Want to zoom further into the world and culture of the award-winning animated film Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse?

You’ve found the right place.

The Department of Religion and Culture will host a two-day event centered on issues of race, family, and policing appearing in the film and the larger Marvel Cinematic Universe. 

On January 20 at 7 p.m., members of the department will join Julian Chambliss, a professor at Michigan State University, in watching and livetweeting the movie. To watch and participate, follow @JulianChambliss or @VT_RLCL on Twitter, or follow the hashtag #CrusadingInColor.

On January 21 at 5:30 p.m., the Department of Religion and Culture will host a virtual discussion of the film with Chambliss. To register for the free webinar, follow this link.

In addition to serving as an English professor at Michigan State University, Chambliss has an appointment in the university’s Department of History and is the Val Berryman Curator of History at the MSU Museum. His research interests focus on race, identity, and power in real and imagined urban spaces. 

Chambliss is also the co-editor of — and a contributor to — Ages of Heroes, Eras of Men: Superheroes and the American Experience, a 2013 book examining the relationship between superheroes and the American experience. His more recent books include Assembling the Marvel Cinematic Universe: Essays on the Social, Cultural and Geopolitical Domain and Cities Imagined: The African Diaspora in Media and History, both published in 2018.