the lecture, and refreshments are provided. On this page you can buy a season ticket for all four lectures priced at £25 - to buy tickets for individual events, head to the events page.

PHANTOMETRICS: SESSION ONE
Making The Invisible Visible 
16 . 10 . 25 / 6pm

Trying to access the truth of reality, making the invisible visible, is both a difficult process and a huge responsibility. How does pop culture add complexity to the challenge of creating knowledge around the topics of crime and the paranormal? Covering the true crime genre, serial killers, social science, causality, ‘unsolved mysteries' and trends in entertainment.

PHANTOMETRICS: SESSION TWO
The Influencer in the Science of Crime & Spirits
23 . 10 . 25 / 6pm

Cesare Lombroso - a controversial figure - is considered ’the Father of Criminology’, but is also well known for his studies of mediumship and haunted houses, with these studies affected by their subjects depiction in popular culture of the time. His flawed but influential techniques have been seen as foundational for future studies, but by others he is considered racist, sexist and an inspiration for eugenics and fascist ideologies. Are criminals born or created?

PHANTOMETRICS: SESSION THREE
A Deviant Studying Deviance
30 . 10 . 25 / 6pm

How do the times we live in affect the way knowledge is produced - both in terms of popular culture and the sociohistorical contours of the period? This lecture looks at Donald West, partly responsible for the decriminalisation of homosexuality in England and Wales, who spent his life balancing research into crime and the paranormal.

PHANTOMETRICS: SESSION FOUR
What We Have Yet To Discover
6 . 11 . 25 / 6pm

The final lecture looks at contemporary crime research inspired by Lombroso’s gothic ‘born criminal’ idea to highlight the challenges of producing knowledge around popular cultural ideas on murder - the psychopath, and nature-vs-nurture. Touching on Noam Chomsky, extra-sensory perception, and the responsibilities of scholarly research.

Dr. Laura Bui is a Senior Lecturer in Criminology, a Chartered Psychologist and an author. She works on topics related to the psychology of violence, metascience, and cross-cultural studies, but her main research interests are scientific knowledge production on crime and comparisons between supposed opposites. She is interested in examining the relationships between innate criminality, morality and social obligations. Laura has a storied academic career and has co-authored the book Crime in Japan: A Psychological Perspective (2019, in the series Palgrave Advances in Criminology and Criminal Justice in Asia) and contributed to Test Signal, Dead Ink’s ground-breaking anthology of the best contemporary northern writing.