Quick Facts
- Intended size of inaugural class = 50 students
- Duration of program = 8 days, 7 nights
- Target student/residence staff supervisory ratio = 8:1
- Target student/faculty ratio 9:1
- Housing located on the Truman State University campus
- Academy Tuition = $800
- Grades eligible: Rising 9th through 12th graders
- Application requirements: Application form, short essay, transcripts, teacher/counselor recommendation
All About Zombies and the Zombie Genre
- Number of Zombie films indexed in the Internet Movie Database = 775
- Number of Zombie-themed books returned on an Amazon.com books search = 11,307
- Recent New York Times Bestsellers in the Zombie Genre = Pride and Prejudice and Zombies (Jane Austen and Seth Grahame-Smith), The Zombie Survival Guide (Max Brooks), World War Z (Max Brooks)
- Show with the highest ratings for a cable drama this past season = AMC’s The Walking Dead [1]
- The only cable drama to consistently pass The Walking Dead in ratings = HBO’s The Sopranos [2]
- The name for the condition associated with being a Zombie = Ataxic Neurodegenerative Satiety Deficiency Syndrome [3]
- When is Zombie Awareness Month? = May [4]
Hard Research and Thought About Zombies
- Davis, Wade. “Zombification.” Science 240 (June 1988): 1715-1716.
- Drezner, Daniel W. Theories of International Politics and Zombies. Princeton University Press, 2011.
- Littlewood, R. and Douyon, C. “Clinical findings in three cases of zombification.” The Lancet 350 (1997): 1094-1096.
- Lycan, William G. “Review: Stalnaker on Zombies” Reviewed work(s): Ways a World Might Be by Robert Stalnaker, Philosophical Studies: An International Journal for Philosophy in the Analytic Tradition 133 (April 2007): 473-479.
- Munz, Philip, Ioan Hudea, Joe Imad and Robert J. Smith. “When Zombies Attack!: Mathematical Modelling of an Outbreak of Zombie Infection,” [pdf] in “Infectious Disease Modelling Research Progress,” eds. J.M. Tchuenche and C. Chiyaka, Nova Science Publishers, Inc. pp. 133-150, 2009.
- Scriber, Brad. “What can Zombies teach us about swine flu?” August 12, 2009. National Geographic Weblog. http://blogs.ngm.com/blog_central/2009/08/what-can-zombies-teach-us-about-swine-flu.html
- Tanney, Julia. “On the Conceptual, Psychological, and Moral Status of Zombies, Swamp-Beings, and Other ‘Behaviourally Indistinguishable’ Creatures.” Philosophy and Phenomenological Research 69 (July, 2004): 173-186.
[1] Carter, Bill. “Walking Dead Finale Caps Record Season.” New York Times. 19 March 2012. http://mediadecoder.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/03/19/walking-dead-finale-caps-record-season/
[2] Ibid
[3] “A Harvard Scientist Explains Zombie Neurobiology” 10 June 2009. http://io9.com/5286145/a-harvard-psychiatrist-explains-zombie-neurobiology
[4] The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has declared October to be “Zombie Awareness Month.” However, the Zombie Research Society maintains that it is May http://zombieresearchsociety.com/zombie-awareness. Why not celebrate twice?