The University of Cologne recently sported a job listing for a vampire. Whilst the job is really for anyone who is okay with working nights, I must applaud the attention to details and commitment to the concept. To complement this advert, there was the following article in the Huffington Post, ‘I Was a Human Vampire’. Again this article was less to do with blood-drinking and more to do with a lack of sunlight in your workplace. Having worked in a windowless office, I can confirm that the fear is real! (I would make a terrible vampire – one nice sunny day and I’d give it all up for some vitamin D).
Recently a paper by D. J. Williams of Idaho State University was published in the peer-reviewed journal Critical Social Work on the subject of real-life vampires. These are people who identify themselves as vampires and, whilst they don’t necessarily dress the part, require human energy or blood to feed from. Sam and I recently attended a paper on the self-identifying vampires at BBEC at the West University of Timisoara. Given by Mark Benecke and Ines Fischer, the paper identified the ‘traits’ of vampirism and showed how this community faced judgement and criticism from people who did not understand what their identity means. (Apparently, we only like fictional vampires).
Hopefully the advert at the University of Cologne is the first step in accepting real-life vampires into our lives and work places.