Debbie Felton

Professor Debbie Felton (Ph.D., University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill) is a faculty member at the University of Massachusetts Amherst Department of Classics since 1999, with research focusing on

• Folklore in classical literature
• Supernatural and monstrous narratives
• Classical tradition & reception

. She has edited major works including The Oxford Handbook of Monsters in Classical Myth and A Cultural History of Monsters in Antiquity. Her public engagement includes media appearances on

• Coast to Coast AM
• Classical Wisdom
• The Monster Professor

and founding The Ancient Monsters Blog with UMass Public Engagement Project funding.

Current research trends include

• Monsters as cultural anxiety indicators
• Ancient undead concepts
• Serial killer archetypes in mythology
• Lexical analysis of horror terms

. She has received multiple teaching awards including the CAMWS Award for Excellence in College Teaching and Provost’s Exceptional Merit Award, while teaching courses like Classics 360: Fairy Tales in the Ancient World and Greek 474: Ancient Greek Ghost Stories.