The story of Pitt’s Horror Studies Center was published in Film Quarterly

Who doesn’t love a good horror story?

In its fall 2026 issue, the journal Film Quarterly published an article about the origins and development of Pitt’s Horror Studies Center. In it, Kenneth P. Dietrich School of Arts and Sciences Professor Adam Lowenstein, who also directs the center, explains the connections between his story, the collection and director George A. Romero’s landmark 1968 feature “Night of the Living Dead.”

Lowenstein’s bond with the film stretches back to his childhood: He even screened it at his bar mitzvah, he explained in the article. The influence followed him through graduate school and his arrival in Pittsburgh.

The article culminates with bringing the George A. Romero Collection to Pitt in 2019 — the centerpiece of what is now an iconic horror collection.

Photography by Aimee Obidzinski