Paula M. Uruburu
Professor Emerita of English Hofstra University
- Hempstead NY
Professor Uruburu researches the Gothic and the Grotesque, the Gilded Age, and film history (genre, auteur, adaptation).
Media
Biography
Industry Expertise
Areas of Expertise
Education
Stony Brook University
B.A.
1979
Stony Brook University
Ph.D.
1983
Links
Media Appearances
From Chucky to M3GAN: Inside the creepy world of killer dolls
Newsday online
2025-06-26
Remember the clown in Poltergeist, “Talky Tina” from The Twilight Zone and and the aboriginal Zuni doll in Trilogy of Terror? Professor Emerita of English and Film Paula Uruburu does, and she talked to Newsday about why film and television audiences love to be scared by dolls like Chucky, Annabelle, and M3GAN, who come to life and commit horrific acts.
Great Gatsby Celebrates 100 Year Anniversary
WNYW-TV (Fox 5) tv
2025-04-08
Professor Emerita Paula Uruburu talks about The Great Gatsby's 100th anniversary.
'The Great Gatsby' at 100
Newsday print
2025-04-07
Professor Emerita of English and Film Paula Uruburu talked to Newsday and WNYW-TV Fox 5 about the 100th anniversary of F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby.
Very Scary People: The Amityville Murders
CNN Podcast online
2022-03-18
English Professor Paula Uruburu was interviewed extensively for the CNN podcast, “Very Scary People: The Amityville Murders,” to air on Friday, March 18. This episode marks the premiere of a new six-part CNN podcast series, hosted by Donnie Wahlberg.
Residents still haunted in Amityville by sightseers to house of horror
Newsday print
2024-11-13
Professor Emerita of English and Film Paula Uruburu was featured in a Newsday story about the murders that inspired the Amityville Horror story that produced a book and two films.
The story is based on a 1974 tragedy, when Ronald DeFeo Jr. murdered his family — his parents, Ronald and Louise, and his four siblings, Dawn, Allison, Mark and John Matthew — at their family home on Ocean Avenue in Amityville.
Dr. Uruburu, who grew up near the house and was friends with Dawn DeFeo, told Newsday that the book and the original movie found an audience that had been primed by “Vietnam, Watergate, mid-’70s cynicism, this wholesale malaise going on in this country … Metaphorically, it was a representation of all that for people.”
She added that the “Amityville Horror” depicted “the destruction of the family” by demonic forces from inside the house. “It’s the American dream come true, and it all came crashing down in the worst way possible.”
The Best Books On The American Suburban Gothic
Shepherd.com online
2021-06-21
Read Dr. Uruburu's literary suggestions, including American Gothic Tales by Joyce Carol Oates and The Virgin Suicides by Jeffrey Eugenides.
The Gilded Age Starlet Whose Sexual Assault Prompted the 'Trial of the Century'
Vice.com online
2017-10-13
Just before she died at the age of 82, Evelyn Nesbit spoke about the infamous trial that had shaped much of her life: "I rocked civilization," she laughed. And she had. One biography, The Trial of the Century, even suggests that "the event was so shocking it actually helped to speed the end of America's 'Gilded Age'."
It also set the tone for trials to come. "The press then was really just a more primitive version of what we see today," explains Paula Uruburu, author of the biography American Eve. "When the OJ Simpson trial was happening in the last decade of the century, the similarities between the coverage of both trials was remarkable. This case was the beginning of all that, really."
Tarentum puts cinematic spotlight on its own, and Alle-Kiski Valley, history
Trib Live
2017-04-28
It's reported that her modeling career, begun in Pittsburgh at the age of 14, saved her Tarentum family financially. At 15, she moved to New York and quickly became the “It Girl” of her era, the “first recognizable and bona-fide pinup girl,” according to Hofstra University English professor Paula Uruburu in her book “American Eve,” chronicling the rags-to-riches story of Nesbit...
Your week untapped: Top 10 NYC events february 18 – 24th, 2017
Untapped Cities
2017-02-17
The event Dark Love: Murder and Madness in the Gilded Age from Landmark West! will take place in the Trunk Club at the Villard Houses, more popularly known as the New York Palace. Paula Uruburu, real-life history detective, spins the tale of architect Stanford White’s talents, loves, and tragic end. A final treat – a guided tour of the grand, historic space...
The world's first supermodel and her lunatic husband
OZY
2016-08-03
Nesbit was barely 5 feet tall and resembled a schoolgirl, even as an adult. She had gained fame after a serendipitous encounter with an artist who asked her to pose for a portrait at age 14. Driven by financial necessity — her widowed mother was unemployed — Nesbit began modeling for magazines, commercials and all manner of sundries, becoming the banner child for the first heady decade of the 20th century. “Her face was her fortune, she was in demand everywhere,” says Paula Uruburu, author of American Eve, a biographical account of Nesbit. “She was the precursor of the Miley Cyruses of today, and the young women who become the breadwinners for their families.”...
Three grisly tales of love and death in tinseltown
NPR
2010-10-21
One of my earliest and most vivid memories is watching the original King Kong, sitting captivated as the giant ape scales the Empire State Building with a screaming Fay Wray in his hairy grip. It was my dad's favorite movie when he was a boy, and it was the film that led to my enduring fascination with movies, monsters and the fantastic made frighteningly real. In other words: all things Tinseltown...
The Gilded Age Starlet Whose Sexual Assault Prompted the 'Trial of the Century'
Vice.com online
2017-10-17
Dr. Paula Uruburu is interviewed for this story on Evelyn Nesbit, who was the toast of New York high society when the famous architect Stanford White attacked her. When White was murdered by Nesbit's husband, it sparked the beginning of America's obsession with celebrity trials.
The "It" Girl
This Is Criminal (Podcast) online
2018-05-18
Dr. Paula Uruburu, professor of English, is featured in the podcast Criminal about Evelyn Nesbit, the original Gibson Girl, the first “It Girl,” the Girl in the Red Velvet Swing – and the first supermodel celebrity. She was a young starlet when the famous architect Stanford White attacked her. When White was murdered by Nesbit’s husband, Harry Thaw, it sparked the beginning of America’s obsession with celebrity trials.
Dr. Uruburu is the author of 2008’s American Eve: Evelyn Nesbit, Stanford White, the Birth of the ‘It’ Girl, and the Crime of the Century. She is currently at work on a book about Lizzie Borden.
20 Classics Every American Should Read, According to English Professors
24/7 Wall St. online
2019-08-06
Following the news of the passing of Toni Morrison, the website 24/7 Wall St. asked professors of English – including Hofstra’s own Paula Uruburu – to offer suggestions of literary classics all Americans should make a point of reading at least once.
Professor Uruburu noted that the literary landscape has changed in recent decades to become more inclusive – more women writers, including women of color, as well as African American, Native American, Asian, continental, developing world, and LGBTQ authors. She noted the classics are also beginning to include graphic novelists.
Some of Professor Uruburu’s suggestions include Pride and Prejudice, Huckleberry Finn, The Great Gatsby, The Grapes of Wrath, The Diary of a Young Girl, 1984, Fahrenheit 451, The Lord of the Rings and A Handmaid’s Tale.
Event Appearances
The Wild West Side on Film
“From Gangs to Ghostbusters” Landmark West, Manhattan
2017-10-26
The Wild West Side on Film
“The Cinematic Cityscape of Woody Allen” Landmark West, Manhattan
2017-09-14
Panel: “Number One with a Bullet: True-Crime Authors on Hitting the Top,”: http://news.hofstra.edu/2016/04/11/dr-paula-uruburu-revisits-evelyn-nesbit-for-journalism-conference/
American Society of Journalists and Authors Conference Roosevelt Hotel in NYC
2016-05-20
Paula Uruburu, Book Talk and Cocktail Party at AIER: https://berkshirewomenwriters.org/event/paula-uruburu-book-talk-and-cocktail-party-at-aier/
Berkshire Festival of Women Writers American Institute of Economic Research Mansion
2016-06-11
Talk on Evelyn Nesbit and "American Eve": http://news.hofstra.edu/2016/10/21/dr-paula-uruburu-guest-speaks-at-saratoga-pac/
12th Annual Fall Lecture Luncheon Saratoga Performing Arts Center
2016-10-20
Courses
RECENT COURSES
ADAPTING STEPHEN KING
WRITING ABOUT FILM
THE AMERICAN SHORT STORY
PAGE TO SCREEN: ADAPTATION
INTRO TO CINEMA STUDIES
FILM GENRES: FEM BOTS
FILM AUTHORSHIP: REMAKES
