My name is Martine Mussies (pronunciation) and I am an artistic researcher & autistic academic. The drawing above is one of my avatars (which I do not resemble much, although it was partly based on this video) Welcome / Välkommen / Witaj / Добро пожаловать / ようこそ ! As a PhD student at the University of Maastricht, the Netherlands, I am writing my thesis about the Cyborg Mermaid, or to be more concrete: about the way modern media empower people to create new stories based on mermaid mythology. What fascinates me most about the study of fantastic beings is that the way in which we shape them tells us so much about what it means to be human. Besides my research, I am a musician, I do …

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At a nightclub, a man offers a pretty blond woman a drink. She has obviously shown interest in him, but turns the drink down. He is confused – was she not interested? She then approaches him, frankly tells him that she’s not thirsty… and invites him to have sex in her house.

In various pieces of fan fiction #KingAlfred, a mysterious creature makes its appearance: the wyrm. Intrigued by this secretive being, I was inspired to research its earlier appearances. During Old English Fun Time Online, I shared my findings in a short presentation, and it seemed nice to me to further process my rambling/braindump ehm… ‘research notes’ into a blog post. So, for Paulo and other people that have asked me about it: here are some of my thoughts on the mysterious wyrm! 🙂 All comments & suggestions are very welcome, as always. Since the publication of this blog post, I have incorporated my research on the wyrm in two scholarly publications. Please follow the links below to read them. The unaltered original blogpost follows underneath. [2022 update] …

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Welcome / Välkommen / Witaj / Добро пожаловать / ようこそ ! My name is Martine Mussies (pronounciation) and I am an academic researcher and autistic academic. As a PhD student at the University of Maastricht, the Netherlands, I am writing my thesis about the Cyborg Mermaid, or to be more concrete: about the way modern media empower people to create new stories based on mermaid mythology. What fascinates me most about the study of fantastic beings is that the way in which we shape them tells us so much about what it means to be human. Besides my research, I am a musician, I do martial arts and I study neuropsychology at the University of Chicago (via e-learning). Just like your typical Aspergirl, I am an eternal student …

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