Erin Lindberg started at Miami as an English Education major, but she found that it was an anthropology class that gained her true passion. After officially changing her major, she developed her area of interest as a lifelong fan of spooky stories through her class project, “The Creepiest Thing That Has Ever Happened to You.”

This project was part of the required linguistic anthropology course taught by Erin’s current mentor, Associate Professor of Anthropology Leighton Peterson. Erin identifies this as the origin of her research on the stories of paranormal culture.

Now, as a 2021 Undergraduate Summer Scholar (USS), Erin has been working under Dr. Peterson on her project, Pseudoscience and Ghost Tours in Mansfield, Ohio.

“There isn’t a lot of literature out there about this stuff,” Erin said. “And if there is, it's mostly based in England, so I was like, well, I’ll do it!”

When her mentor asked for the focus of her research, Erin’s first instinct was to choose the Ohio State Reformatory in Mansfield, which she had visited once before with her mother. The reformatory was active between 1896 and 1990 and is the prison featured in the 1994 cult classic movie The Shawshank Redemption. The grounds are now toured by history buffs and paranormal enthusiasts alike, with both daytime tours and ghost hunts offered.

Her research was postponed for a year due to the pandemic, but while preparing for her summer research experience Erin became a de facto expert on the appearances of the Ohio State Reformatory in ghost hunting media.

“My goal was to revisit the reformatory and be part of the audience that received those stories first-hand,” Erin said. “I want to see how people are constructing their stories at the reformatory, what the tour guides are telling them, and how other people interact with the building.”

Erin’s USS research consists of two parts: participant observation, in which she goes to the reformatory to experience the tours for herself, and interviews with the people there. Her research goals have evolved over time as she finds new avenues to explore.

“What was originally about how ghost stories are told now has an added layer of studying how pseudoscience is explained and how ghost tourism as economic revitalization is tied to media,” she said.

“The field of anthropology is extremely broad, and as such Erin has the freedom to follow where her research takes her,” said Peterson.

Taking a linguistic anthropological look at these ghost stories, though, has proven to be somewhat contentious. Not everyone sees the same value in studying these stories as Erin and her mentor, and some approach her solely through the lens of “skeptic vs. believer.”

Erin explained that the construction of the stories themselves is what she concerns herself with, rather than debates over existence and belief.

“Outside of the department, people think it's very strange and whatnot,” she said. “To be fair, yes, but at the same time I think it's very important, and someone has to look at it at some point.”

Because Erin has decided to take up that mantle herself, her project on the Mansfield Reformatory is making her somewhat of a pioneer in the field of researching ghost storytelling in America.