Zombie MOOC!
- Society, Science, Survival: Lessons from AMC’s The Walking DeadCourse description (This course was last taught in 2014, but linked above is an article describing the outcomes of the MOOC.)
From understanding social identities to modeling the spread of disease, this course will span key science and survival themes using AMC’s The Walking Dead as its basis. You will be taken on an inter-disciplinary academic journey deep into the world of zombies.
Zombie-related Academic Research
Most Recent:
- Corporate zombies: Anatomy and life cycleUsing firm-level data on listed non-financial companies in 14 advanced economies, we document a rise in the share of zombie firms, defined as unprofitable firms with low stock market valuation, from 4% in the late 1980s to 15% in 2017.
- ‘Zombies’, ‘cannibals’, and ‘super humans’: a quantitative and qualitative analysis of UK news media reporting of the cathinone psychostimulants labelled ‘monkey dust’News media helps set the agenda for public thinking and policy responses to drugs use, by framing substances, substance use and people who use drugs (PWUD) within a ‘drug scare’ narrative. Using the example of ‘monkey dust’, an inconsistently identified set of substituted cathinone psychostimulants, we explored how an emerging drug ‘problem’ was reported in the UK news media, and what this tells us about prevailing attitudes towards substance use and PWUD.
- Microbes and Environment: Global Warming Reverting the Frozen ZombiesThe increased global warming is causing the melting of glaciers and polar ice that is not only causing the increase in sea levels, but this melting is also reverting back the pathogens (FROZEN ZOMBIES) which were buried under the snow many centuries ago in the form of corpses and carcasses as a result the same infections which were once diminished from the globe are reversed back and with much more resistance.
- Imaginative Desires and Interactive Fiction: On Wanting to Shoot Fictional ZombiesIn this paper, I argue that our experience of immersive, interactive fictions like videogames gives us cause to reappraise the concept of imaginative desires. Moreover, I describe how i-desires are a useful conceptual tool within videogame development and can shed new light on apparently immoral in-game actions.
- Smartphone zombies! Pedestrians' distracted walking as a function of their fear of missing outSmartphone use while walking (i.e., being a smartphone zombie) has become a prevalent phenomenon in many cities worldwide. Previous research shows that many pedestrians choose to interact with their phones as they walk around in cities, despite being aware that their behavior might be dangerous.
- Zombies, Gender, and Student Active LearningContrary to expectations of previous literature, no statistical differences manifest between men and women in enjoyment and learning when using zombie themes in active learning.
- Equal Rights for Zombies?: Phenomenal Consciousness and Responsible AgencyIntuitively, moral responsibility requires conscious awareness of what one is doing, and why one is doing it, but what kind of awareness is at issue? The author argues that phenomenal consciousness -- the qualitative feel of conscious sensations -- is entirely unnecessary for moral responsibility.
- Zombies and a Decaying American OntologyPlaying with zombies along a spectrum from fright to humor allows Americans to work through not a crisis of meaning, but a crisis of being. The cult of individualism no longer needs a perfect biological body.
From 2017:
- TB exploits zombie cellsThe ability of this microbe to exploit necrotic macrophages as a nutrient-rich haven isolated from host defenses likely contributes to its success in resisting antimycobacterial therapies.
- The Walking Dead? Zombie Firms and Productivity Performance in OECD CountriesThis paper explores the extent to which “zombie” firms – defined as old firms that have persistent problems meeting their interest payments – are stifling labour productivity performance.
- Property Rights and Contract Enforcement in the Post-Zombie ApocalypseThe evidence from the past two centuries [pre-Zombie apocalypse] shows that time and again, no matter who wins the wars, economies based on enforceable property rights, legal entitlements, and enforceable contracts tend to become dominant.
- Zombie soldier beetles: Epizootics in the goldenrod soldier beetle, Chauliognathus pensylvanicus (Coleoptera: Cantharidae) caused by Eryniopsis lampyridarum (Entomophthoromycotina: Entomophthoraceae)Shortly before death, by unknown mechanisms, dying infected beetles tightly clamped their mandibles into flower heads and ca. 15–22 h later (between 2400 and 0700 h) the fungus caused dead beetles to raise their elytra and expand their metathoracic wings.
- "Zombie" Outbreak Caused by the Synthetic Cannabinoid AMB-FUBINACA in New York.On July 12, 2016, a synthetic cannabinoid caused mass intoxication of 33 persons in one New York City neighborhood, in an event described in the popular press as a "zombie" outbreak because of the appearance of the intoxicated persons.
- Defeating Zombie Gadgets by Re-randomizing Code upon DisclosureThese so-called “zombie gadgets” completely undermine defenses that rely on destroying code bytes once they are read. To mitigate these attacks, we present a low-overhead, binary-compatible defense which ensures an attacker is unable to execute gadgets that were identified through code reloading or code inference.
Prior Years:
- On the zombie within"Tracking down the neuronal correlates of consciousness in humans, monkeys and mice should illuminate the central mystery of how neural activity in specific feedback
circuits gives rise to subjective states." (Yes, but try to do that while running from a ravenous horde!) - "How many zombies do you know?" Using indirect survey methods to measure alien attacks and outbreaks of the undeadAccessed through Arxiv! Our own homegrown e-print publisher in the fields of physics, mathematics, non-linear science, computer science, quantitative biology, quantitative finance and statistics. (That's all. Really! Nothing zombie-related at all to see here.)
- Zombies in the WorkplaceStephen Hacker in The Journal for Quality and Participation
"In organizations around the world, zombies have infiltrated all levels of the labor ranks. Carrying their messages of victimhood and pessimism, they infect the whole organization at an exponential rate." - When zombies attack!: Mathematical modelling of an outbreak of zombie infection"We show that only quick, aggressive attacks can stave off the doomsday scenario: the collapse of society as zombies overtake us all."
- Zombie Lending and Depressed Restructuring in Japan"We confirm that zombie-dominated industries exhibit more depressed job creation and destruction, and lower productivity." Though, maybe not the zombies you might think.
Restricted Access (need netid if accessing from off-site) - Haitian Zombie, Myth, and Modern Identity"The myth of the zombie reveals a process that combines the dynamic power of a leader, the community, and the individual or victim. Thomas's analysis emphasizes how zombification challenges the notion that there exists an invulnerable, continuous, self-possessed subjectivity in humans."
- Explaining the Neuroscience of the Zombie EpidemicNeuroscientists Bradley Voytek and Timothy Verstynen...have begun a multi-part examination of the neuroscience of the zombie brain. Each part will focus on one key aspect of what makes a zombie, and develop a brain model that explains such zombie behavior.
Your Zombie Librarian
Christian Miller
Contact:
Research Librarian, Catherwood Library
Lecturer, Human Resources Studies
ILR School
239-A Ives Hall
607-255-5576
Check out my Zombie Survival Guide!
http://guides.library.cornell.edu/zombies
Website
Lecturer, Human Resources Studies
ILR School
239-A Ives Hall
607-255-5576
Check out my Zombie Survival Guide!
http://guides.library.cornell.edu/zombies
Subjects: Human Resources, Labor & Employment
Need Help?
Now, where was that review article on the outcomes achieved by different impromptu weapons?
Where is information on the success of pretending to BE a zombie in order to move about freely among them?
Well, have no fear. Cornell Librarians have set up a special underground bunker to stay safe in order to help you whenever you need it. Also, should all of our librarians succumb to the zombie curse, we even have librarians at other universities that can help you find items in OUR collection! Just use the links below.