Troy Rondinone Ph.D.

About

Troy Rondinone, Ph.D., a professor of history at Southern Connecticut State University, is the author of Nightmare Factories: The Asylum in the American Imagination.

Books by Troy Rondinone Ph.D.

Recent Posts

How Harriet Tubman’s Disability Helped Shape Her

Understanding brain trauma helps humanize the legend, Harriet Tubman.

The Season of the Creepy Smile Is Upon Us

Halloween season summons our discomfort with big, creepy grins. Research and history tell us why.

Lizzie Borden and Victorian Madness

The unsolved mystery of the Borden murders brought national attention to a prim Victorian woman and raised the specter of the female criminal.

The Problem with Utopias

American history is littered with utopian mental health schemes. Why have they all failed?

How Horror Films Tap Our Primal Fears

The power of jump scares and unseen things.

Amazon's "Fallout" and the Allure of the Apocalypse

Amazon's latest vision of the post-apocalypse, Fallout, capitalizes on our fear of death and our problems with the present.

Horrors from Above: Eclipses, Comets, and Human Dread

Solar eclipses and comets evoke not only feelings of wonderment and awe, but also dread. We have a long history of fearing the skies.

Space Madness: A “Real” Hollywood Illness

Can space travel make a person insane? Hollywood has some ideas about "space madness," most recently seen in the movie "Spaceman" starring Adam Sandler.

New Book Shows a Man’s Tragedy via Mental Healthcare Reforms

A new book recounts a man's descent into murder and sheds light on the failures of mental healthcare reforms.

The "Exorcist" Movie Industry and the Problem of Evil

In the latest movie in the long-running "Exorcist" series, old questions about evil are dusted off and answered.