Welcome to The Bruja Professor…
A witchy take on literature, the occult & pop culture!
This is the corner of my website where I share articles, insights, and other resources to help fellow story lovers explore the world of literature and popular culture through an intersectional lens. I’ll be writing about the genres that most nourish me as a writer and bruja while hosting like-minded magical nerdy folk to share their expertise on the genres and lifestyles we love.
So if you like spooky stuff, bodice rippers, witchy business, and occult detectives, look no further than The Bruja Professor for lively conversations about the stories that make our lives more magical.
Guiding Philosophy
Here we believe that our shared love of stories, fandoms, and genres can be a numinous experience. This inclusive space celebrates the fundamental magic of stories—what we write, what we read, what we watch, what we talk about—and how they shape us as magical beings.
And yes, to shamelessly quote the film Practical Magic, there’s a little witch in all of us. Stories help us tap into that numinous energy. As any book lover can tell you, there’s something transformative, enchanting even, about a story’s ability to heal, revive, empower, terrify, and inspire.
My witchy practice is also all about social justice, so you’ll see me and fellow contributors breaking down what I call the ordinary gothic side of the genres we love, you know, the casual racism, sexism, homophobia, ableism, xenophobia, etc. that we can normalize when we don’t explicitly and directly address those issues.
Sometimes, we are so used to seeing those terrible -isms in the media that we consume that we read right past them…terrifying! Hence, it’s ordinary gothic, the thing that is all the more shocking for how we normalize it. We’re invested in dragging these things into the light so they can’t feed on the shadows—it’s one way of breaking the cycles of systemic oppression. Just another day in the life of a bruja.
Also, you might be wondering who this ‘we’ is in The Bruja Professor. That’s me and my familiar, Smoke. He’s my editor. Nothing gets posted on this website unless it’s familiar approved.
The Magic of Dynamic Discussion
The Bruja Professor is all about fun and engaging explorations and yes, problematization, of the genres we love. It should be a joy to learn and discover new ways of looking at the world. And we should be able to happily unpack and dismantle systemic oppression by becoming more self-aware and informed consumers and creators.
That’s why this space is devoted to dynamic, complex discussions about the stories that shape us, in good ways, in bad ways, in complex ways, with the fundamental knowledge that there’s no such thing as a perfect story, only stories that deeply affect us. This blog embraces the magical intersection between social justice, intellectual curiosity, and the love of storytelling in all forms.
So, to recap, here’s everything you need to know about The Bruja Professor:
What it is…
A magical virtual salon where we can joyfully explore the complicated and wonderful world of storytelling, from the delightful to the dreadful. Here the personal is political (trite but true), storytelling is political AND personal, as is our relationship to the stories we consume. This space celebrates inclusive, intersectional explorations of literature, the occult, and popular culture.
This is also a safe space for those of us with marginalized identities. Anyone violating that will be hexed.
What it isn’t…
This isn’t a place to roast internet trolls (however much they deserve it) or blithely and uncritically wax poetic about stories and genres that, to put it mildly, GOTZ PROBLEMS. Nor is it a place to share academic treaties (sorry, there’s other venues for that!) or snooze-worthy diatribes on [fill in the blank]. Don’t get me wrong—we want people to gush about their passions in an informed and thoughtful way, just don’t be so formal about it!
Lastly, I feel like I need to say this since we will be discussing witchy and occult stuff from time to time, but this is not a space where we will accidentally post ancient Latin spells (lifted from the internet, naturally) which could accidentally summon a demon or resurrect an ancient spirit bent on world domination. Let’s leave that stuff for the B horror movies and campy occult detective shows. Now those, we’ll talk about.
As for those ancient spells, you might go looking for on the internet…just don’t. It never ends well.
The Bruja Professor, a witchy take on literature, the occult & pop culture, is the scholarly sister to Enchantment Learning & Living, an inspirational blog celebrating life’s simple pleasures, everyday mysticism, and delectable recipes that are guaranteed to stir the kitchen witch in you.
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