IT'S a topic most people would assume has too little bite for the attention of high-minded academics.

But several of Edinburgh University’s brightest social scientists will speak in London this week at a conference set up to discuss how vampires are portrayed in contemporary pop culture.

With titles such as Edward Cullen Is A Controlling And Abusive Boyfriend; Twilight And The Discourse Of Control And Coercion In Heterosexual Relationships; Vampire In The Mirror: The Psychoanalysis Of Immortal Narcissism; and Father, Brother, Child: The Post-Familial Vampire Society In True Blood, the two-day seminar will feature analysis of how representations of vampires have changed in the era of True Blood and Twilight.

In these modern films and TV shows, vampires have “come out of the coffin” and into mainstream society, sometimes due to technological changes such as fake blood, which allows them to have a decent meal without biting the necks of pretty young virgins.

In True Blood, the vampires are able to snack on this artificial, man-made blood, while in Twilight the Cullen family describe themselves as “vegetarian vampires” who subsist on animal blood, rather than their neighbours’.

At the Economic and Social Research Council Festival Of Social Science And Vampires: Myths Of The Past And The Future, one Edinburgh-based academic will argue developments in modern science have directly influenced the narratives of these mass market vampire shows.

Dr Christine Knight, a food researcher working at the ESRC Genomics Forum, at Edinburgh University, will deliver a talk called Synthetic Blood And Vegetarian Vampires: The Ethics Of Consumption In 21st-century Vampire Texts at the event, which starts on Wednesday in London University’s Institute Of Germanic And Romance Studies.

Knight said: “Thinking about vampires is relevant because these are images seen by such a large number of young people.

“It is important to see which messages they are representing. Technological changes such as stem cell derived blood or in vitro meat, created in the lab, have influenced the representation of vampires. We simply would not see these kind of images if the science was not there.”

Now they are able to eat without harming us, the mythical creatures are no longer simply the out-and-out baddies they used to be.

In fact, we almost envy vampires, suggested Matthias Weinroth, an academics research fellow working at the Edinburgh Genomic Forum who will chair the seminar.

He said: “We now admire vampires, because they have characteristics we would like for ourselves.

“They live for a long time, are very strong and intelligent. As a member of the economy, these traits appeal to us.”

But what many people most admire about vampires in the age of True Blood is their blockbusting sexiness.

There has always been a raunchiness to vampires, whose sexual charisma was irresistible to mortal women, but the way sexuality is expressed has changed from older descriptions of a sharp-toothed lothario in a dinner jacket and cape.

In True Blood, the most salacious of all the modern vampire shows, sex is omnipresent, in stark contrast to the abstinence message of Twilight, whose characters resist their primal urge for blood in a way that religious teens might be expected to rein in their baser desires.

Weinroth added: ”The eroticism of vampires clearly comes from an understanding that to be upfront about your sexuality is sinful. Therefore, vampires have always been sinful but highly sexual characters.

“In True Blood this is especially true. The depictions of vampire sex bring to mind descriptions of Viagra, where if you pop a pill you can become a super- human sex monster. This way of depicting vampires is a very contemporary interpretation of vampires and sex.”

Society is less inclined to simply label a person – or a monster – evil anymore, Weinroth said.

After 20th-century revolutions in psychology and cognitive science, it is no longer fashionable to simply believe a character or monster is truly bad.

Instead, we try to work out what made them become that way. We look for evidence of why King Kong decided to smash up New York, just as we try to uncover what turns an ordinary man into a serial killer

Weinroth continued: “We are moving away from the black and white approach of good and evil.

“Now we look at characters that may once have been portrayed as the personification of evil and think there must be some deeper layer of understanding we need to explore. We believe there must be a context to why they turned bad.”

For more information about next week’s event see the website: http://igrs.sas.ac.uk/events/conferences-workshops/vampires-myths-of-the-past-and-future.html