Dr. Parker doesn't mind talking about her research. 

Our undying cultural obsession with vampires

October 28, 2022 | NPR's It's Been a Minute with Brittany Luse 

"In this episode, we sink our teeth into our enduring cultural obsession with vampires. Host Brittany Luse kicks off the conversation with Kendra R. Parker, who teaches a class at Georgia Southern University about Black vampires in film and literature. They talk about the racial and sexual politics of vampire narratives and why humans continue to find vampire stories compelling." Listen to the podcast here.

​Octavia E. Butler’s Brave New Worlds

May 25, 2022 | SCI Learning Center, Savannah, GA

A major force in American prose during the later twentieth century, from “Crossover” to Fledgling, Butler used science fiction to make profound observations about the human experience.

Funding for this program was provided by Georgia Humanities and the National Endowment for the Humanities as part of the American Rescue Plan Act of 2021. For more information visit www.GeorgiaHumanities.org.

Octavia E. Butler with Kendra R. Parker

Recorded January 26, 2021 | Released July 8, 2021 | Bloomsbury Academic with Rebecca Morofsky

"Octavia E. Butler is widely recognized today as one of the most important figures in contemporary science fiction. In this episode, Kendra R. Parker discusses what attracted her to Butler’s work, before jumping into discussions about Afrofuturism, the environment, representation in literature, and much more. Connecting current social movements to those of Butler’s time, this episode ultimately reflects on the timeless nature of Butler’s work and her uncanny ability to predict the future." Listen to the podcast here.

An Octavia E. Butler Book Discussion: Parable of the Sower

February 11, 2021 | Schlow Library & Penn State Black Graduate Student Association

View the recording of the virtual discussion on the work of science fiction author Octavia E. Butler for Black History Month! This facilitated book talk will examined themes in Parable of the Sower including inclusion/exclusion, Afrofuturism, writing, and homage to the African American literary tradition. This event was hosted by the Penn State Black Graduate Student Association and Schlow Centre Region Library. Click here for the YouTube recording. 
If you're interested in a podcast that was released as a teaser for the virtual discussion, visit the Schlow Library Podcast on I-Heart Radio. 

Harnessing the Shadows: Ghosts, Vampires and Undying Relationships to Our Past
November 3, 2019 | Savannah, GA

In this Moveable Feast Lecture Series, Dr. Parker traced how mythical recollections of an antebellum South, replete with its own tormented history, contribute to the post-emancipation stereotyping of Black people as vampiric predators. Dr. Parker invited us to reconsider how stories of vampires and things undying shape our images of the past, our experiences of the present, and our apparitions of the future.

She Bites Back: Black Women as Predators in Life & Lit
February 28, 2019 | Hope College

Dr. Parker presented some of the literary and historical research that led to her book ​She Bites Back. If you're interested in some of the back story for Dr. Parker's book (and how some of her students' experiences pushed her to finish the book), check out "She Bites Back: A Faculty Feature from Dr. Kendra R. Parker" from February 2019.

Kindred at (Nearly) 40: A Challenge for Our Changing Same
October 8, 2018 | University of Maryland Baltimore County 

"Octavia E. Butler's Kindred reveals to us that the more times change, the more they stay the same. Dana Franklin’s story teaches us that “we’ve been here before,” and we’re certainly in that “here” now. What we read about in Kindred, we see today unfolding before our very eyes. 2019 will be 40 years since the publication of Kindred, so I’m here to speak to you today about what Kindred can teach us and inspire us to do regarding allyship and civil disobedience"

Women as Predators in Life and Lit; Or, How I Spent Grad School Writing About Black Female Vampires
April 10, 2018 | University of West Georgia

In this presentation, Dr. Parker discussed how she spent her last few years of graduate school writing about Black female vampires.