phd in fantasy literature

Oxford Fantasy Literature

Expanding the english faculty’s great writers inspire podcasts: a pilot study.

Oxford plays a starring role in the history of fantasy literature. A huge number of beloved fantasy authors studied or taught at the university over the course of their careers, including J. R. R. Tolkien, C. S. Lewis, Lewis Carroll, Susan Cooper, Diana Wynne Jones, Alan Garner, and Philip Pullman, to name just a few. Fantasy is arguably one of the most important contemporary literary genres: extraordinarily popular, constantly expanding and diversifying, testing the boundaries of style, structure, and genre. Since 2018 the English Faculty’s fantasy research cluster , headed by Prof. Carolyne Larrington and Dr Stuart Lee, has sought to draw on Oxford’s rich resources to foreground exciting new work on fantasy literature and showcase new authors in podcasts, videos, and lectures accessible to the public. From The Lord of the Rings to Game of Thrones to N. K. Jemisin’s The Broken Earth Trilogy , Oxford faculty and students are producing a huge range of scholarly responses to field-defining fantasy.

This project begins a new series of the popular Oxford Fantasy podcast, featuring interviews and lectures with Oxford faculty and students, discussions with authors and archivists, and more. Watch this space for the publication of a comprehensive handlist of Oxford’s fantasy-related archival holdings, as well as the release of a series of teaching resource packs with assignments, lesson plans, and reading lists revolving around fantasy texts by Oxford authors, produced by project research officer Dr Caroline Batten.

This project also seeks to test drive a public engagement model for the English Faculty: mapping out the process by which a research cluster can streamline the creation of podcasts to increase public engagement with research, solicit contributions amongst research students and professional support staff, and engage younger students with Faculty research activities and resources. At the conclusion of the project, we’ll release a report and public engagement guide available to all members of the English Faculty, evaluating our project's workflow and impact and providing a blueprint for other research groups to create their own public engagement projects, including a guide to podcasting.

We are very interested in your feedback on the fantasy literature podcasts. If you are using them please take a few minutes to complete our survey at: https://oxford.onlinesurveys.ac.uk/oxford-fantasy-podcasts

Explore Fantasy Literature resources on Great Writers Inspire

Introduction to Fantasy

Modern Fairies

Tolkien at Oxford

Fantasy Literature: Further Thinking

Fantasy at Oxford

Tweets by Oxford Fantasy

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• Postgraduate study
• Taught degree programmes A‑Z
• English Literature: Fantasy

Postgraduate taught  

English Literature: Fantasy MLitt

Are you a fan of fantasy fiction? Or are you simply curious as to why the fantastic can be found all around us in the 21st century, from videogames and films to poetry, songs, television, novel series, and so-called 'mainstream' fiction? This programme allows you to engage with one of the most vibrant literary genres of the last two centuries - and a major cultural phenomenon of our time.

• Academic contact: Dr Will Tattersdill:  [email protected]
• Teaching start: September
• Glasgow: Gilmorehill campus
• MLitt: 12 months full-time; 24 months part‑time

Register your interest for more information

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Please note: our Online Application Form and Applicant Self Service will be unavailable between 07:30 and 21:00 (UK time) on Friday 17 May 2024 due to essential maintenance. We apologise for any inconvenience caused.

Why this programme

• You will be supported by a friendly, internationally acclaimed team of scholars working in all areas of the arts, from literature and comics to film, TV, education, history of art and modern languages.
• Fantasy-related events are organised each year, from conferences to field trips, from talks and conversations involving writers, editors and visiting scholars to reading parties, film showings and exhibitions.
• You will be a member of the Centre for Fantasy and the Fantastic at the University of Glasgow.
• You will have access to world class libraries, museums, galleries, theatres and teaching/research facilities.
• You will have the opportunity to immerse yourself in the vibrant cultural scene of Glasgow itself, which attracts major fantasy-related conventions and is famous throughout the world for its musical, artistic, technological and literary energy.
• Listen to our podcast: Stories from Glasgow – Roll for Storytelling where PhD candidate Emma French talks about transformative storytelling and Dungeons & Dragons.

Programme structure

The programme involves core and optional taught sessions, followed by a period of research and writing over the summer when you will undertake supervised independent work on a special topic of your choice, researching, planning and writing a 15,000 word dissertation.

Full-time students

Semester 1 - september to december.

• ENGLISH LITERATURE RESEARCH TRAINING COURSE
• FANTASY 1: 1780-1950
• One optional course

Semester 2 - January to March

• FANTASY 2: 1950 TO THE PRESENT
• Two optional courses

Summer - April to September

• FANTASY DISSERTATION

All taught courses are 20 credits and are delivered in weekly 2-hour seminars or equivalent.

Seminars are taught to the extent that the student members meet regularly with a tutor and proceed through a planned sequence of reading and discussion. The working style, however, is exploratory rather than didactic; students are expected to engage fully with primary sources, to develop, express and take responsibility for their own opinions and to work towards independent argument and expression in their resulting coursework and dissertation.

Optional courses

You may choose from the available optional courses offered by any of the Masters programmes in the School of Critical Studies; see in particular the courses listed under the MLitt English Literature  general pathway . You may also opt for courses from other Masters programmes in the College of Arts & Humanities (subject to approval by the relevant convener). One course can be taken at Honours level.

Examples of possible options include:

• FANTASY ACROSS MEDIA
• CHILDREN'S FANTASY LITERATURE
• REALISM AND FANTASY IN VICTORIAN LITERATURE (PGT)
• FUTURES: UNBUNDLING THE NOW
• FANTASIES OF ENERGY (PGT)
• CREATIVE WRITING FICTION WORKSHOP (CROSS-DISCIPLINE)
• EARLY MODERN MYTHMAKING
• VICTORIAN LITERATURE BEYOND THE HUMAN
• CREATIVE WRITING FICTION
• SCIENCE FICTION 1945-PRESENT
• THE TOMORROW PEOPLE: SPECULATIVE BODIES AND MINDS IN CONTEMPORARY CULTURE
• LOVE, DEATH, AND DRAGONS: MEDIEVALISM AND FANTASY
• WORLD-BUILDING

 For further information please contact the convener.

Programme alteration or discontinuation The University of Glasgow endeavours to run all programmes as advertised. In exceptional circumstances, however, the University may withdraw or alter a programme. For more information, please see: Student contract .

Career prospects

The critical and analytical skills you develop and the ability to conduct rigorous independent study make this programme an ideal step towards an academic career. Graduates from English Literature have also gone on to careers in:

• heritage sector

Fees & funding

Tuition fees for 2024-25

• Full-time fee: £10650
• Part-time fee: £1184 per 20 credits

International & EU

• Full-time fee: £24000

International and EU applicants are required to pay a deposit of  £2000 within four weeks  of an offer being made.

Deposits: terms & conditions

This programme requires some students to pay a deposit to secure their place.

If you are an international student, we will only issue a Confirmation of Acceptance for Studies (CAS) once the deposit has been paid.

Your offer letter will state:

• how to pay the deposit payment
• the deadline for paying the deposit

The following guidelines will apply in determining whether a deposit will be refunded. Where the deposit is refunded, a 25% handling fee will be deducted.

Deposits will be refunded to applicants under the following circumstances:

• Where the University is unable to offer you a place.
• Where the applicant has personal circumstances such as illness, bereavement or other family situations that has prevented them coming to the UK. Medical or other proof may be requested.
• Applicant can prove that they have applied for a visa to attend the University of Glasgow, but the VISA has been refused. The applicant must have shown 'real intent' to study at the University of Glasgow but has been unable to obtain their visa.
• Applicant does not meet his / her conditions of offer: this may be academic or language test requirements. Satisfactory evidence must be uploaded to the student’s applicant self-service to prove that they have not met the conditions of their offer (note that applicants who do not meet the language condition of their offer must show reasonable attempt to meet this, i.e. they must provide a language test which was taken after the date that the deposit was paid).

Deposits will not be refunded to applicants under the following circumstances:

• Applicant has decided to defer – in this situation the University will retain the deposit and credit it against the applicant’s account for securing their place for the following year of entry.

Refund requests must be made within 30 days of the programme start date stated on your offer letter.

Requests made after this date will be subject to discretion.

• Find out more about Deposits

Additional fees

• Fee for re-assessment of a dissertation (PGT programme): £370
• Submission of thesis after deadline lapsed: £350
• Registration/exam only fee: £170

Funding opportunities

• Alexander and Dixon Scholarship (Bryce Bequest)

The Bryce Bequest was made by the late Professor John Cameron Bryce in memory of Professor Peter Alexander, former Professor of English Literature at the University of Glasgow, and in memory of Professor W. MacNeile Dixon.

Further details can be found  here.

• University of Glasgow College of Arts and Humanities South Asia Award

The College of Arts and Humanties warmly welcomes applications from highly qualified applicants to our masters programmes. We are offering 4 scholarships for postgraduate taught programmes for Academic Session 2024-25.

• College of Arts Widening Participation Postgraduate Taught Scholarships

The College of Arts is pleased to be offering Widening Participation Postgraduate Taught scholarships to support with studying a one-year postgraduate taught programme (either full-time across one year, or part-time across two years) in the College.  The scholarships include a full fee waiver at the 'Home' tuition fee rate and a stipend (the stipend rate for 2024/25 is £17,039) and are available to candidates who meet the University's Widening Participation criteria. 

• Beatrix Whistler and James McNeill Whistler Scholarship

The Beatrix Whistler and James McNeill Whistler Scholarships originate with an important collection of works by Whistler gifted by Miss Rosalind Birnie Philip to the University in 1935. Since then, and thanks to further gifts and acquisitions, the Hunterian has come to hold one of the two leading collections of Whistler’s work in the world and History of Art (SCCA) has become an international centre of expertise for the study of Whistler and his 19th century world.  

At her death in 1958, Miss Birnie Philip, Whistler’s heir and executrix, bequeathed the remainder of her art collection to the University, together with part of her residual estate for the purpose of establishing a scholarship scheme for students engaged in any branch of learning within the College of Arts & Humanities. In 2019, the Whistler scholarships scheme was revised in acknowledgement of the continuing links between Miss Birnie Philip’s 1958 bequest of artworks and her wish to support student learning at the University. 

The Whistler Scholarships are open to students in all disciplines of the College of Arts & Humanities. The award committee is willing to consider both individual applications AND joint applications (from up to THREE students). Innovative interdisciplinary work is particularly encouraged. However, students may only involve themselves in the submission of ONE application (individual OR joint).

The Whistler Scholarships cover travel, accommodation and subsistence expenses ONLY. However, in the case of Whistler-related proposals submitted under Scheme 1 additional funds may be made available at the discretion of the Scholarship Committee to cover research or other relevant expenses.

• Southeast Asia Distinction Award

The University of Glasgow is excited to announce the new Southeast Asia Distinction Award for highly qualified students from this region. This scholarship is available to students starting a postgraduate taught Masters programme on any eligible degree programme for Academic Session 2024-25. The scholarship is awarded as a tuition fee discount.

• GREAT Scholarships 2024- Greece, Nigeria, Egypt and Turkey

In partnership with the British Council and the GREAT Britain Campaign, University of Glasgow is offering 4 scholarships to students in Greece, Nigeria, Egypt and Turkey applying for postgraduate courses in any subject (excluding MBA and MSc by Research courses). All eligible courses can be viewed under the 'eligible programmes' tab on this webpage. 

The scholarship offers financial support of £10,000 to students pursuing one-year postgraduate study in the UK. This discount cannot be combined with another University scholarship.

• The Snowdon Trust Master’s Scholarship

The Snowdon Trust Master’s Scholarship is accelerating exceptional Disabled Students through masters’ programmes into leadership positions to create change.

Do you have ambitions to change the world? Are you pioneering in your field? Are you creating change for Disabled People? Let us open some doors.

We are searching for individuals who choose to use their lived experience of disabling barriers to make a difference. To create change.

Applications open 2pm 15 January 2024.

Please see  Snowdon Trust, Investing in Disabled Students  website for more details.

• Banco de Mexico

The Mexican National Bank (Banco de Mexico) provides special loans for students who wish to undertake a programme of postgraduate study. The University of Glasgow in partnership with Bank of Mexico FIDERH is offering a fee discount to holders of a Bank of Mexico FIDERH loan. See the FIDERH website for further information.

• Erasmus+ Master Degree Loans

Erasmus+ Master Degree Loans are EU-guaranteed loans with favourable pay-back terms. They’re designed to help prospective students finance their Master’s courses in an Erasmus+ Programme country while leaving as little of a lasting economic footprint as possible.

The scheme is designed to provide postgraduate students with the means to pay their tuition and living expenses – thereby allowing individuals to focus on their degree instead of managing their bank balance. The programme aims to be as inclusive as possible, working under the following guidelines:

• No need for collateral from students or parents - ensuring equality of access
• Favourable, better-than-market interest rates
• Pay-back terms that allow graduates up to two years to find work before beginning repayment.

Please visit the  Erasmus+ Master Degree Loans website  for more information.

• PGT Excellence Scholarship

The University of Glasgow has a total of 20 PGT Excellence Scholarships available to UK students entering any of the University’s Colleges.

• Climate Leadership Scholarships

Cop26 was held in Glasgow from 31 st October – 12 th November 2021 and the University of Glasgow recognises the importance of universities in tackling the climate emergency. Glasgow is part of the newly formed  Cop26 Universities Network , a growing group of over 80 universities working together to promote a zero-carbon future. Alongside vital research being carried out by our academics, Glasgow recognises that urgent action is needed on our campuses, and we aim to be carbon neutral by 2030.  We believe that the climate emergency can only be addressed by implementing long-term sustainability policies and our Green Glasgow strategy details our action plan for the next decade.

In recognition of the vital need for action to combat the climate emergency the University of Glasgow is excited to launch our Climate Leadership Scholarships. We have 20 scholarships available to UK students entering any of our Colleges on a PGT programme which engages with the climate emergency.

As a world-changing research-led University we are committed to supporting the next generation of researchers working across disciplines to address the climate emergency.

• DAAD-University of Glasgow 1-year Master’s grant

The University of Glasgow will offer a full tuition waiver to those students that successfully apply and are nominated by DAAD to the University. DAAD offers a monthly stipend of EUR 1,100 (for the academic year 2024/2025) and travel bursary of EUR 250.00 as well as health, accident, and personal liability insurance coverage in addition to the full tuition fee waiver from the University of Glasgow.

Wichtige Hinweise zu DAAD-Stipendien - DAAD (general info on DAAD tuition fee reimbursement)

Current list of tuition reduction / waiving offers (not including U Glasgow yet) : Stipendien für ein Masterstudium im Ausland - DAAD - Deutscher Akademischer Austauschdienst

• Chevening Scholarship

Chevening Scholarships are the UK government's global scholarship programme, funded by the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO) and partner organisations. The scholarships are awarded to outstanding scholars with leadership potential. Awards are typically for a one year Master’s degree at universities across the UK. There are over 50,000 Chevening Alumni around the world who together comprise an influential and highly regarded global network.

For further information, please refer to the  Chevening website .

• Colfuturo Fundacion para el Futuro de Colombia

The University of Glasgow offer discounts to all successful Fundacion para el Futuro de Colombia (Colfuturo) scholars who enrol at the University of Glasgow to complete a postgraduate programme.

• Commonwealth Scholarship Commission Schemes

Commonwealth Scholarships enable talented and motivated individuals to gain the knowledge and skills required for sustainable development, and are offered to citizens from low and middle income Commonwealth countries. The majority of Scholarships are funded by the UK  Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office (FCDO ),  with the aim of contributing to the UK’s international development aims and wider overseas interests, supporting excellence in UK higher education, and sustaining the principles of the Commonwealth.

• Vice Chancellor EU Award

The University of Glasgow continues to be committed to ensuring a strong relationship with our existing and future EU students, and supporting EU talent to make their home at the University of Glasgow.  

We appreciate the challenging financial implications that have arisen for our European applicants, and are therefore delighted to offer the Vice Chancellor EU Award to highly qualified new incoming EU students starting a postgraduate taught Masters programme in any discipline for Academic Session 2024-25. The scholarship is awarded as a tuition fee discount.  This discount cannot be combined with another University scholarship.

Applicants that graduated from the University of Glasgow or completed a Study Abroad year, Exchange programme or International Summer School at the University of Glasgow, are eligible for the Alumni discount and this can be combined with the Vice Chancellor EU Award.

• EU Welcome Award

We appreciate the challenging financial implications that have arisen for our European applicants, and are therefore delighted to offer the EU Welcome Award to new incoming EU students starting a postgraduate taught Masters programme for Academic Session 2024-25. The scholarship is awarded as a £5,000 tuition fee discount.  This discount cannot be combined with another University scholarship.

Applicants that graduated from the University of Glasgow or completed a Study Abroad year, Exchange programme or International Summer School at the University of Glasgow, are eligible for the Alumni discount and this can be combined with the EU Welcome Award.

• University of Glasgow African Excellence Award

The University of Glasgow African Excellence Award aims to support high achieving students from across Africa in their journey to become Future World Changers.  We are looking for students who wish to undertake Masters level study, to further develop their knowledge and skills, in order to positively contribute to their community in the future.  

The University is offering up to 15 scholarships for International students from Africa, starting a 1 year postgraduate taught Masters programme, in any discipline for academic session 2024/25.  The scholarship is a full tuition fee waiver.  

• Emerging Asia Award

The University of Glasgow is proud to introduce an exciting new award designed to support students from a selection of underrepresented 'frontier and developing' Asian countries . 

The University of Glasgow is offering 8 scholarships for highly qualified international students from Bangladesh, Cambodia, Lao People's Democratic Republic, Myanmar, Nepal and Sri Lanka.

Students must be starting a one-year postgraduate taught masters programme, in any discipline, for the academic session 2024/25. The scholarship is a full tuition fee waiver with stipend for one year that can not be combined with any other scholarships. 

• University of Glasgow African Partners Award

The University of Glasgow African Partners Awards aims to support high achieving students from across Africa in their journey to become Future World Changers.  We are looking for students who wish to undertake Masters level study, to further develop their knowledge and skills, in order to positively contribute to their community in the future.  The scholarship is exclusively for students, alumni and staff of the University partners across Africa:  African Partners List 2024 .

The University is offering up to 5 scholarships for International students from Africa, starting a 1 year postgraduate taught Masters programme, in any discipline for academic session 2023/24.  The scholarship is a full tuition fee waiver.  

Applicants much hold an offer of a place for a postgraduate taught one year Masters programme for September 2024 intake (offer is not needed to apply but applicants will require an offer to be considered for interview, and should take programme application timelines into consideration as detailed on programme webpages)

• University of Glasgow International Leadership Scholarship

The University of Glasgow has several International Leadership Scholarships available to International students starting a postgraduate taught Masters programme in any discipline for Academic Session 2024-25. The scholarship is awarded as a tuition fees discount.

• University of Glasgow Caribbean Partners Award

The University of Glasgow Caribbean Partners Awards aims to support high achieving students from our partner The University of the West Indies in their journey to become Future World Changers.  We are looking for students who wish to undertake Masters level study, to further develop their knowledge and skills, in order to positively contribute to their community in the future.  The scholarship is exclusively for students, alumni and staff of The University of the West Indies.  

The University is offering up to 5 scholarships for students, starting a 1 year postgraduate taught Masters programme, in any discipline for academic session 2024/25.  The scholarship is a full tuition fee waiver.  

Those who apply must hold an offer of a place for a postgraduate taught one year Masters programme for September 2024 intake (offer is not needed to apply but applicants will require an offer to be considered for interview, and should take programme application timelines into consideration as detailed on programme webpages);

• University of Glasgow Caribbean Excellence Award

The University of Glasgow Caribbean Excellence Award aims to support high achieving students from across the Caribbean in their journey to become Future World Changers.  We are looking for students who wish to undertake Masters level study, to further develop their knowledge and skills, in order to positively contribute to their community in the future.  

The University is offering up to 5 scholarships for International students from the Caribbean, starting a 1 year postgraduate taught Masters programme, in any discipline for academic session 2024/25.  The scholarship is a full tuition fee waiver.  

• India Merit Award

The University of Glasgow is proud to announce a new India Merit award for 2024 entry to acknowledge highly qualified Indian postgraduate taught offer holders. The scholarship is awarded as a £5,000 tuition fee discount. This discount cannot be combined with another University scholarship.

• CONICyT (La Comsion Nacional de Investigacion Cientifica y Tecnologica de Chile)

The University of Glasgow offers a 25% discount to all successful CONICyT scholars who enrol at the University of Glasgow to complete a postgraduate programme.

• University of Glasgow Chancellor's Award

The University of Glasgow has 40 Chancellors Award Scholarships available to students from low and middle income countries, starting a 1 year postgraduate taught Masters programme in any discipline, in academic session 2024-25. The scholarship is awarded as a tuition fee discount.

• University of Glasgow Chancellor's Award (Nigeria)

The University of Glasgow has 10 Chancellors Award Scholarships available to Nigerian students starting a postgraduate taught Masters programme in any discipline in academic session 2024-25. The scholarship is awarded as a tuition fee discount.

• Postgraduate Student Loan (Scotland and EU)

Eligible full-time and part-time students, undertaking an eligible postgraduate course, can apply for a tuition fee loan up to a maximum of £7,000 towards their course. Eligible full-time postgraduate students can apply for a living-cost loan of up to £4,500.  

This support extends to online Masters or Postgraduate Diplomas, and not to the online Postgraduate Certificate courses.

For more information visit the SAAS website .

• CONACyT (Consejo Nacional de Ciencia y Tecnologia) / FUNED Agreement

CONACYT offers a non-refundable scholarship, a monthly stipend and medical insurance of an approximate total of $20,000 USD (in the case of the UK, no medical insurance grant is given since students are already covered by the National Health System) The University of Glasgow offer a 30% discount to all successful CONACyT scholars who enrol at the University of Glasgow to complete a postgraduate programme.

• Postgraduate Tuition Fee Loans England only (PTFL)

If you’re an English student looking to study a taught Masters programme in Glasgow then you can apply for a student loan. Students from England are able to apply for a non-means tested   Postgraduate Master’s Loan  of up to £11,570   to help with course fees and living costs. You have to  repay your Postgraduate Master’s Loan  at the same time as any other student loans you have. You’ll be charged interest from the day you get the first payment.

If you’re studying by distance learning, you can also apply.

• Alumni Discount

In response to the current unprecedented economic climate, the University is offering a 20% discount on all Postgraduate Research and full Postgraduate Taught Masters programmes to its alumni, commencing study in Academic session 2024/25. This includes University of Glasgow graduates and those who have completed a Study Abroad programme, International Summer School programme or the Erasmus Programme at the University of Glasgow. The discount applies to all full-time, part-time and online programmes. This discount can be awarded alongside most University scholarships.

• Postgraduate Loans for Welsh Students

If you are a Welsh student looking to study a postgraduate programme* in Glasgow then you can apply for a student loan in exactly the same way as you would for a Welsh University.

* does not apply to Erasmus Mundus programmes

Postgraduate Master's Finance

If you’re starting a full-time or part-time Postgraduate Master’s course (taught or research based) from 1 August 2019, you can apply for Postgraduate Master's Finance and receive up to £17,000 as a combination of grant and loan:

• a maximum grant of £6,885 and loan of £10,115 if your household income is £18,370 and below
• a grant of £1,000 and loan of £16,000 if your household income is not taken into account or is above £59,200.

For more information visit  Student Finance Wales

Postgraduate Doctoral Loan

If you’re starting a full-time or part-time postgraduate Doctoral course (such as a PhD) from 1 August 2019 you can apply for a Postgraduate Doctoral Loan of up to £25,700.

• Postgraduate Access Scholarship

The University of Glasgow is pleased to be offering Postgraduate Access Scholarships to support Home students who could face financial difficulties in taking up their place to study at the University. Applications are particularly welcomed from applicants who met any of our widening participation criteria , or equivalent, at undergraduate level. The value of each scholarship is £4,000 and they are for students undertaking a one or two year Taught Masters programme. For two year Taught Masters programmes, the scholarship is available in year one only.

• Postgraduate Student Loan (NI)

If you are a Northern Irish student looking to study a taught Masters programme* in Glasgow then you can apply for a student loan in exactly the same way as you would for a University in Northern Ireland.

Northern Irish students are able to apply for non-means-tested tuition fee loans of up to £5,500, to help with the costs of funding.

For more information visit  www.studentfinanceni.co.uk/types-of-finance/postgraduate  .

• Sanctuary Scholarships

The University of Glasgow is offering up to 20 Sanctuary Scholarships for applicants to the University, who have been forced to travel to the UK for humanitarian reasons and are facing challenges in progressing onto Higher Education. The scholarship is open to prospective undergraduate and postgraduate taught students at the University of Glasgow applying for entry in September 2024/25. Please note that you must have applied to the University before submitting an application for this scholarship. The scholarship will meet the cost of tuition fees for the duration of your programme, for applicants who are unable to access mainstream funding through Student Awards Agency Scotland (SAAS) or Student Finance . The Sanctuary Scholarship also provides a £5,000 per year stipend, to assist with study costs. In addition, if the eligibility criteria for university accommodation is met, this will also be provided for the duration of your degree, if required. For more information on the accommodation criteria, please see the  Accommodation Services section  on the website.

Undergraduate students with refugee status (or equivalent) and access to funding, are eligible to apply for the scholarship and would receive the £5,000 stipend towards study costs only, if successful.

Postgraduate Taught Masters students with refugee status (or equivalent) and access to funding, are eligible to apply for the scholarship and would receive the £5,000 stipend towards study costs and a partial tuition fee waiver, to cover any shortfall not met by your Postgraduate Masters tuition fee loan.

• The Clan Gregor Society Prize

The Clan Gregor Society is offering an award to new entrants to the University of Glasgow who descend from Clan Gregor. Prospective students will be asked to submit an application highlighting areas of consideration such as academic excellence and financial need. The award is open to both Undergraduate and Postgraduate applicants for 2024 entry.

The scholarships above are specific to this programme. For more funding opportunities search the scholarships database

Entry requirements

Entry requirements for postgraduate taught programmes are a 2.1 Honours degree or equivalent qualification (for example, GPA 3.0 or above) in a relevant subject unless otherwise specified.

We also require:

• A sample of written work, about 3,000 words in length. This can be a previous piece of work from an undergraduate degree. The work should be written in English. The content does not have to cover a topic related to this specific programme, but the sample should show the potential to engage successfully with postgraduate-level literary studies through demonstrating analytical ability and knowledge of appropriate scholarly methods and conventions.
• a short statement of around 500 words outlining your interest in the programme.
• at least one academic reference.

English language requirements

For applicants whose first language is not English, the University sets a minimum English Language proficiency level.

International English Language Testing System (IELTS) Academic module (not General Training)

• 7.0 with no subtests under 7.0
• Tests must have been taken within 2 years 5 months of start date. Applicants must meet the overall and subtest requirements using a single test
• IELTS One Skill Retake accepted.

Common equivalent English language qualifications

Toefl (ibt, my best or athome).

• 94; with Reading 24; Listening 24; Speaking 23; Writing 27
• Tests must have been taken within 2 years 5 months of start date. Applicants must meet the overall and subtest requirements , this includes TOEFL mybest.

Pearsons PTE Academic

• 66 with no subtest less than: Listening 66;Reading 68; Speaking 65; Writing 82
• Tests must have been taken within 2 years 5 months of start date. Applicants must meet the overall and subtest requirements using a single test.

Cambridge Proficiency in English (CPE) and Cambridge Advanced English (CAE)

• 185 overall, no subtest less than 185

Oxford English Test

• Oxford ELLT 8
• R&L: OIDI level no less than 8 with Reading: 27-28 and Listening: 20
• W&S: OIDI level no less than 8.

Trinity College Tests

Integrated Skills in English II & III & IV: ISEII Pass with Pass in all sub-tests.

University of Glasgow Pre-sessional courses

Tests are accepted for 2 years following date of successful completion.

Alternatives to English Language qualification

• students must have studied for a minimum of 2 years at Undergraduate level, or 9 months at Master's level, and must have complete their degree in that majority-English speaking country and within the last 6 years
• students must have completed their final two years study in that majority-English speaking country and within the last 6 years

For international students, the Home Office has confirmed that the University can choose to use these tests to make its own assessment of English language ability for visa applications to degree level programmes. The University is also able to accept UKVI approved Secure English Language Tests (SELT) but we do not require a specific UKVI SELT for degree level programmes. We therefore still accept any of the English tests listed for admission to this programme.

For further information about English language requirements, please contact the Recruitment and International Office using our  enquiry form

International students

We are proud of our diverse University community which attracts students and staff from over 140 different countries.

• Find out more about entry requirements and other country-specific information
• International student support & visas
• This one-year masters programme is eligible for a new, streamlined visa application process: find out more

How to apply

To apply for a postgraduate taught degree you must apply online. We cannot accept applications any other way.

Please check you meet the Entry requirements for this programme before you begin your application.

As part of your online application, you also need to submit the following supporting documents:

• A copy (or copies) of your official degree certificate(s) (if you have already completed your degree)
• A copy (or copies) of your official academic transcript(s), showing full details of subjects studied and grades/marks obtained
• Official English translations of the certificate(s) and transcript(s)
• One reference letter on headed paper
• Evidence of your English language ability (if your first language is not English)
• Any additional documents required for this programme (see Entry requirements for this programme)
• A copy of the photo page of your passport (Non-EU students only)

You have 42 days to submit your application once you begin the process.

You may save and return to your application as many times as you wish to update information, complete sections or upload supporting documents such as your final transcript or your language test.

For more information about submitting documents or other topics related to applying to a postgraduate taught programme, see  how to apply for a postgraduate taught degree

Guidance notes for using the online application

These notes are intended to help you complete the online application form accurately; they are also available within the help section of the online application form. 

If you experience any difficulties accessing the online application, see  Application System Help .

• Name and Date of birth:  must appear exactly as they do on your passport. Please take time to check the spelling and lay-out.
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• Choice of course : Please select carefully the course you want to study. As your application will be sent to the admissions committee for each course you select it is important to consider at this stage why you are interested in the course and that it is reflected in your application.
• Proposed date of entry:  Please state your preferred start date including the month and the year. Taught masters degrees tend to begin in September. Research degrees may start in any month.
• Education and Qualifications : Please complete this section as fully as possible indicating any relevant Higher Education qualifications starting with the most recent. Complete the name of the Institution (s) as it appears on the degree certificate or transcript.
• English Language Proficiency : Please state the date of any English language test taken (or to be taken) and the award date (or expected award date if known).
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Reference : Please provide one reference. This should typically be an academic reference but in cases where this is not possible then a reference from a current employer may be accepted instead. Certain programmes, such as the MBA programme, may also accept an employer reference. If you already have a copy of a reference on letter headed paper then please upload this to your application. If you do not already have a reference to upload then please enter your referee’s name and contact details on the online application and we will contact your referee directly.

Application deadlines

September 2024.

• International & EU applicants : 26 July 2024
• UK applicants : 16 August 2024

Related programmes

English literature.

• Creative Writing [MLitt]
• Creative Writing (online) [MLitt: Online distance learning]
• English Literature [MLitt]
• English Literature: American Modern Literature [MLitt]

more related English Literature programmes

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Postgraduate prospectus

Secondary Menu

• Ph.D. Degree

The Graduate Program in Literature is a doctoral program, which means that all students enrolled prepare for the Ph.D. degree. The program does not grant M.A. degrees along the way. The typical time to completion for the doctoral program is 6 full years.

Requirements for the Ph.D.

• 12 Seminars
• 7 Literature Program courses
• At least 5 courses in a teaching field of your choice
• Foreign language proficiency in two languages
• Preliminary Exam
• Chapter Workshop
• Dissertation Defense
• Teaching Assistantship
• Responsible Conduct of Research Training

Additional Course Guidelines

Undergraduate-level Courses - There are no restrictions on the number of undergraduate courses a student may take outside the Literature Program during their graduate career. The approval of the DGS must be sought in such cases, and in any case Graduate School Regulations do not allow courses below the 500 level to count toward the fulfillment of coursework requirements or to be included in a student's GPA calculation.  In general undergraduate courses tend to be limited to relevant language courses.

Independent Studies - Students can take up to three independent studies over the course of their careers. Students have to complete the “Independent Study Notification Form” every time they take an independent study and it must be signed by the DGS. Supplies of these forms are kept in the DGS Assistant’s office.

Inter-institutional Courses - The Registrar requires students to follow a special procedure when they register for courses at other Triangle universities (UNC, NCCU, NCSU). Forms and information are available at the Registrar's Office. You’ll need approval from Lit’s DGS & the professor of the course.

Typical Degree Timeline

What follows is a very general timeline that graduate students in the Program may use as a rough orientation for their six-year course of study. It is not meant to replace the guidance that you should actively seek , for your own specific circumstances and research field(s), from your mentors and advisors.

During the first year, you will familiarize yourself with the department, the university, and the profession at large. The many colloquia and conferences offered at Duke, UNC Chapel Hill, NC Central and NC State, present great opportunities for you to get to know your peers, professors, national and international scholars.

During the second year, you can start presenting your work at conferences in your field(s). You should by now identify your main advisor(s), and begin TAing so as to familiarize yourself with teaching duties. You may also begin to plan for a Certificate in College Teaching.

During the third year, you will complete your preliminary exams and start to work towards your dissertation. Make sure to complete, by the end of this academic year, all the required coursework, including any language requirement related to your specific field. To be competitive in a specific field, you may well need more than one language besides English: please consult with your advisors about this matter.

During the fourth year, your focus will be to complete, if not an entire first draft, at least a good part of your dissertation. This is also a good moment to make your work known in the profession by publishing a part of your dissertation and by presenting some of the other parts at professional conferences. Finally, you should attend the dissertation formatting training sessions offered by the Graduate School (either during the fall or the spring): this is very important, to avoid any last-minute surprises that could jeopardize your entire time-plan for the PhD.

If possible, you should try to finish your dissertation during your fifth year at Duke. You should also keep a presence at professional conferences, and you may also want to consider the possibility of public humanities publications. Finally, this is the year to start applying for jobs.

You should be ready to defend by the end of this year.

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Doctor of Philosophy in Literature

Program description.

The graduate program in literature brings together scholars, creative writers and translators who share a commitment to transnational and interdisciplinary approaches to literary study and practice. The PhD in literature provides students with a flexible context in which to pursue research across a wide range of literary traditions, critical approaches and theoretical debates. In addition to coursework in literary studies, students have the opportunity to participate in creative writing and/or literary translation workshops as well as seminars in other disciplines, such as film studies, the history of ideas, philosophy and the visual and performing arts.

Students pursuing the PhD in literature may, if their coursework supports it, submit a translation or creative writing project as part of their dissertation.

Career Opportunities

Graduates of the program seek positions such as: teacher/educator, writer, editor, publisher, translator and critic. Career settings may include higher education, nonprofits, cultural and historical organizations, publishing houses, government agencies, international development organizations, museums and archives, business/corporate entities and independent consulting.

Marketable Skills

Review the marketable skills for this academic program.

Application Requirements

Visit the  Apply Now  webpage to begin the application process.  

Applicants to the Doctoral degree program should have:  

• A baccalaureate degree (BA or MA) or its equivalent from an accredited institution of higher education, normally in an arts and humanities field.  
• Letters of Recommendation: Applicants must submit 3 letters of recommendation from faculty, or other individuals, able to judge the candidate’s potential for success in the program.  
• Admissions Essay: Applicants must submit a 650-word narrative essay, which should be reflective rather than factual. The essay should address the applicant’s academic interests and goals and indicate how the program would enable such pursuits.  
• A writing sample: Submit an academic writing sample (e.g., a seminar paper or a critical essay). 
• International applicants must submit a TOEFL score of at least 80 on the internet-based test.  Scores must be less than two years old. See the  Graduate Catalog  for additional information regarding English proficiency requirements for international applicants.  
• Each application is considered holistically on its individual merits. You must submit all supporting documents before the Graduate Admissions Committee can review your application. 
• The Graduate Record Examination is not required. 

Deadline:  The application deadline is January 15. All applications completed by the deadline will be reviewed for admission. Applications submitted or completed after January 15 may be reviewed for admission only if spaces remain within the upcoming cohort and will be reviewed in order by the date the application file became complete.

Contact Information

Literature Graduate Programs Email: [email protected]

Dr. Charles Hatfield Associate Professor and Program Head Phone: 972-883-2780 Email: [email protected]

Graduate Advising Kelly Erb Phone: 972-883-6167 Email: [email protected]

Graduate Admissions Phone: 972-883-6176 Email: [email protected] Request Bass School Graduate Program Information

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Centre for Fantasy and the Fantastic

Gifcon 2024: conjuring creatures and worlds – programme.

Event registration can be found here including tickets for Workshops and the Networking Event. Speaker abstract and bios can be found here . Keynotes and Reading Suggestions can be found  here .  Workshops and Roundtable information can be found  here . 

This document is updated as needed. All times listed are BST, British Summer Time.

Zoom Links are sent to registered attendees only by Eventbrite emails during GIFCon.

Twitter Instagram Facebook Discord

Day 1: Wednesday May 15, 2024  

9:45 – 10:00: Platform Wide Welcome / Opening words and explanation of the mechanics with Will Tattersdill  

10:00 – 11:00: Opening Roundtable: Conjuring Creatures and Worlds with Chris Lynch Becherer, Madeline Potter, and Michelle Anya Anjirbag Chair: Mariana Rios Maldonado  Deputy Chair: Matthew Sangster 

11:00-11:15 Coffee Break ☕

Panel 1 11:15 – 12:30 

12:30-13:30 Lunch Break 🍽️

13:30-14:30: Keynote: Emily Selove

Chair: Matthew Sangster Deputy Chair: Orla Davey

14:30 – 14:45 Coffee Break ☕

Panel 2  14:45 – 16:00

16:15-17:00 Research Spotlight with Martine Gjermundsen Ræstad in the Discord

Day 2: Thursday May 16, 2024  

Panel 3   9:30 – 10:45 .

10:45 – 11:15Coffee Break ☕

11:15 – 12:30: Workshops 

4A: Epics and Emporiums – A Cozy Storytelling Game led by Frankie Bradley Deputy Chair:  Amber Pasternack 4B: Creating World Connected Characters led by Lily M. Frenette Deputy Chair: Catherine Hall 4C: Conjuring Politics: World-making as Pedagogy in the Social Sciences  led by Maha Rafi Atal Deputy Chair:  Maidah Rihan

13:30 – 14:30: Keynote: Carolyn Jess-Cooke

Chair: Dimitra Fimi Deputy Chair: Will Sherwood  

14:30 – 14:45 Coffee Break  ☕

Panel 5   14:45 – 16:00

16:15-17:00 Research Spotlight with Michael Quinn in the Discord

Day 3 : Friday May 17, 2024  

12:30 – 13:30: keynote: zen cho.

Chair: Will Tattersdill Deputy Chair: Orla Davey

13:30- 13:45 Coffee Break ☕

Panel 6   13:45 – 15:00 

Panel 7 — 15:00-16:00   Roundtable Conjuring Creatures (and Worlds) in YA Fantastika with Alkisti Kalliniko, Jeddie Bristow , Leah Phillips, and Shiqing Zhang Chair: Grace A.T. Worm  Deputy Chair: Will Tattersdill  

16:00 – 16:15 Coffee Break ☕

16:15-17:15 Networking Event moderated by Sam Tegetmeyer                    Zoom link available for registered attendees only 

Panel 8   17:15 – 18:30  

18:45-19:30 Research Spotlight with Anna Milon and Tom Emanuel in the Discord 

Philophantast: A Speculative Fiction and Philosophy Conference CFP

A free hybrid conference for postgraduate students and early career researchers to be held on June 05 and 06 2024 at the University of Glasgow, supported by Glasgow’s Centre for Fantasy and the Fantastic.

Deadline for Submissions: April 19 2024

Contact Email: [email protected]

Call for Papers: Speculative fiction and media encompass multiple genres and modes that, like philosophy, make us question the possible and impossible. Speculative creations provide tools to delve into philosophical questions, such as exploring the nature of identity and approaching the ineffable, in addition to speaking truth to power and empowering marginalised voices. This hybrid conference on speculative media and philosophy, sponsored by the University of Glasgow’s Centre for Fantasy and the Fantastic, seeks to showcase how speculative fiction and media can create and express philosophical insights. Speculative media has the capacity to incentivise scholars, critics, creators, and wider audiences to embrace and reflect on philosophical perspectives beyond the academic context, thus bridging the interdisciplinary gap between philosophy and the media we create, consume, study, and enjoy. Rather than considering philosophy as the abstract, systematic analysis of existence, knowledge, and reason with little to no correlation with our everyday lives, we wish to highlight the proximity of philosophy in praxis and theory through speculative media.

We invite submissions focusing on any genre or subgenre of speculative fiction, including but not limited to afrofuturism, alternate history, fantasy, the fantastic, horror, the gothic, utopia, dystopia, and science fiction. We also encourage submissions that focus on media such as film, games, comics and graphic novels, music, theatre, and television, as well as literature. Likewise, we welcome proposals from all philosophical perspectives and branches. For example, papers may address continental, analytical and indigenous philosophies and philosophical traditions; queer, non-western, post-colonial or anticolonial philosophical theory; branches such as aesthetics, epistemology, ethics, logic, and political philosophy; as well as ontological, phenomenological, and theological insights on or developed by speculative media.

We welcome proposals for 20-minute papers from postgraduate students and early career scholars. We also welcome panels and roundtables with a minimum of 3 and maximum of 4 presenters, and proposals for workshops. Papers may address, but are not limited to, the following topics:

• The analysis of speculative literature and media through philosophical lenses • Speculative literature and media acting as thought experiments for philosophical ideas • Imagination and philosophy • Speculative philosophy and speculative literature and media • Philosophical discourses developed by speculative literature and media • Speculative fiction as an inclusive philosophical practice

Previous examples of studies that encompass both speculative media and philosophy include Marxist thought in Fantastika, imagining alternative worlds in speculative fiction, Neoplatonic thought in J.R.R. Tolkien’s literary production, studies on the abject in horror writing and cinema, and the fictionalisation of philosophers in literature and games.

Please submit an abstract (around 300 words), a short bio (maximum 150 words), and state if you wish to present in person or online to [email protected] with the subject line ‘Abstract Submission’ by April 19 2024. Only applications from graduate students and early career researchers will be considered for this conference. We are particularly keen to highlight the contributions of underrepresented voices within speculative media and/or philosophy at this conference, and will prioritise contributions that demonstrate in abstract and/or bio that they align with this goal. If you have any questions, please contact the committee at [email protected]

GIFCon 2024: Conjuring Creatures and Worlds – Keynote Bios and Reading Suggestions

Event registration including registration for Workshops and The Networking Event can be found here .  The Programme can be found here .  Paper Speaker Bios can be found here . Workshops and Roundtables information can be found  here . 

This document is updated as needed. All times listed are BST, British Summer Time

Please find below our keynote speakers for this year’s GIFCon and a committee-created suggested reading list.

professor Emily Selove

Title: “Translation as Conjuration: Conversations with a 13th-Century Sorcerer”

Wednesday May 15, 13:30 – 14:30

Emily Selove (PhD 2012, UCLA) is an associate professor in Medieval Arabic Language and Literature at the University of Exeter. She is also the convener of the University of Exeter’s Centre for Magic and Esotericism. Her most recent publication is a short monograph for the Cambridge Elements Series:  The Donkey King: Asinine Symbology in Ancient and Medieval Magic . She was the PI of a Leverhulme-funded research project, “A Sorcerer’s Handbook,” (2019-2022) which will create an edition and translation of Sirāj al-Dīn al-Sakkākī’s (d. 1229) magic handbook, Kitāb al-Shāmil wa-baḥr al-kāmil ( The Book of the Complete ). Her early research focused on the figure of the uninvited guest (or “party-crasher”) in medieval Arabic literature, and especially on the 11th-century work  Ḥikāyat Abī l-Qāsim . Her translation of another 11th-century book of party-crashing is titled  Selections from the Art of Party-Crashing in Medieval Iraq .  She also co-authored a textbook to introduce beginning students to the city of medieval Baghdad,  Baghdad at the Centre of a World: 8th-13th Century ,  and has created a collection of cartoons titled   Popeye and Curly: 120 Days in Medieval Baghdad  to accompany this textbook.

Suggested Reading List by committee member Grace Worm:

• Explore Professor Selove’s 13th century sorcerer on her blog here . There are amazing visuals and interesting research as well a collection of her publications and presentations.
• Her 2020 article “Magic as Poetry, Poetry as Magic: A Fragment of Arabic Spells” is available on Muse if you have access through an institution! This article weaves discussions of magic, poetry, language, theology, and translations.
• Professor Selove’s book Baghdad at the Centre of a World, 8th-13th Century: An Introductory Textbook is a fascinating exploration of historic cultural productions happening in Baghdad during this time and the significant impact these productions had on the formation of Europe.
• And Professor Selove’s newest published novel The Donkey King: Asinine Symbology in Ancient and Medieval Magic (Elements in Magic) , besides having an amazing title, this book is an extremely interesting examination of methods for contacting jinn in 13th century Arabic grimoires. She interrogates symbols of donkeys in summoning jinn (hence the title) and makes connections between history, cultural, magic, demons, theology, the occult, humor, literature, and artistic symbols in fascinating ways.

dr C. J. Cooke

Title: “Writing Creatures and Worlds”

Thursday May 16, 15:00- 16:00

C. J. Cooke, also known as Carolyn Jess-Cooke, is an award-winning poet and novelist published in 23 languages. Her works is often categorised as feminist gothic with fantasy and supernatural elements, and two TV adaptations of her books are currently in development, with a third novel being developed as a feature film. Cooke is Reader in Creative Writing at the University of Glasgow. Her most recent book is  A Haunting in the Arctic , which was an Indigo Best Book of 2023.

Suggested Reading List by committee member Will Sherwood:

• C.J. Cooke’s critically-acclaimed Gothic novels are a excellent starting point. Although each novel is self-contained, I would highly recommend reading them in publication order as it allows you to follow how Cooke’s thoughts evolve on the interactions between the genre, motherhood and femininity, and trauma. Each book also includes an ‘Author’s Note’ at the end where Cooke reflects on the book’s inspiration, writing process, and themes. Start with The Nesting before moving onto The Lighthouse Witches, The Ghost Woods, and finish with A Haunting in the Arctic.
• Recently, Cooke was interviewed by Quills & Chills ( link here ) where she discussed her earliest writing memories, what brought her to the Gothic genre, and what attracted her about the themes that connect her four Gothic novels.
• Before publishing her novels and poetry, Cooke established an influential position in the Film studies, exploring the portrayal and adaptation of Shakespeare on Film and the critical value of Film Sequels.
• Besides her Gothic novels, Cooke has also published four novels and three poetry collections. We Have To Leave The Earth is a poetry collection split into three parts. Its interlocking concerns with the environment, family, and identity are harnessed to explore the virtues and flaws of human activity and how our actions find their consequences in the people and landscape around us.

Title: “Worlds inside Worlds, or, Conjuring Pasts”

Friday May 17, 12:30 – 13:30

Zen Cho writes fantasy and romance. Her newest novel,  The Friend Zone Experiment , is a contemporary romance set among London’s East and Southeast Asian community. Zen is a winner of the Hugo, Crawford and British Fantasy Awards and the LA Times Ray Bradbury Prize, as well as a finalist for the World Fantasy, Ignyte, Lambda, Locus and Astounding Awards. She was born and raised in Malaysia, resides in the UK, and lives in a notional space between the two.

Suggested Reading List by committee member Georgina Gale:

• Zen Cho reflects on her stories, career and the publishing world in her blog posts here . Her posts range from candid thoughts on the challenges of writing a novel , to discussing her experiences as a POC writing fantasy .
• One of Cho’s most recent novels, Black Water Siste r , was a finalist for the World Fantasy Award in 2022. Jessamyn Teoh is a jobless, broke, closeted lesbian moving back to Malaysia with her family. But she soon finds herself pulled into a world of gods, spirits, and family secrets after hearing the voice of her grandmother’s ghost.
• If you prefer shorter fiction, read Cho’s ‘If at First You Don’t Succeed, Try, Try Again’ , which won the Hugo Award for Best Novelette in 2019. This fantastic story centres on an imugi repeatedly striving to defy the laws of heaven and become a dragon.
• Already enjoyed all Cho’s own works? Why not try Kelly Link’s The Book of Love . Cho describes this novel as “Pure enchantment—a tale of love, death, magic and teenagers being teenagers, rich with fairy strangeness and told in sentences like jewels strung on a chain”.
• Another novel praised by Cho, Sue Lynn Tan’s Daughter of the Moon Goddess is inspired by the myth of Chang’e, the moon goddess. “A stirring romantic fantasy set in a richly realised world inspired by Chinese mythology” (to cite Cho), it is a reimagining of one of the most famous Chinese Gods.

GIFCon 2024: Conjuring Creatures and Worlds – Workshop and Roundtable Speaker Bios

Event registration including registration for Workshops can be found here .  The Programme can be found here .   Keynotes and Reading Suggestions can be found here .  Paper Speaker Bios can be found here .

Please find the bios for speakers appearing in Workshops and Roundtables during GIFCon 2024.

All workshops run concurrently on Thursday May 16 from 11:15 – 12:30 BST

Epics and emporiums – a cozy storytelling game, frankie bradley.

This cozy storytelling game has players collaboratively constructing a fantasy town, filling it with unique characters. Players, embodying shopkeepers, experience daily life in a quiet town on the verge of excitement. Each shop is unique, selling anything imaginable. Together, players shape characters, map the town, and choose an upcoming event—fair, pilgrimage, or natural disaster! Writing from their shopkeeper’s perspective, players imagine a day in town until it’s time to pass their story for someone else to take control. This workshop nurtures creativity and collaboration, providing writers a chance to have fun in a low-stakes narrative.

Bio: Frankie Bradley is a PhD researcher in the School of Arts & Humanities at Ulster University. They are currently working on projects involving decolonization in speculative fiction and exploring how identities are impacted by imperialist culture norms. With over a decade’s experience in the book industry, they have a variety of skills and are always willing to pick up new ones.

Creating World Connected Characters

Lily m. frenette.

In the essay “Beyond the Human,” So & Pinar Sinopoulos-Lloyd write that “[r]elationships between entities inform and create who we are, and we orient ourselves in the cosmos and in our local places by relating to others.” Fantasy worlds are filled with wonders of nature beyond anything in our reality: sentient rivers, animals who grant magical favors, trees that can travel. It can be a struggle to write characters who feel truly connected with these alien settings. Using theories on queer and ecological identities, we will craft characters whose connection to the natural world helps ground them in fantastical places.

Bio: Lily M. Frenette grew up in Minnesota, raised by the woods and waters. They write from the intersection of nature, magic, art, and community. Lily has an MSc in Creative Writing at the University of Edinburgh. She founded Alba Writing Club and lives with her cat familiar, Outlaw. Find them on Instagram @journalingirl.

Conjuring Politics: World-making as Pedagogy in the Social Sciences

Maha rafi atal.

Fantasy enables us to transpose, and therefore reimagine, political dynamics in our real world. This is not only because fantastic creatures “function as recognizable stand-ins” for real ones, but also because real-world political groupings are themselves “imagined communities” based on collective world-making. This workshop explores world-making as a tool of political pedagogy, including role-play re-imaginings of international summits, games that simulate the workings of capitalism, and assessments in which students film, sing or otherwise create political fantasies of their own. Facilitators will present evidence from their own teaching, before leading participants in designing new world-making pedagogy of their own.

Bio: Maha Rafi Atal is a Lecturer at the University of Glasgow, and a scholar of corporate power, and draws on fictional imaginings of the corporation–political economy’s own fantastical monster–in her work. She teaches courses on the popular culture and the global economy. In her teaching, she uses role-play simulations of real-world events and exercises in which students create fictional worlds of their own to explore political ideas. She will facilitate this workshop alongside colleagues in Politics who also use world-making as a pedagogic tool to teach contemporary social science, including Alister Wedderburn, Michael Toomey and Jonathan Parker.

Roundtables

Opening roundtable, wednesday may 15, 10:00 – 11:00 bst.

Researchers discuss their research in the context of this year’s GIFCon theme “Conjuring Creatures and Worlds”.

From the Call for Papers:   How do academics, creative practitioners, and fans conjure (and understand the conjuration of) fantasy, creatures and worlds? Fantasy and the fantastic have the capability to conjure the ephemeral and the horrific, the indefinable and the real, the Other and ourselves, but how do we understand these creations? And how do these encounters with creatures, magic, and worlds conform or challenge our understanding of the fantastic?  

Roundtable Participants:

Chris Lynch Becherer is in his final year as a PhD student at the University of Glasgow, studying worldbuilding in Terry Pratchett’s  Discworld  series. He was the co-founder of the inaugural GIFCON, all the way back in 2017, and co-runs  Puck’s Players , a fantasy theatre group! In 2021 he achieved an Associate Fellowship of Recognising Excellence in Teaching. Look out for his chapter on maps in Bloomsbury’s upcoming book on Power and Society in Terry Pratchett’s  Discworld .

Michelle Anya Anjirbag is an affiliated researcher at the University of Antwerp where she completed a postdoctoral fellowship with the Constructing Age for Young Readers project. Her research interests include adaptation, fairy tales and folklore, Disney, magical libraries, the intersection of literature, media, and culture, representations of gender and age, and cross-period approaches to narrative transmission across cultures and societies. Her work has appeared in a variety of journals and edited collections, and she serves on several editoral and advisory boards. She currently teaches a course on the intersections between fantasy media and sociological questions for international study abroad students in London.

Dr Madeline Potter is an early career teaching and research fellow in 19th-century literature at the University of Edinburgh. Her work explores the intersections between Gothic literature and theology, with a focus on monstrosity. Her first academic monograph, Theological Monsters: Religion and Irish Gothic is forthcoming with University of Wales Press.

Conjuring Creatures (and Worlds) in YA Fantastika

Friday may 17, 15:00 – 16:00.

Researchers discuss Conjuring Creatures (and Worlds) in Young Adult Fantastika.

Description: Young Adult fantastika is particularly rife with conjurations of fantastic creatures and, necessarily, the worlds they inhabit. This roundtable invites the participants to join a conversation exploring the ways in which YA as a genre uses the conjuring of creatures to explore otherness, sexuality, identity, culture, family, ethics, morality, and history across media, with a particular focus on literature.

Alkisti Kallinikou is a PhD researcher at the University of Edinburgh. She holds a BA in English and an MA in Creative Writing. Her current work investigates identity and otherness in children’s and young adult fantasy literature. She is also a writer and essayist and leads workshops on children’s literature and creative writing.

Jeddie Bristow As both an academic and a high school teacher, Jeddie Bristow is uniquely positioned to study her two specialty areas: Young Adult literature, and Arthurian literature. She is particularly interested in the intersection between old stories being retold in new ways for contemporary students, and how the values of today’s teenagers affect how culture and literature changes. She has an MA from Missouri State University, and has taught high school English for 4 years.

Dr Leah Phillips is a Senior Lecturer at Plymouth Marjon University, where she leads the English programmes, including the MA in Literature for Children and Young Adults. Her research interests focus on YA fiction’s impact on its readers, especially girls, as evidenced by her recent monograph, Female Heroes in Young Adult Fantasy Fiction. Her current research project aims to redefine the concept of ‘normal’ adolescence. As the founding President of the YA Studies Association, Leah champions interdisciplinary collaboration and inclusivity in YA literature; she brings these values to her service on the International Journal of Young Adult Literature’s Editorial Board.

Shiqing Zhang is a PhD student in the School of English Literature, Language and Linguistics at Newcastle University, UK. Her research focuses on the evolution of writing styles found in Le Guin’s children’s and YA fiction, as well as her fanfiction and other contributions to fantasy fiction writing.

GIFCon 2024: Conjuring Creatures and Worlds – Paper Speaker Bios

Event registration can be found here .  The Programme can be found here .   Keynotes and Reading Suggestions can be found here . Workshops and Roundtables information can be found here .  Workshop registration opens on May 6.

Panelists in alphabetical order (by first name):

• Alice Langley  
• Amy Richmond 
• Ane B. Ruiz-Lejarcegui 
• Anisha Das  
• Anna Milon & Tom Emanuel 
• Astrid R. Abildgaard  

Barbora Kaplánková

• Bettina C. Burger 
• Brynnah Runyan  
• Caroline Hannum 
• Catherine Hall  
• C. T. Power 
• Corinne Matthews  
• David Muiños García  
• Dulmi Wickremasinghe  
• Elliott Greene 
• Emilie Morscheck  
• Eva McLean  
• Fiona Reid  
• Frankie Bradley 
• Gao Weiming  
• Grace Rhyne 
• Hannah Frances Roux 
• Hannah Mimiec  
• Hollie Willis 
• Inês Vaz 
• Iria Seijas-Pérez 
• Kristine Larsen  
• Madeline Wahl 
• Manon Hakem-Lemaire 
• Maria Damkjær 
• Martine Gjermundsen Ræstad  
• Meg Horridge  
• Mercury Natis 
• Michael Quinn 
• Nathaniel Harrington  
• Nick Stember 
• Ning Lee 
• Olivia Scarr 
• Rachel Cairns  
• Rachel Harrison 
• Rebecca Gault 
• Rebecca Lloyd  
• Rebecca Pearce 
• Scarlett Butchers 
• Şevval Tufan  
• Siravich Khurat 
• Supriya Baijal 
• Tam Moules  
• Tara West 
• Vaibhav Dwivedi 
• Vincent Pritchard 
• Xiana Vázquez Bouzó  
• Zainab Wahab  
• Zoe Wible  
• Zvonimir Prtenjača 

Alice Langley

Abstract: Transformation as conjuration: the power of the post-menopausal woman. This paper applies a new framework to my research surrounding women who turn to stone: by using the lens of maiden/mother/crone, I distinguish between three women’s reasons and methods of conjuration, transforming themselves and creating a stone replacement. The three texts I am interrogating are Lucy Woods’ short story “Countless Stones,” Shakespeare’s The Winter’s Tale , and another short story, “The Stone Woman,” by A. S. Byatt. Rita, from Woods’ piece, undergoes a resigned and pragmatic transformation to standing stone on a Cornish clifftop. Considered a modern maiden (single, childless, unmarried), Rita’s slip into stone is quiet and unassuming. Hermione conjures a stone statue as her replacement in The Winter’s Tale to demonstrate her grief at the loss of her children and resistance to her husband’s false accusations of adultery. I argue that Hermione’s death, evidenced by her character’s appearance as a ghost, and reincarnation, represent the symbolic death and reincarnation of women’s transition to motherhood and newly altered state. Ines in A. S. Byatt’s short story represents the ‘crone’ element of the tripartite; here considered to be a post-menopausal woman (as fitting neither other category), Ines’ transformation is richly empowered – she travels to Iceland, ‘a primal chaos of ice, stone silt, black sand, gold mud’ (Byatt), to complete her corporeal transformation. I argue that, by comparing these women and their forms of transformation, we can see a spectrum of empowerment – from Rita’s slow, sad petrification, to Ines’ joyous and free merge with the Icelandic landscape. The figure most closely synonymous with the maiden lacks confidence and agency, whereas Ines’ transformation is redolent with it. The contemporary reclaiming of mature womanhood in books like Hags by Victoria Smith to Hagitude by Sharon Blackie, will be used to reinforce the argument that the post-menopausal woman conjures her own power.

Bio: Alice is a doctoral researcher in the Fantasy and Creative Writing departments at the University of Glasgow. She is in the process of editing her first novel as part of her PhD, which uses magical realism to examine the physical manifestation of grief for people who have experienced miscarriage. Her short stories have appeared in numerous literary journals, and she has given papers at UK and international conferences. Her writing includes work for theatre and a computer game which is currently in production. She works as a freelance editor and can be found on Instagram @alicelangleywriter.

Amy Richmond

Abstract: “It makes us feel a little like God”: Conjuring Delusions and Creation in Mona Awad’s Bunny “We were just these innocent girls in the night trying to make something beautiful. We nearly died. We very nearly did, didn’t we?” Mona Awad’s critically acclaimed 2019 horror Bunny encapsulates the psychological breakdown of scholarship student Samantha and her obsession with a group of her peers called the Bunnies. The book carefully depicts Samantha’s descent into madness and the collective delusions of the girls, in a literarily conscious blurring of fantasy and reality. On reading, it is deliberately unclear what Samantha has imagined and what she has experienced – dead/alive friends, heads exploding, the Frankenstein-building of boys, combining of identities, and bunny hunting. As a satirical critique of academia, it is inherently interested in intertextuality – with references to Frankenstein , Beowulf , and the creation of ideas. This paper seeks to interrogate how Bunny explores the concept of creation looking at three main angles. Firstly, it will explore the intertextual allusions throughout the novel and how it explores literary creation in Samantha’s creative writing workshops. This will lead into a critique of the Frankenstein acts in the novel – the explicit acts of asexual but eroticised creation that Samantha and the Bunnies enact in the Smut Salon as they build erotic male bodies. And finally it will then discuss the destructive deconstruction of what is created as Samantha descends into a madness and is unable to differentiate between what is real and what is fantasy. In its discussions of Bunny , this paper aims to explore the differences between delusion and fantasy, and question to what extent reality is of importance in discussing Bunny .

Bio: Amy Richmond (she/they) is an early-career academic who holds an MA(hons) in English from the University of Aberdeen and an MLitt in Fantasy Literature from the University of Glasgow. Specialising in contemporary fantastic fiction, their research interests include spatial theory, queer theory, Young Adult fiction, and body politics. She has presented at GIFCon, Exclamat!on Conference, and serves on the Editorial Board of Mapping the Impossible and currently works as a Journals Commissioning Editor at Emerald Publishing.

Ane B. Ruiz- Lejarcegui

Abstract: Enacting the Nonhuman: A.I. Consciousness and Text-Reader Interaction in Becky Chambers’ A Closed and Common Orbit

From human-made artificial intelligence to extraterrestrial entities with distributed hive minds, representations of nonhuman Others have long proliferated in speculative fiction. Depicting the wholly alien or that which requires reconfiguring any preconceived notions or boundaries, however, is not an easy feat, which is why authors strive to find a balance between the familiar and unfamiliar, so as not to entirely alienate the reader. In this paper, I argue that SF centred on nonhuman sentience may help defamiliarise human consciousness and reconceptualise hegemonic and anthropocentric binary systems of meaning (and oppression), thus endorsing posthumanist sensibilities. For this, I follow Caracciolo’s explanation of the text-reader interaction and non-materialist definition of consciousness, understanding it not as an object which can be linguistically depicted, but experienced by the reader, as an active and embodied enactment (2012). As case study, I analyse the conscious awakening (Matthews, 2023) of the A.I. protagonist in Becky Chambers’ A Closed and Common Orbit (2016), Sidra, a Lovelace-model spaceship A.I. now installed in an illegal anthropomorphic ‘body kit.’ Through Sidra’s character, Chambers portrays the interplay between the known and the indescribable in which the fantastic thrives: a familiar embodiment, in this case, a human body, inhabited by an unfamiliar consciousness used to different sensory and communication systems. To understand how she achieves this, I look at narrative stylistics, such as deliberate omissions to prompt reader interaction and the decentring of anthropocentric meaning-making, following Sidra’s exploration of her own identity, her confrontation of self-image issues, feelings of dysphoria and dissociation, and her final attainment of agency and self-acceptance. Thus, since experiential sharing between reader and character seems to entail perspective-taking and empathy (Caracciolo, 2020), I contend that examples such as Sidra’s allow us to enact and be open to different, equally valid non-anthropocentric alternatives to experiencing existence.

Bio: Ane B. Ruiz-Lejarcegui is a PhD candidate at the University of the Basque Country (UPV/EHU) in Spain and a predoctoral researcher in the research group REWEST: Research in Western American Literature and Culture. She has been granted a scholarship by the Basque Government to carry out her thesis on hybrid identities, power asymmetries and othering in contemporary science fictional narrative discourse. She has also done extensive research on H.G. Wells’ early works for her BA and MA dissertations, and her current interests include Posthumanism, Space Opera, Contemporary American Fiction, Hybridity, Cognitive Narratology and Cultural Studies.

Abstract: Legends of the land: Assam’s mythical creatures and their ecological resonance.

Assam, a state nestled in the northeastern part of India, stands as a repository of cultural diversity and vibrant oral traditions. The legends and myths have evolved into stories that shape the collective consciousness of the community. Folklore of Assam is full of tales of mythical creatures woven into the region’s identity, both in folktales and urban legends, often assigned specific spaces where they reside, rule, or haunt. Among these tales, two intriguing mythical entities, the Bamboo Ghost which is said to haunt the bamboo groves, and Jalnarayan, a spirit linked with the element of water hold significant cultural and symbolic value. Despite their ethereal nature, they seemed to be bound by an invisible tether to their designated spaces, their existence is linked to the very essence of the element of nature with which they are associated. This confinement underscores their intrinsic connection to the land, implying a symbiotic relationship between the mythical realm, the physical landscape, and the oral history of Assam. Behind their formidable façade these creatures, often lurking in the shadows, seem to mask the true intent of their protective nature. Their dichotomy as both assailants and guardians sheds light on the complex relationship between the people of the land and their environment. This paper aims to explore the multifaceted roles played by these mythical creatures, examining their existence in oral and urban legends as both menacing entities and protectors, while also drawing parallels to the social, historical, and ecological struggles of the communities. By examining these entities within the context of cultural continuity, this paper seeks to shed light on the intricate relationship between folklore and community narratives.

Bio: A native of Assam, Anisha Das holds a Master’s degree in English Literature and Film Studies. Her master’s dissertation explored the intertextuality of fairy tales, with a particular focus on Guillermo del Toro’s Pan’s Labyrinth . For her dissertation on film studies, she investigated Indian animation films with anthropomorphic characters. She has transitioned into the role of creative strategist in digital advertising, serving for the past three years. Her academic journey and professional experience position her at the intersection of literature, film, and digital media.

Anna Milon & Tom Emanuel

Abstract: Conjured Presence: Spiritual Experiences in Fantasy Spaces

Going back to Huizinga (1938), play theorists have recognized the similarity between games and rituals as activities inscribed within a magic circle that imbues actions, words, and states of consciousness with significance “apart from” their everyday meaning (cf. Wagner 2012). Within these magic circles, player-participants may have meaningful spiritual experiences and encounter what they understand to be genuine spiritual presences (Laycock 2015). This raises a question: what is the nature of such experiences and encounters when they take place in magic circles which have been conjured for ostensibly non-spiritual purposes, such as fan rituals or live-action roleplaying (LARP) games?

Enyaliȅ (Quenya: remembrance) is a fan gathering which takes place at J.R.R. Tolkien’s grave in Oxford on or around the 2 September anniversary of his death. Featuring readings from his writings, the laying of commemorative wreaths, and ritual song, Enyaliȅ reproduces Cherry’s (2010) fourfold structure of Christian worship. Whereas Christian liturgy facilitates encounter with the Christian God, however, Enyaliȅ is explicitly nonreligious. Tolkien is honored but not worshiped, and the story-world invoked is understood as fiction not gospel per se.

Conversely, magical rituals performed at Curious Pastimes LARP are diegetically religious, framed as encounters with various divine powers, but do not reproduce any sacred rite of the primary world. Performed by approximately two to a dozen people, such rituals can be observed by any number of LARPers, and include features of various world belief systems from Christianity to modern paganism that their participants find evocative.

Despite their differences, we propose both Enyaliȅ and rituals at Curious Pastimes can facilitate meaningful spiritual experiences in their participants that transcend beyond the frame of either fan community or role-playing game. It is our aim to explore the nature and role of such experiences in fantasy spaces of fandom and LARP.

Bio: Dr. Anna Milon is a longstanding GIFCon lurker who should really have done a PhD at Glasgow, but was seduced by the south coast and Exeter instead. Her thesis on the pagan Horned God as an environmental figure in fantasy fiction includes a case study of Live Action Role-Play storytelling alongside more conventional narratives. She is currently looking for ways to study the overlap between role-play and alternative spiritual movements in more detail. Anna lives in Hampshire with her paladin fiancé, a medium-sized child, and an orange cat.

The Rev. Tom Emanuel is a Congregationalist minister and PhD candidate at the University of Glasgow. His research explores the reception of The Lord of the Rings among nonreligious fans and is funded by an Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC) doctoral partnership with the Scottish Graduate School of Arts and Humanities (SGSAH). His work on Tolkien and theology has appeared in publications such as Mythlore , Mallorn , and The Journal of Tolkien Research . Tom lives in Glasgow with his spouse and two elven-fair children whom he is already inducting into the ‘deplorable cultus’ of Tolkien fandom.

Astrid Roesen Abildgaard

Abstract: Conjuring a World of Women – And a Solution to our Climate Struggles? Human-nature relationships in Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s Herland In her lost-world fantasy Herland (1915), the American novelist Charlotte Perkins Gilman (1860-1935) conjures up a utopian world of the same name. It is a world without men, a world founded on miracle births and centred around motherhood, a world that is ideal for women. Much of the research on Herland has understandably focused on the ways it reflects Gilman’s proto-feminism or – in another vein – her interest in eugenics. However, in recent years, critics have turned to the role of the natural world in Gilman’s feminism. Building on this ecological turn in Gilman studies, this paper will explore the human-nature relationship depicted in Herland and contextualize it in terms of the environmental concerns of both early 20th-century America and the Anthropocene. I will argue that in the act of shaping a world around motherhood, Gilman also conjures up a world of ecological improvement and that Gilman presents us with a “good Anthropocene” where human influence on nature is omnipresent yet balanced. I will also show how, with this vision for nature, Gilman situates herself in a larger but largely forgotten tradition of utopian fiction written by American women in the 19th and early 20th century. And like these women, Gilman offers us a vision of modes of being with nature that – though fantastical – can be instructive today.

Bio: Astrid Roesen Abildgaard (she/her) completed her Masters degree in English and History at the University of Copenhagen in 2022 and has since worked as an upper secondary school teacher. Her interests lie in women’s history and women’s writing, preferably in combination. She hopes to expand her dissertation on American utopianism in a PhD project that seeks to recover and re-examine American women’s utopian fiction from the 19th and early 20th centuries.

Abstract: Children of Miyazaki: Travellers into the Unseen Hayao Miyazaki can be safely considered among the most important creators of children’s fantasy movies of the last few decades. His work is characterized by complex explorations of family, growing up and the world as seen through the eyes of a child. It is not, however, only a matter of depicting naivety or innocence – Miyazaki endows his child characters specifically with the power to access the layers of reality unavailable to adults. The main focus of this paper is a comparative analysis of how the children in Miyazaki’s films interact with the alternative worlds and their many forms of the unseen drawn from animism and shintoism, and oscillating between the fantastic and the mythological/mystical. These interactions bring complexity into Miyazaki‘s portrayal of children – they are faced with serious issues and obstacles, many of which just happen to exist beyond the scope of adult perception. In this paper I focus specifically on the child protagonists of My Neighbor Totoro , Kiki’s Delivery Service , Spirited Away and Ponyo , and the cooperation of stylistic elements and dialogue in conveying their specific experiences. My main goal is to characterize these children’s experiences of the films’ respective unique versions of the unseen (new levels of reality, magic, creatures, deities) through analysis of selected scenes, and in the end describe how those contribute to the overall manner in which Miyazaki presents us a child’s view of the world, both “ours” and “other”.

Bio: Barbora Kaplánková (1994) is a student of the PhD programme Theory and History of Theatre, Film, Radio and Television at Palacký University in Olomouc, Czechia. In her dissertation she focuses on depiction of masculinity and femininity in contemporary fantasy film franchises. She is interested in fantasy and animation, and her currently developing interest is the Czechoslovak fairy tale film. She teaches classes on animation theory and on fantasy as a genre, and published chapters on animation in Metamorphoses of Imagination: The Feature Films of Jan Švankmajer (2020, ed. Luboš Ptáček) and Czech Cinema: Situation in 2018 (2020, ed. Petr Bilík).

Dr. Bettina Charlotte Burger

Abstract: Their Primitive Superstition vs. Our Scientific and Enlightened Magic – Magic Systems in T. L. Huchu’s Edinburgh Nights series

‘Magic system’ is the term for the collective rules and limitations of magic in a fantasy text, which may be well defined and quasi-scientific or vague and mysterious. According to Christopher Mahon on clarkesworld, “[m]aking magic into a kind of science, similar to modern views on thermodynamics or astronomy, risks creating a kind of causal closure that causes each fantasy world to turn into a mirror-image of our world, complete with historical and philosophical parallels to the Age of Enlightenment and its aftermath” (n.p.). T. L. Huchu’s Edinburgh Nights series fully leans into the “historical and philosophical parallels to the Age of Enlightenment” (n.p.) feared by Mahon and uses them to great effect. The Edinburgh Nights series juxtaposes a hard magic system, based on the very principles of the Scottish Enlightenment – part of a magic library is literally named after David Hume – with the protagonist’s ‘traditional’ knowledge, taught by her Zimbabwean grandmother. Ropa uses music to communicate with ghosts and ghouls, a talent that is looked down upon by the established magic users of her world. It is a ghost’s plea for help, however, that leads her right into the centre of Scottish magic, the Library of the Dead, where she is introduced to the ‘enlightened and scientific’ magic of the establishment as well as to more prejudices towards her own magic. Ropa is enamoured with the more structured magic she now has access to, but Huchu takes great care to show that the Enlightenment type of magic (and science) is by no means without flaw. It is ultimately always Ropa’s talents that save the day. In presenting the two magic systems side by side, Huchu manages to criticise Enlightenment thought that disparages more traditional ways of knowing without dismissing the scientific method completely, thus creating a nuanced Zimbabwean-Scottish magic system.

Bio: Bettina Charlotte Burger is a lecturer at the Heinrich-Heine University of Dusseldorf in the field of English Studies. Their dissertation argues that fantasy literature ought to be considered as world literature in its scope and that world literary readings of individual examples of world fantasy are highly productive as well as necessary. They have co-edited a collection on Nonhuman Agencies in The Twenty-First-Century Anglophone Novel and have published several articles in the field of speculative fiction. Currently, they are working for a project that intends to establish an Australian Studies Online Masters Programme.

Brynnah Runyan

Abstract: Alienation of A-Spec Identities: Sexuality, Romantic Love, and What it Means to Be Human Within the LGBTQ+ community, nonhuman characters frequently serve as symbolic representations of diverse identities, notably asexuality (ace) and aromantic (aro) identities (Rowan Ellis, “The Problem with…). This trend, prominent in fantasy and science fiction, is exemplified by Data in Star Trek: The Next Generation . Data, primarily expressing asexual and aromantic traits due to his nonhuman and artificial nature, once referenced an “intimate” connection with Tasha Yar, significantly influencing perceptions of his humanity (“Measure of a Man”). This paper delves into asexuality and aromanticism within nonhuman characters in sci-fi and fantasy realms. Asexuality, denoting the absence of sexual attraction (ace), and aromanticism, signifying the absence of romantic attraction (aro), depict identities often defined by what they lack, residing in a space of non-identity. These identities are frequently depicted as “other” in media portrayals. While showcasing these identities in nonhuman characters aims to provide visibility, it also runs the risk of alienating individuals within their community and species. The study explores compulsory sexuality, media portrayal, and the intricacies of these identities, aiming to address why alloromanticism and allosexuality (the presence of romantic and sexual attraction) are consistently linked to essential humanity. Its goal is to illustrate how nonhuman ace/aro characters challenge this narrative, questioning the use of the absence of sexual or romantic attraction to define non-humanity.

Bio: Brynnah Runyan (she/her) is a Master’s student in her final year at the University of Colorado Denver. Her primary areas of study are popular literature, adventure novels, and revenge narratives, all displayed in her undergraduate honors thesis “‘Wait and Hope’: Faith, Hope, and Redemption in Dumas’ The Count of Monte Cristo .” Though she’s taken some time away from creative writing, Brynnah also published a sci-fi work, Henryk. Brynnah lives with her nesting partner John-Michael and her dog Stanley. She loves to take in the fresh mountain air when she hasn’t sequestered herself inside to research her current hyperfixation.

Caroline Hannum

Abstract: Girls Against Gods: Divinity as the Female Hero’s Antagonist, a Metaphor for Patriarchal Control

The contemporary fantasy novels The Poppy War , City of Dusk , and Kingdom of Ash all written by women authors since 2017, feature complicated and morally gray female protagonists who struggle against God or Gods. This paper will argue that these novels deploy divinity as a metaphor for patriarchal control, allowing their protagonist to assert their own will against a supposedly absolute power. Authors R.F Kuang, Tara Sim, and Sarah J. Maas use fantasy’s ability of conjuration to create worlds in which magic is derived from beings of seemingly unlimited power. Living in these realities, each hero must come to terms with the fact that her power, even as it provides a sense of authority and control, is not her own, and in fact limits her autonomy. The plots and authorship of the three novels involve women of diverse and varied backgrounds negotiating their vexed relationship to patriarchal power. In 2022 Taylor Driggers proposed a theory of the relationship between fantasy and religion in his book, Queering Faith in Fantasy Literature ; he argued for fantasy’s ability to articulate queer and feminist spiritualities and theological imaginaries that challenge the power structures of Western theology. This analysis will extend Driggers’ claims for the subversive capacities of contemporary fantasy, arguing that they contest patriarchy as well as theology. It develops a feminist account of the relationships between female heroes and her god(s), and situates that account in relation to the work of scholars including Janine Jobling and Douglass E. Cowan, among others. Overall, this analysis seeks to contribute to a larger conversation in how fantasy can be used as a space in which women can deconstruct and demarginalize their identities in a patriarchal system. It asks the question: in a genre in which anything can be conjured, why did these women create worlds in which their heroes are not autonomous but beholden to a power outside of themselves?

Bio: Caroline Hannum is a second-year MA student in the English Department at Georgetown University. Her research focuses on contemporary fantasy novels authored by women.

Catherine Hall

Abstract: Dwarvish Point of View?: Neo-Khuzdul, Fanfiction, and the Construction of an Alternative Middle-earth

In “A Secret Vice,” Tolkien argues that language and mythology are “coeval and congenital” and that “language construction will breed a mythology” (“A Secret Vice” 2016: 24). Khuzdul, the secret language of the Dwarves, is much less developed than the tongues of the Elves; only a few fragments of Khuzdul are found in Tolkien’s writings, and the Neo-Khuzdul constructed by David Salo for Peter Jackson’s adaptations is also limited. Dwarves are also a marginalized and othered group in Middle-earth, and, founding their interpretations on statements of characters biased against Dwarves, Peter Jackson’s adaptations and some critical literature recreate the biases against them. In response, many fanworks challenge misconceptions of Tolkien’s Dwarves. One important fan-created resource on Tolkien’s Dwarves, recognized as an authoritative source within the Tolkien fandom, is The Dwarrow Scholar’s Neo-Khuzdul Library. This resource, often cited by fanfiction authors, contains dictionaries, translation tools, and, significantly, articles on Dwarvish culture and history, illustrating the interconnectedness of language and mythology underlined by Tolkien. This paper will explore the uses of The Dwarrow Scholar’s Neo-Khuzdul in a diverse range of fanworks in comparison with the use of the language in Tolkien’s writings and Peter Jackson’s adaptations—on which a large body of fanfiction is based—and suggest that this fan-constructed language conjures an alternative portrait of Middle-earth from the previously marginalized perspective of Dwarves. Moreover, the incomplete portrait of the race in Tolkien’s writings leaves room for interpretation, and The Dwarrow Scholar’s dictionary aids and encourages fans to explore alternative modes of identity and being through Dwarves, conjuring a more inclusive and diverse portrait of Middle-earth. We see, then, how the construction of an invented language, even if used within an already existing secondary world, can create an alternative mythology.

Bio: Catherine Hall earned her BA in English Literature at McGill University in 2022 and is currently completing an MLitt in Fantasy Literature at the University of Glasgow. She has been an executive editor for the student-run, online Science Fiction and Fantasy review ImaginAtlas since 2020, and some of her work has been published in Mythlore . Her research interests include Old English heroic poetry, Tolkien’s medieval sources, Dwarves, monstrosity, and fan culture.

C. T. Power

Abstract: House of the Dragon: Gender, Race and the Persistent Past

This paper proposes to analyse HBO’s House of the Dragon (2022-), the prequel to Game of Thrones (2011-2019), to highlight a significant trend in a broader corpus of contemporary televisual fantasy representations which produce, circulate and reproduce contradictory ideologies and images of gender and race. Focusing on an immersive, medievalist, fantasy world, this paper recognises long-held racial, gender-based and white-dominated prejudices within the genre. Fantasy often reaches into the past for its narratives and aesthetics and medievalism is but one aspect of this. Medievalism and the pasts’ prominence within the genre and how this has shaped certain generic conventions and aesthetics is key in understanding why images and aesthetics of a non-modern era are so widely recurrent. Adaptations are a product of their time and conditions as “we cannot isolate a text from its historical contexts of production and consumption” (Mittell 7). As a site for analysis then, House of the Dragon, can reveal cultural tensions surrounding inequality, representation, and visibility. Through a close analysis of the character Queen Alicent Hightower, this paper seeks to draw out the discourses about gender and whiteness circulating in this fantasy world. The particular medievalism GoT and now House of the Dragon produces plays a part in “framing of the Middle Ages as white space” in fantasy screen culture (Downes and Young, 221). Through maintaining generic expectations of medievalist fantasy worlds, problematic framings of race and gender arise, for example, consistent imaginings of royalty, upper classes and those in positions of power as predominantly white and male. Whiteness and “medievalist nostalgia” coalesce in this series to prioritise white bodies, while non-white bodies are repeatedly displaced or marginalised. Examining how race and gender are used to construct alternative iterations of society in televisual fantasy offers an opportunity to understand our culture.

Bio: Chloe is a third year PhD candidate in University College Dublin, who’s research focuses on the interdisciplinary fields of fantasy in television and literature, offering an inter-sectional analysis of the representation of gender, race and sexuality in the contemporary genre. Her project, The Progressive Fantastic: Race, Gender, Sexuality and the Evolution of Transmedia Fantasy 2010-2021, combines analysis of fantasy novels with television adaptations, exploring the emergence of fantasy TV and the inter-medial impact of the genre’s new prominence in the market. Aside from a lifelong obsession with fantasy she is also interested in film, hiking and her dog.

Corinne Matthews

Abstract: Conjuring Consent: Magic, Power, and Patriarchy in Young Adult Fantasy Since #MeToo’s viral moment in 2017, there has been an increased public focus on both the prevalence of sexual assault and the importance of teaching young people about consent. However, while scholars like Roxanne Harde and Angela Hubler have drawn attention to sexual assault within young adult realist texts, their focus has largely been on rape and rape culture rather than consent. Similarly, while scholars like Ebony Elizabeth Thomas and Leah Phillips have underscored both the potential and limitations of young adult fantasy, critical attention has not yet been paid to how consent works within the genre. However, YA fantasy has long introduced readers to questions of consent and thus plays a key role in how it functions in larger sociocultural contexts. This presentation considers how a range of YA fantasy authors (Tamora Pierce, Kristin Cashore, Malinda Lo, etc.) use the magical systems of their fantasy worlds to teach young readers about how consent should—and shouldn’t—work. While some authors keep magical and sexual consent separate and others investigate the intersections of the two, many YA authors shed light on how consent can and should work through magical allegory, especially in the face of power differentials made even more stark by the magical systems in which their characters function. Spotlighting representative titles like Gail Carson Levine’s Ella Enchanted and Cashore’s Graceling , I argue that through the imaginative world building and allegory allowed by genre fiction, these authors can escape the limitations of contemporary society, illuminate the underpinnings of larger systems of oppression, and imagine more just alternatives.

Bio: Corinne Matthews is a postdoctoral fellow in the University Writing Program at the University of Florida, where she earned a PhD in English in 2023. Her research interests include children’s and young adult literature, fantasy and speculative fiction, gender and sexuality studies, and comics and graphic novels. She also co-hosts the pop culture podcast Sex. Love. Literature .

David Muiños García

Abstract: Motherless: Absent, Spectral, and Monstrous Motherhood in Video Games The idea of mothers as protagonists has been widely explored in film and literature while video games have remained adamantly resistant to placing them at the center of the narrative. Yet, every single patriarchal trope about motherhood, pregnancy, and femininity keeps being repeated even in today’s video game fictions. Thus, we still see the same recurring patterns where mothers are confined to the role of nurturer unless they can provide character development for the hero, at which point they acquire one of three statuses: dead, spectral, or monstrous. This paper takes a critical look at several video games where mothers are represented within the limits of such archetypes in favor of a male heroic protagonist, often a father represented as a positive example–a trend which has been sharply increasing in the last ten years in the video game industry. Prominent examples include video game sagas such as God of War, Assassin’s Creed, Final Fantasy, Mass Effect, Dark Souls, and The Banner Saga. Motherhood has stayed not only underrepresented, but steadily misrepresented. Female fertility is implied to be abhorrent when not under male control; pregnancy is portrayed as a grotesque transformation of the human body, often becoming a crucial plot point in the horror genre; sexuality appears only through the lens of patriarchal pre-conceptions and unrealistic standards. Those aspects of female existence that do obtain representation are sorted into male-designed dehumanizing categories, such as those found in “pink games”. What all these issues point towards is the lack of female perspective in the representation of female gender-specific issues in video games. Therefore, this paper will shed light into the representational patterns of motherhood and pregnancy followed by male-focused game development in lieu of better-informed perspectives on female experiences.

Bio: David Muiños García (he/him) earned a Bachelor’s Degree in English Philology at the University of A Coruña, where he also earned a Master’s Degree in Advanced English Studies. He combines his research in cultural studies with his job as an English teacher. He earned a B.A. Hons in Combined Studies at the University of Worcester, UK. He also lived in the United States, where he taught Spanish at Ursinus College, Pennsylvania. He is currently working on his PhD thesis, in which he delves into representational patterns of pregnancy, childbirth, motherhood and fatherhood in video games.

Dulmi Wickremasinghe

Abstract: An LOTR world “for everyone”? Discussing Amazon’s interventions in Tolkien’s representation of Elvish gender aesthetics

This paper examines Elvish gender representation and aesthetics in Amazon’s Rings of Power (ROP). It argues that Amazon negatively alters Tolkien’s ambivalent representation of Elvish genders and contradicts its own efforts to create a more inclusive LOTR universe. Instead, Amazon reinforces harmful, real-world gender binaries and erases already marginalized identities from fantasy, despite making other progressive decisions (like racially diverse casting). First, the paper argues that Tolkien’s descriptions of the Elves’ biological sexes carry very strong, feminine aesthetics, such as ethereal beauty and long/beautiful hair. Thus, fanwork, and Peter Jackson’s LOTR and Hobbit films, represent male and female Elves with an aesthetic ambivalence that challenges readers’ understandings of real-world male/female binaries, and invite subversive readings of gender-fluidity in Tolkien’s Elves. The paper then demonstrates how Amazon mutes this ambivalence by representing its male Elvish characters with more rigid, 20th/21st-century gender conventions, such as short hair. To do so, the paper uses cultural studies theory, textual close readings, and media analysis. Particularly, it uses Sean Nixon’s work on “new man” aesthetics, which discusses how media constructs gender, and borrows his terminology to discuss the differences between Tolkien and Amazon’s representation of the Elves. It will also use criticism of Robert Mapplethorpe’s photography to discuss how feminine aesthetics in particular help create ambivalence, alongside scholars and viewers’ responses to Amazon’s aesthetic alterations. This paper ultimately demonstrates that excluding Tolkien’s ambivalent feminine aesthetic limits the scope of ROP–especially because ROP offers no alternative, gender-diverse representations of its own. This limits viewers’ ability to interact with the conjured world, but also wrongfully suggests that LOTR is a hyper-masculine fantasy. Lastly, it perpetuates the harmful notion that gender diversity is absent in fantasy. Thus far, fans and scholars have overlooked these implications–a precedent this paper hopes to change.

Bio: Dulmi Wickremasinghe (she/her) is a Fantasy MLitt student at the University of Glasgow researching contemporary YA fantasy. Her other research interests have included skin whitening practices in literary and historical settings, and wish-fulfilment and social politics in the Middle English loathly lady tales. In her spare time, she enjoys teaching, learning to cook food from various cultures, and collecting books despite no longer having any space to store them.

Elliott Greene

Abstract: (Re)Writing Reality: Authorial Power and Narration as Conjuration in Alan Wake 2 In Remedy Entertainment’s highly acclaimed 2023 video game, Alan Wake 2 , the power of narration is central to both the plot and gameplay. Trapped in the mysterious Dark Place, troubled author, Alan Wake, must free himself by writing and rewriting a narrative of escape. The Dark Place allows Alan’s writing to change reality, both within the Dark Place and the ‘real world’. This ability for narrative to transform reality is actualised in the gameplay, merging the role of player and character, with the player testing combinations of scenes and plot elements to manifest solutions to various puzzles. Nevertheless, Alan’s efforts to escape are limited by the genre of the story, horror. Julio Cortázar’s short story “The Continuity of Parks” similarly merges the role of reader and character, relating a story in which a reader is so immersed in a tale of murder that he does not realise he has become the victim. Both of these texts question the extent of a reader and author’s power to shape narrative, while simultaneously offering a metanarrative perspective on the process of story crafting. However, while Cortázar’s short story implies the inevitable death of the reader-as-character, Alan Wake 2 offers the potential for liberation from passive immersion in a text, realised through multiple playthroughs. This paper argues that Alan Wake 2 offers a reimagining of Cortázar’s concept of the passive reader, proposed in his famous 1963 novel Hopscotch . Like Alan Wake 2 , this novel allows multiple stories to arise from repeated readings in which the role of reader and author are merged. Alan Wake 2 , as a video game, adds a further layer to the metanarrative merging of reader and author, allowing the player to actively participate in the revision of the story.

Bio: Elliott Greene is a Lecturer in Foundation Studies and early career researcher. He completed his PhD in English Literature at Edinburgh University in 2023. His thesis, (De)Constructed Binaries: Monologue and Dialogue in Contemporary Popular Fantasy, offered a narratological analysis of the way popular fantasy texts resolve the tension between binary oppositions. His most recent publications include an article in The Journal of Narrative Theory on N.K. Jemisin (2023), and a chapter in the recently published The Romantic Spirit in the Works of J.R.R. Tolkien (2024).

Emilie Morscheck

Abstract: Reimagining Disability in YA Fantasy: Exploring Harper and Rhen in ‘A Curse So Dark and Lonely’

This paper considers the construction and representation of dis(ability) in fantasy young adult novels, with a specific focus on the novel A Curse So Dark and Lonely by Brigid Kemmerer. It will explore how Kemmerer represents dis(ability) through the characters of Harper and Rhen, and will argue that Kemmerer’s use of a fantasy world achieves the subversion of roles for disabled characters and questions real world constructs of disability. This aligns with Webb’s view on representation that “What seems to be true, right or accurate is, generally speaking, only true, right or accurate when it fits with a particular social, historical and personal perspective.”(2009, 7). The concept of ‘disability’ has an alternative interpretation in Kemmerer’s fantasy setting. The narrative arc of A Curse So Dark and Lonely provides a unique lens through which to examine the portrayal of disability through the inclusion of a main character with cerebral palsy, a young woman named Harper. Harper comes from a version of the real world, and Rhen, the cursed prince, lives in a fantasy world. Both are considered disabled in their original worlds, but not by each other. Where Harper doesn’t view her disability as an unconquerable obstacle, Rhen’s curse is central to the novel’s conflict. This paper contributes to the ongoing discourse on representation in literature by unravelling the complexities of disability coding in fantasy young adult novels. Through a focused examination of A Curse So Dark and Lonely , it illuminates the potential of the fantasy genre to challenge and reshape traditional narratives surrounding disability, ultimately fostering a more inclusive and empathetic literary landscape.

Webb, J. (2009). Understanding Representation. SAGE Publications.

Bio: Emilie Morscheck, a Ph.D. candidate at the University of Canberra, investigates the portrayal of autism in young adult fantasy literature. Shortlisted for the 2021 Text Prize and honoured as the inaugural recipient of the Steph Bowe Mentorship for her manuscript ‘These Cursed Waters,’ her academic pursuits intertwine her passion for writing and research. Emilie’s scholarly focus delves into the nuanced representation of autism, aiming to illuminate the intersections of identity and storytelling within the realm of young adult fantasy. Her academic journey embodies a commitment to exploring diverse narratives and advancing understanding of marginalised identities in literature.

Abstract: ‘But the flower is made of shadow:’ The ecoGothic, the Ephemeral and the Fantastic within C.J. Cooke’s The Ghost Woods C.J. Cooke writes that her novel The Ghost Woods is ‘first and foremost a gothic novel’ and this paper explores the text’s relationship with the ecoGothic. The dark forest conjured by C.J. Cooke is far from a mere a backdrop as it acts as an active participant in the narrative, blending the eerie with the ecological. Pearl Gorham arrives at Lichen Hall in 1965 – an opulent house in the middle of the woods shrouded in folklore of ghosts and fae. Pearl is one of many young women sent to Lichen Hall to give birth and this paper will address the setting, mythical creatures, fae and growing ‘fungus that creeps up the walls’ that Pearl encounters. Cooke blurs the lines between fantasy and reality, creating a narrative space where the fantastical becomes a tool for reflecting on the complexities of human experiences. This paper aims to contribute to the understanding of gothic literature’s evolution, highlighting how The Ghost Woods adapts traditional motifs to comment on environmental and social issues pertinent to both its 1965 setting and the present day. This paper will draw on a range of fantasy theory and ecocritical theory as the ecoGothic and fantastical framing, serves as both an ode to gothic traditions and casts a critical lens on environmental concerns, particularly climate change, to illustrate how the gothic setting is employed to mirror contemporary anxieties about human and nature relationships.

Bio: Eva McLean completed her MLitt with distinction at the University of Glasgow focusing on ecocriticism, creative writing and visual art. Eva has presented at the University of Freiburg’s Culture at Play conference and at Once and Future Fantasies and GIFCon both hosted by the University of Glasgow. Her research interests are in the digital and environmental humanities. She earned her Global Citizen Award with the University of Mainz through an exchange programme on climate change. She volunteers with the Centre for Fantasy and the Fantastic and illustrations of hers are published on the university blog. Eva currently works at UofG.

Abstract: Humans and robots: neuroqueer identity exploration through Dungeons and Dragons

Where we end, and a character begins can often be a fine, or even nonexistent line. In tabletop roleplaying games such as Dungeons and Dragons, we often find ourselves conjuring creatures and characters that reflect not only who we are, but who we want (or don’t want) to be. Neurodivergent and queer people, who often lack accurate media representation (e.g. Hadjiiouannou and Saadi, 2022, Nankervis, 2022) and who feel ostracized or pushed out from typical society find themselves reaching for a place they can escape, where they can be whoever they wish with no judgement or worry. Tabletop roleplaying games can allow many of these individuals to find this escape, a cathartic space to explore their identities and create their own representation through conjuring their own characters. Within this, many neurodiverse and queer individuals find themselves reaching for one trope again and again. Robots, who are often seen as unfeeling and cold, too logical and lacking human features, seem to draw in these individuals, who are fascinated with their manner. This paper discusses the lived experiences of neuroqueer individuals who use the creation and play of robots to explore and represent their marginalized identities through the conjured world of a Dungeons and Dragons setting. How the ability to create and play a genderless character devoid of inherent sexuality, who is free from the real-world expectations of how to behave in social situations, present your emotions, and act “human” provides neuroqueer people the opportunity to unmask and experiment with identity in a judgement free zone. Thus, allowing them to explore their own identities by engaging in and practicing social situations safely and with no real-world repercussion, as well as allowing them the chance to be themselves in a world hand-created for them to thrive, rather than simply survive.

Bio: Fiona Reid has completed a Master by Research in Psychology at Abertay University and an undergraduate degree in Public Sociology. Her main research interests explore neurodiversity, sexuality, and gender, often through the lens of nerd culture and with a passion for creative research methods. Her research is often interdisciplinary, engaging with disability studies, queer studies, ludology, and social studies. She is looking to expand her research to reflect her interest in neuroqueer studies, fiction, and roleplay.

Abstract: Love and Monsters: Viewing Monster Romance Through a Queer Lens Monster Romance, while considered taboo in mainstream circles, has become a popular concept in the fantasy romance genre, with thousands of titles available that cater to every niche interest. Monsters flood the market with minotaurs ( Mail Order Minotaur by Lilith Stone, Grab the Bull by the Horns by Sam Hall), ogres ( Get In My Swamp by G. M. Fairy), and faeries of every court ( Dark Fey by Cynthia A. Morgan, The Fallen-Fey Chronicles by S. L. Gavyn) just to name a few. While many of these romances are presented as heteronormative—a cisgender woman involved with a masculine presenting creature—there is an element of queerness in the pursuit of that which has been othered by society. Monsters have had a long history of queer coding, an act that utilizes queer stereotypes to signal a monster or villain as being inherently evil. However, the monster romance seeks to subvert the idea of the monstrous as unattractive or repulsive by embracing it as a potential romantic and sexual partner. By comparing paranormal, or monstrous, romances such as the Modern Tales of Faerie by Holly Black, Duskwalker Brides by Opal Reyne, and Dragonbait by Vivian Vande Velde, we can see what queer stereotypes are in use when characterizing the female heroines and their monstrous counterparts, how these narratives compare to openly queer narratives, and how effective these romances are as stand ins for queer identity.

Gao Weiming

Abstract: Conjuring Historical Figures and Alternative History Narratives: A Study of the Japanese Fantasy Franchise Fate

The Japanese ACG (Anime, Comics and Games) subculture is now one of the most popular subcultures among the youth, reaching hundreds of millions of fans worldwide. Fantasy is one of the most enduring and enjoyed genres in Japanese ACG subculture. Under the theoretical framework of alternate history, I will examine how Japanese fantasy ACG works conjure and reinterpret real historical figures. I will analyse how different possibilities of world history are reimagined in these works and discuss the deconstruction and reconstruction of myths and history in contemporary popular cultures. Fate is an anime, manga, game, and novel franchise published by the Japanese ACG studio TYPE-MOON starting from 2004. In the fictional world in Fate, every 60 years, magicians selected by ‘the Holy Grail’ gather in the city of Fuyuki in Japan, where they conjure the ‘heroic spirits’ of historical figures, forge contracts with them, and fight each other for the Holy Grail. The historical figures conjured in the Fate franchise are often reinterpreted and are significantly different from their counterparts in real world history or mythologies. Thus, the Fate storylines recount alternative histories that are distinct from but also parodic of those of the real world. The works in the Fate franchise deconstruct the metanarratives and reconstruct the personalities of historical figures. This article will take different ACG works in the Fate franchise as examples to explore how fantasy ACG works can combine the conjuration of historical figures with gamified storytelling, allowing different historical figures from different cultural backgrounds to have cross-temporal communication. In such a manner, ACG works re-examine and discuss historical events and historical figures from diverse perspectives, and enriches the diversity of narrative possibilities of alternative history.

Keywords: Alternative History; Japanese Fantasy; ACG subculture

Bio: Gao Weiming is a postgraduate student in the Science Fiction Studies MA programme at University of Liverpool. He is also a member of the British Science Fiction Association. His main research interest is science fiction and fantasy in the era of globalisation, especially in ACG subcultres. His reviews for the American and Japanese Science Fiction ACG have been published as chapters in the books Introduction to Science Fiction and World Science Fiction Frontiers Annual 2021. He is also a research assistant at the China Science Fiction Research Center and co-edited the Chinese Academic SF Express 2022.

Grace Rhyne

Abstract: Charlotte Riddell: Literary Banshee This paper will delve into Charlotte Riddell’s use of banshees within two of her ghost stories, and how the banshee’s warning transcends the written word and transforms Riddell herself into a real banshee. In Riddell’s stories, “Hertford O’Donnell’s Warning” (1867) and “Conn Kilrea” (1899), the banshee haunts the titular characters and warns them of an imminent death, something “reserved solely for families of pure Gaelic blood” (Herbert Hore and David Mac Ritchie, 1895, pp.116). Hertford O’Donnell, and Conn Kilrea having both removed themselves from Ireland, and assimilated into British society, call forth the banshee through the death of their Irish culture. These banshees come with a two-fold warning, that of the impending death of a relative, and that of Irish culture. By introducing a spirit from Irish folklore into England, where O’Donnell and Kilrea had fully removed themselves from their homeland, Riddell not only complicates the idea of assimilation, but goes so far as to make it impossible for her characters to survive assimilation, as seen by the death of Kilrea’s brother. Victoria Margree argues that “Riddell’s usual narrative pattern is certainly unsettled by having brought the spectre of colonialism into its foreground,” but I argue this is Riddell’s intent (British Women’s Short Supernatural Fiction, pp. 61). It is through this use of the banshee in problematising assimilation that Riddell establishes herself as a banshee, depicting the dangers and deaths that come from abandoning one’s culture. By considering Riddell’s own relationship with assimilation—she was raised in Ireland, but moved to England as an adult—this banshee’s cry only becomes more significant, as she harnesses a folkloric mirror of herself to spread her warning of the impending death of Ireland, thus disrupting the traditional ghost story narrative, where the ghosts are purely spectres existing on the page.

Bio: Grace Rhyne (she/her) is a 2nd year PhD student at the University of Warwick where she researches Victorian women’s ghost stories and the ways in which they discuss issues of mobility. Grace completed her MA at Appalachian State University in North Carolina, USA, where she wrote on Queer Temporalities and Victorian Vampires. Additionally, Grace is the founder and current President of Warwick University’s Gothic and Horror Society, and teaches seminars on Medieval and Early Modern Literature. She is the proud owner of eleven copies of “Sir Gawain and the Green Knight” and is always on the hunt for more.

Hannah Frances Roux

Abstract: “Not the Real Orient but a Fantasy”: C.S. Lewis’s Calormen and Edith Sitwell’s Modernist Orientalism.

This paper begins with the claim that C.S. Lewis’s depiction of Calormen, in the Narnia Chronicles is undeniably “orientalist,” in the sense popularised by Edward Said (1978). Warwick Bell has recently argued that this is an uninteresting point: the use of “stock images” of the East in the construction of Calormen is, for him, a product of Lewis’s “time and place.” (232). Ball argues that Lewis was influenced by sources such as the Arabian Nights in ways that are more complicated than Said’s model suggests. (9-10). Yet he also writes that “Lewis’s ‘Orient’ was not the real Orient but a fantasy,” and belongs in a tradition of British writers fascinated by the “Romantic East.” (232-233). That Lewis’s imagined East was formed as much through his engagement with European literature as Middle Eastern seems undeniable. Shasta-Cor’s near sale into slavery echoes eighteenth-century anxieties over “white slavery” in the so-called Barbary coast; the monstrous Calormen god, Tash, suggests The Song of Roland’s Saracen religion more than real-world Islam. My paper makes a case that one of these British sources for Lewis’s orientalism is Edith Sitwell’s “The Sleeping Beauty,” a poem Lewis read and re-read throughout the 1930s and 40s. Sitwell’s poem is filled with images of a “Romantic East” and her poetry constructs the East differently from Eliot and Pound’s – modern poets to whom Lewis reacted more negatively. Reading Lewis’s Calormen in as in the same tradition as this distinctly Sitwellian modernist orientalism does not absolve him from the accusation that he reproduces the orientalist imagination of his time – quite the opposite. It is true that Lewis’s orient is “not the real Orient but a fantasy.” (Ball, 232). Yet this is no unimportant fantasy. It comes to stand for Lewis and Sitwell’s most interesting aesthetic differences from their contemporaries.

Bio: Hannah Roux is a PhD candidate in English at the University of Sydney. Her thesis investigates C.S. Lewis’s engagements with the poetry and criticism of T.S. Eliot. Her broader interests are in the relation between the Inklings and their contemporaries in Anglo-American modernism, mid-twentieth century literature and criticism in Britain, fantasy and science fiction, and the intersections of religion and literature. She lives in the Blue Mountains, just outside Sydney, where an obligatory half-finished fantasy novel gathers (metaphorical) dust in her (digital) desk-drawer.

Hannah Mimiec

Abstract: ‘The Screaming Horrors’: Animal Advocacy and Eldritch Horror in Watership Down

Richard Adams’ 1972 novel Watership Down is often read as a piece of animal advocacy literature, emphasising human and nonhuman continuity (e.g. Raglon and Scholtmeijer, 2007). This paper’s textual analysis will focus on Captain Holly’s account of the destruction of the Sandleford Warren, a pivotal moment in the novel, in which the danger of men to the rabbits is at its most harrowing. It will argue that Adams’ description of human activity in this scene has a lot in common with the style of writing often employed by the likes of H. P. Lovecraft and Arthur Machen in their weird fiction. From the description of when the ‘air began to turn bad’ (Adams, 1972) to the ‘great silver, shining thing’ (Adams, 1972) that the men use to destroy the warren, the activities of men are always alien and horrifying to the rabbits and create the ‘atmosphere of breathless and unexplainable dread’ (Lovecraft, 1927) that is characteristic of the weird. Reading this scene as both a piece of animal advocacy literature and as weird fiction then opens up an interesting tension in the novel’s portrayal of its animal characters. The rabbits of Watership Down are anthropomorphised in a number of ways; they have their own language, religion, and games. At the same time, Adams uses techniques common to the weird in order to defamiliarise human activity to the reader, and transforms what might be routine work in the countryside to an apocalyptic event that parallels the waking of Cthulhu. If the fear of humans are to the rabbits what the ‘racial-nightmare’ (Haraway, 2015) of Cthulhu is to Lovecraft, then this points to a radical decentering of the human within Watership Down and the need for animal advocacy texts to look beyond anthropocentric appeals to humans.

Bio: Hannah Mimiec is a part-time PhD student and part-time lecturer in law at the University of Dundee, currently researching narratives of policing in weird fiction. They hold an LLB and an MLitt from the University of Glasgow, where they were part of the 2022/23 Fantasy MLitt cohort. Specialising in cultural legal studies; their research interests include the intersection of law with weird and horror fiction, children’s literature, and tabletop games.

Hollie Willis

Abstract: ‘The Locals Bite Back’: A Defence of the Tuunbaq and the Use of Fantasy in The Terror When assessing the success and/or failure of a historical film/tv adaptation, the prevailing factor is that of historical accuracy. This is the case in HistoryBuffs’ review of the 2018 AMC adaptation of Dan Simmons’ book The Terror , in which he rebukes the inclusion of the Tuunbaq, a monstrous spirit who hunts the crew of the Franklin Expedition. However, in my presentation I will come to the defence of the Tuunbaq, specifically how this supernatural creature helps to entrench an anti-colonial retrospective of the Franklin expedition and the role of the Inuit people involved. This will involve a critical analysis of how the Tuunbaq is depicted and used as a metaphor for indigenous agency in the TV show, the Inuit mythology surrounding it, and a brief comparison with the creature in the original Simmons text. I will contextualise my analysis using written sources from the true story of the Franklin Expedition and how Inuit people were perceived by the British, such as Charles Dickens’ racially stereotypical depiction of Inuit eyewitnesses in his response to John Rae’s evidence of cannibalism. Rather than the out-of-place ‘man-bear-pig’ described by HistoryBuffs, I argue that the Tuunbaq embodies an act of conjuration, both as a mythological spirit and as a fantasy storytelling device that aids our ability to deconstruct the past and the equally conjured nature of historical narratives. (223 words)

Bio: Hollie Willis is a second-year PhD student at the University of Glasgow. Her thesis focuses on the representation of funerary rites in contemporary fantasy literature in the context of the death positivity movement. She has shared her early research at conferences such as the CRSF, Finncon, and the annual Tolkien Society seminar, and is involved in organising the 2024 GIFCon conference. Her research interests, aside from death, include cannibalism, 19th century arctic exploration, feminist gothic, and all things macabre.

Abstract: Monster Girls Turning Darkness to Light: Subversive Uses of Monstrosity in She-Ra and the Princesses of Power and Nimona Monsters, as well as the notions of good and evil they help establish, have always been a core element of any fantasy narrative, and are especially crucial in those works meant for children, as they serve as an introduction to said concepts. Much like the villain, the monster has long been associated with difference and otherness, incarnating all that is bad and evil, many times appearing in fantasy stories, merely for “placing yet another obstacle in the way of the hero’s quest.” (Clute and Grant 654) However, recent trends in storytelling for younger audiences have been trying to challenge some of these outdated notions of monstrosity and villainy, as well as the harmful ideals they help perpetuate, by placing traditional monsters in new contexts. In this sense, I want to look at two examples of contemporary fantasy animation distributed as kids’ content— She-Ra and the Princesses of Power (2018-2020) and Nimona (2023)—and explore how these works (re)think and (re)present monstrous figures and the relationship they establish with typical indicators of otherness such as queerness, disability, ethnicity, or neurodivergence. Through an analysis of characters like Nimona, Ballister, Scorpia, Entrapta, Catra, Double Trouble, and others, I argue that in these works, the usage of monstrosity associated with certain qualities as an indication of innate evil and moral depravity is not only harshly criticized but utterly dismantled and masterfully subverted. By looking at the ways these characters that embody monstrous features are used in the narratives, I intend to show how in these works, traditional indicators of monstrosity are repurposed to showcase and expose difference in a positive light, transmitting the idea that being Other, does not necessarily make you bad, and that true evil lies in condemning and marginalizing someone simply because they are different.

Bio: Inês Vaz is a Portuguese PhD student and aspiring researcher who reconciles her personal interests with academic work, so she has an excuse to buy more books. In her PhD thesis she will deal with representations of hags and crones in works of fantasy animation of the last century, focusing primarily on notions of monstrosity and otherness in the show The Owl House (2020-2023). In previous research she has explored themes such as the monomyth, literature and other media, adaptation, animation, and children’s and YA fiction. Through her work she hopes to help further fantasy studies within Portuguese academia.

Iria Seijas-Pérez

Abstract: Analysing the Witch Figure in Irish YA Fiction: Deirdre Sullivan’s Perfectly Preventable Deaths (2019) and Sarah Maria Griffin’s Other Words for Smoke (2019) In Ireland, the history of witchcraft differs slightly from British, continental European, and North American mainstream histories on the perception, treatment, and persecution of witches. Accusations and prosecutions for witchcraft did not happen in Ireland until the mid-seventeenth century, and only a total of four witchcraft trials have been recorded in early modern Ireland (Sneddon 2012). Witches were certainly perceived as evil creatures; however, it was fairies that were more often blamed for fateful events and were consequently more feared. Regarding the label ‘witch’ more generally, this has been used by society to mark women as other, to portray them as dangerous, aggressive, and violent, and to control them (Ricks 2020). The term ‘witch’ referred almost exclusively to women, and accusations of witchcraft attacked women who transgressed patriarchal norms (Miller 2018). Nevertheless, nowadays the word ‘witch’ has been reclaimed, becoming a word of power that marks a refusal to comply with the norms and expectations of patriarchal society (Ricks 2020). The representation of witches in literature has varied through the years, from the crone to the hag to the teenage witch. Witches have been depicted as evil women or magic healers who have a special connection with nature, among other characterisations. In this paper, I particularly focus on the representation of witches in Irish YA fiction. I will look particularly at Deirdre Sullivan’s Perfectly Preventable Deaths (2019) and Sarah Maria Griffin’s Other Words for Smoke (2019), which Patricia Kennon has defined as “works of Irish YA ‘witcherature’” (137). My aim here is to analyse the depiction of witches and witchcraft that appear in these novels, in order to demonstrate how these are similar to or differ from traditional perceptions of the witch figure, and how the witch characters defy patriarchal norms in a variety of forms.

Bio: Iria Seijas-Pérez is a predoctoral researcher at the University of Vigo, under a predoctoral grant from the Galician Government (Xunta de Galicia). She is a member of Feminario: Feminisms and Resistances, within the established Research Group “BiFeGa: Literary and Cultural Studies, Translation and Interpretation” (Ref. ED431C-2020/04), and a member of the research project “Communitas/Immunitas: relational ontologies in Atlantic anglophone cultures of the 21st century” PID2022-136904NB-I00 MCIN/AEI. Her PhD thesis studies the representation of female LGBTQ+ adolescents in young adult literature written in English by Irish women. Her research interests include Irish literature and culture, LGBTQ+ and feminist studies, and young adult literature.

Kristine Larsen

Abstract: “Even those who are different can survive”: Dragons, Speciesism, and Procreation in Andrzej Sapkowski’s The Witcher and its Adaptations The rich multimedia Secondary World of Polish author Andrzej Sapkowski’s Witcher series includes short stories, novels, a Polish single-season tv series, and an ongoing Netflix series (with spinoffs). Sapkowski’s world openly embraces and subverts the literary sources upon which it draws, especially Polish folklore. This paper focuses on the short story “The Bounds of Reason” (adapted in the Polish and Netflix series), based on the Polish legend of the dragon of Wawel Hill. Here the Witcher (monster hunter) Geralt replaces the heroic dragon-slaying cobbler of the original tradition. However, Geralt will not harm dragons, which Sapkowski describes as “noble creatures” and “rational beings.” While Jonathan Evans explains that Old English and Old Norse tales “emphasize differences between the human and the monstrous”, Sapkowski’s tale does the opposite, blurring the standard lines between the monster and the hero, and between species, especially in the shapeshifting golden dragon Villentretenmerth. The dragon-hunters (mainly humans) are painted as the truly monstrous, while the members of ‘Othered’ groups (all mutants who suffer from infertility) – Witchers, Sorceresses, and Dragons – are more heroic. The world of the Witchers more broadly suffers under a hegemony of self-proclaimed human exceptionalism which has led to extreme speciesism (including genocide) against Elves, Dragons, and even the Witchers themselves. I argue that Sapkowski’s golden dragon acts as a mirror through which characters are forced to recognize their own potential for destruction, for as Geralt explains people “like to invent monsters and monstrosities. Then they seem less monstrous themselves.” Sapkowski’s tale also explores larger themes of human destruction of the natural world, including the role of reduced procreation in dooming a species to extinction. But I argue that Sapkowski’s story is ultimately not without hope, for as the dragon explains, through empathy and compassion “Even those who are different can survive.”

Bio: Dr. Kristine Larsen has been an astronomy professor at Central Connecticut State University since 1989. Her teaching and research focus on the intersections between science and society, including sexism and science; science and popular culture (especially science in the works of J.R.R. Tolkien); and the history of science. She is the author of the books Stephen Hawking: A Biography , Cosmology 101 , The Women Who Popularized Geology in the 19th Century , Particle Panic! , and most recently Science, Technology and Magic in The Witcher: A Medievalist Spin on Modern Monsters (McFarland & Company).

Madeline Wahl

Abstract: Who Can Speak Characters Into Existence?: Stuttering, Fluency, and Conjuring Characters in Cornelia Funke’s Inkheart

Stuttering, according to the National Institute of Health in the UK, is “is a speech disorder characterized by repetition of sounds, syllables, or words; prolongation of sounds; and interruptions in speech known as blocks.” In Cornelia Funke’s Inkheart , main character Mo has the unique ability to have characters appear in real life when reading out loud from a book. This paper will explore conjuring characters in Funke’s story, specifically the difference between fluent reader Mo, nicknamed “Silvertongue,” and disfluent reader, Darius. When Mo reads characters out loud fluently, the characters appear in a perfect corporeal form. However, when Darius reads out loud, he stutters which allows for characters who appear in reality to have something wrong with them including disfigurement. Through close reading and contextual analysis of Inkheart , I will compare and contrast how Mo conjures characters versus how Darius conjures characters. I will look at not only how Darius and Mo conjure characters, but also in the perception of other characters on their conjuring skill. Mo is perceived to be eloquent and the expert conjurer, while Darius is viewed as useless because he has a speech impediment. This paper will acknowledge that conjuring characters by speaking out loud is an incredible talent. However, Darius reading characters out has a direct result in characters being deformed. Thus, the fantasy world Funke constructed reinforces the stigma associated with stuttering that exists in the “real” world. This paper will also focus on accessible worldbuilding in a fantasy context. Finally, it will be acknowledged that peer perception of disability awareness is crucial especially in creating fictional fantasy worlds.

Bio: Madeline Wahl (she/her) recently completed her MLitt in Fantasy Literature at the University of Glasgow in Scotland. Previously, she has held editorial positions at Reader’s Digest, HuffPost, and Golf Channel. She was a speaker at the Australian Speak Easy Association’s online 2020 conference and has previously written about stuttering for The Stuttering Foundation. She holds a BA in Advertising/Public Relations with a minor in Psychology and a minor in English-Writing from the University of Central Florida. She is working on her first novel in YA Fantasy and her first nonfiction book proposal on millennial caregiving.

Manon Hakem-Lemaire

Abstract: The Fantasy of Alterity in Richard Marsh’s Imperial Gothic Novel The Beetle (1897) Although it initially outsold Bram Stoker’s Dracula , Richard Marsh’s The Beetle (1897) has been largely forgotten. The novel was out of print from 1960 to 2004, and a 1919 silent film adaptation is now considered lost. The creature here conjured is a gender-fluid, shape-shifting beetle-human come from Egypt to seek revenge on a Member of Parliament who killed a woman during the British protectorate of Egypt twenty years earlier, in the 1880s. The beetle infiltrates houses, mesmerises characters into acting on its behalf, assaults them, and kidnaps a British woman for sacrifice by the Cult of Isis. Encounters with the beetle – alternately referred to as “Mussulmanic”, “the Arab”, “the scarab” – are told in the rhetoric of counter-invasion of the nation, but also of the body, which reinforces the confusion about its sexual identity. In addition, the novel’s form rejects linearity and conventional storytelling through the use of four narrators whose accounts vary in genre, from what Patrick Brantlinger has termed the “imperial gothic” to near-theatrical comedy and a final section that borrows heavily from the detective genre, notwithstanding the final twist in the fantastic mode. In this paper, I propose to study the creature of the beetle as a perturbator of racial, social, and sexual norms in the imperial context of the fin de siècle. The creature’s travel from Egypt to Britain, its undefined ontology, and fluid sexuality, push against past and present definitions of fin-de-siècle imperialism and literary conventions. Flaubert’s ironical definition of an orientalist as “homme qui a beaucoup voyagé” (“a man who has travelled extensively”) appears particularly tongue-in-cheek in this context: an amateur, or even a scholar of “oriental” culture, need not have travelled to conjure up a fantasy of the Orient – Marsh had not – and the imaginary traveller’s gender need not have been defined.

Bio: Manon Hakem-Lemaire is a PhD candidate in comparative literature at The Graduate Center, City University of New York. Since writing her MA thesis “Pragmatic Diversion: The Fantastic as Alternative Realism in Guy de Maupassant and Horacio Quiroga” (University of Saint Andrews and University of Guelph, 2017), she has continued to explore nineteenth-century “alternative” realisms in the context of travel writing, imperialism, and perceptions of alterity. While writing her dissertation, she teaches world literature at Baruch College and works as a fellow in Writing-Across-the-Curriculum pedagogy at Queensborough Community College.

Maria Damkjær

Abstract: Conjuring worlds through book culture A central element of world-building is the design of a material world. Books, which are handled, lost, found, read, or destroyed, are both a shorthand for a fantasy world’s material culture, but also a metafictional nod to the reality of the reader. Fantasy authors tend to like books, and expect their readers to also have positive feelings about books. But in many fantasy worlds, especially those inspired by medieval European history, books are invoked as scarcity objects, or worse, as forgotten and decaying. This paper asks how book culture within modern epic fantasy is used to conjure secondary worlds where knowledge is threatened. I will discuss a set of modern epic fantasy series, and ask: what do books represent? What other forms of record-keeping and knowledge preservation exist in the secondary world, and why? What are the limitations of different kinds of knowledge transfer, and how does that play into the narrative? Contemporary fantasy authors, I posit, are both fascinated by texts, and also troubled by their limited chance of survival over the very long periods that the genre tends to sketch. Deep time is hostile to book knowledge, and it is the loss of knowledge that poses the greatest challenges to fantasy realms so obsessed with the distant past. Contemporary fantasy is occupied by the assumption that knowledge must be sought where it is hidden; that book learning is marginalised and dismissed; that there is a scarcity of both books and knowledge more generally; but that the ‘hidden truth’ might not, in the end, be trustworthy. In short, transmission of information is threatened; and as several of these stories are also meditations on climate catastrophe — especially Martin’s A Song of Ice and Fire and Jemisin’s The Broken Earth — these anxieties conjure a feeling of transience and threat.

Bio: Maria Damkjær is an Associate Professor (short-term) at the University of Copenhagen. She earned her PhD from King’s College London in 2013. Maria’s work focuses on material texts in the nineteenth century and questions of genre, narrative fiction, and the history of reading. Her forthcoming book, Fiction on the Page in Nineteenth Century Magazines , is about malleable storytelling in Victorian periodicals. From her starting point in Book History, she has branched out to be interested in reading and book culture within contemporary epic fantasy. (Last name pronunciation: ‘Dam-care’)

Martine Gjermundsen Ræstad

Abstract: When Nature Speaks: Fictional A.I. as Folkloric Creatures of the Technological Age

Since the dawn of the Industrial Age, the environments we surround ourselves with have changed considerably, and as forests make way for concrete jungles one may assume that the creatures once rumoured to live under every root and rock has left us – unless perhaps, we may have brought them back. In this presentation I will compare features of early fictional A.I. to figures such as faerie folk and mythological gods, suggesting that these figures appeal to a similar storytelling instinct to anthropomorphize our surrounding environment and structure our understanding of natural forces, creating an evolving archetype between them. But, as our organic environment is replaced with an artificial one, so in turn must its inhabitants change. I will primarily use examples of A.I. narratives of the late 1960s, when a boom in early A.I. fiction spawned many of the most iconic and impactful narratives in the genre to this day. • “I Have No Mouth and I Must Scream” (1967) by Harlan Ellison • “Supertoys Last All Summer Long” (1969) by Brian Aldiss • 2001: A Space Odyssey (1969), by Arthur C. Clarke • Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? (1968) by Philip K. Dick I hypothesize that major unprecedented advancements of this time, such as the moon landing, enhanced an impression that the limits of technology may be unknowable or even unlimited, leading to a keen awareness of an incoming technological singularity and pushing speculative A.I. further towards the fantastic. If, in line with Clarke’s laws, any A.I. sufficiently advanced is indistinguishable from the fantastic, it could take any form that old tales told, challenging a feeling of safety seen since the Age of Reason and reintroducing to realism what was previously dismissed, opening the door for both the wonders and horrors of fantasy.

Bio: Martine Gjermundsen Ræstad graduated from the University of Glasgow with an MLitt in Fantasy Literature in 2020 and has since continued writing as an independent academic. Her work includes a contribution to the Mapping the Impossible journal, and recently a chapter contribution in Star Trek: Essays Exploring the Final Frontier , published with Vernon Press. She has a long-lasting interest in fictional representations of technology and works with using the theories and methods developed for fantastic literature to further understand the characteristics of science fiction. She is currently working towards a PhD on the topic of fictional representations of A.I.

Meg Horridge

Abstract: Conjuring Utopia: How Ursula K. Le Guin’s The Dispossessed Builds an Imperfect World

Utopian fiction appears to imply the presentation of a ‘perfect’ world, but when this is the case, the utopian novel can often feel more like a long-winded description of an imagined world than an embodied exploration of it. The utopia, rather than being a fantastical world created for the purpose of telling a story, thus instead becomes a thought experiment, conceived of abstractly rather than in full colour. As such, the utopia must inevitably be conjured in a way that facilitates conflict and change, which cannot occur in a truly perfect world. Thus, more recent utopias have tended to introduce some imperfection to their fictional worlds—not merely points on which readers may not agree, but elements that are intentionally presented as the drawbacks or unfulfilled promises of the utopia. Do these imperfections contradict the promise of utopian fiction, or are they a necessary compromise to facilitate story? And with this in mind, how can utopian worlds be constructed in a way that retains their utopian character? Considering these dilemmas, I will explore the ways in which Ursula K. Le Guin’s The Dispossessed appears to combine utopian and dystopian conventions to create her “ambiguous utopia”. Despite its prominent flaws, Le Guin manages to maintain the sense that Anarres, the anarchist moon of the novel, may still be a utopia worth saving. By assessing the presentation of Anarres as flawed yet still aspirational, and the ways in which the novel attempts to convince the reader of this, I will illustrate how utopian worlds can be conjured in a way that acknowledges and utilises their necessary imperfections.

Bio: Meg Horridge (they/them) is a sci-fi and speculative fiction writer, currently working toward a PhD in English Literature and Creative Writing at Lancaster University. Their research and creative work explore the need for utopian fiction in an increasingly dystopian world, and how the genre may be innovated upon and updated to suit the twenty-first century.

Mercury Natis

Abstract: Letting the Beastly Beast Go: Navigating compulsory heterosexuality through King Pellinore and the Questing Beast in The Once and Future King In his Arthurian Epic The Once and Future King , T. H. White tackled complex adult issues and concerns through a sometimes thinly veiled guise of children’s fantasy. Compared to the inner workings of Guinevere and Lancelot’s emotional lives, the tale of King Pellinore and his adventures with the Questing Beast seem to be a childish aside, interspersed within the narrative. This paper will investigate how T. H. White, a semi-closeted and often morose homosexual, uses the Questing Beast and Pellinore’s relationship with Sir Grummore to question the compulsory heterosexuality that is required of boys when they become men. Through the mode of juvenile fantasy, sometimes in direct contrast to the rest of the text, White presents the Questing Beast (gendered female) as a requirement that Pellinore, a childish adult, struggles to pursue. He is pleasantly distracted from his quest by being a guest in Grummore’s home, with dialogue that barely disguises the intimacy of shared beds and homosocial spaces. Pellinore and Grummore’s juvenile homosociality is an antidote to the quest for the Beast. As the epic grows up, from The Sword in the Stone to The Queen of Air and Darkness, the metaphor of the Questing Beast as the compulsory heterosexual contract evolves into a metaphor for returning to childhood out of the bonds of real marriage, back into the innocence of homosocial bonds and juvenile adventure. The Questing Beast in The Sword and the Stone is a required burden that can be avoided through homosocial intimacy. The Questing Beast in The Queen of Air and Darkness then changes, as she inserts childlike frivolity and adventure through being a cheeky and seductive female playmate, more akin to T. H. White’s beloved dog Killie than a human woman, and fosters a return to homosocial play within an increasingly serious adult environment.

Bio: Mercury Natis (they/them) is a student of Imaginative Literature at Signum University with a focus on Tolkien Studies and Queer Theory. They hold a previous MA in Museum Education and a BA in Art History, and will soon be starting their PhD at Glasgow University. Their primary focus is on queer resonances in interwar fantasy, in the pre-identity politics age of ambiguity. While they are mainly a Tolkienist, they will always come back to T. H. White, who they believe belongs firmly in the queer literary canon as an icon of camp fantasy.

Michael Quinn

Abstract: “The stolen future cannot be given back to me”: Exploring personal identity through Paragon in Robin Hobb’s ‘Realm of the Elderlings’

If fantasy provides a window onto cultural desires, the particularly consistent nature of epic fantasy worlds provide a fictional environment where identity formation can be systematically explored by the writer and experienced by the reader. Through her subversive approach to exploring the variable effects of trauma, ancestry and the unconscious on personal identity, Robin Hobb investigates how the dynamic nature of physical and metaphysical states of being impacts personal identity. In this context, I evaluate how Paragon, an anthropomorphic dragon(s) become ship, challenges our understandings of the fantastic. Hobb’s writing represents a progressive development within post-Tolkien fantasy, adopting a significantly different approach to Tolkien’s imitators (Wetherill, 2015). Hobb’s inherently logical and immersive fantasy rejects archetypes, such as wizards, or subverts them; her depiction of dragons, similarly to Le Guin, ‘serve as loci for exploring ethical and ecological issues’ rather than fiery opponents who must be defeated (Sangster, 2023). Hobb subverts fantasy tropes ‘to critically comment on the ideologies and practices of colonisation’ (Young, 2014), developing characters of psychological depth capable of authentic and complex relationships. The generational effects of post-colonialism on identity are explored through Paragon, an example of how our ‘many selves … stem from a history that is transcendent of individual intentionality’ (Radhakrishnan, 1991). Hobb’s depiction of Paragon demonstrates how subversive fantasy can ‘transform the relations of the imaginary and the symbolic’ (Jackson, 1981), encouraging readers to question conservative ideologies of the self. For many readers, fantasy is a formative element of cultural socialisation, one which may have a significant impact on personality development, especially its imaginative component. Consequently, adopting this interdisciplinary approach to fantasy, given that its dream-like imagery represents unconscious ideas through metaphysical depictions of identity, can elicit important discourses on its potential to develop readers’ understanding of identity formation, specifically the depth component of identity.

Bio: I am currently undertaking a PhD project in the Philosophy of Education, focusing on the possibilities of teaching philosophical concepts through speculative fiction, at the University of Glasgow. My main interests are in fantasy literature, having completed a MLitt in Fantasy, and in exploring intersections between literature and philosophy as well as how they complement one another. I’ve taught English in high schools in Scotland, Spain and Australia and I’m currently enrolled in the Children’s Fantasy Literature course at Glasgow. I love almost all things fantasy, but mainly Robin Hobb, Ursula Le Guin, Arthurian literature, and, of course, Tolkien.

Nathaniel Harrington

Abstract: Teachd Chonain: Celticism, settler colonialism, and the fantasy barbarian

In this paper, I offer a historicization of the figure of the barbarian in sword and sorcery and later genre fantasy, focusing on the entanglement of the barbarian with fantasy’s Celticism, the appropriation and (re)interpretation of Celtic-language cultures and literatures by dominant-language writers and artists. I begin by briefly tracing the influence of popular Celticism on the fantasy barbarian, from James Macpherson’s Ossian through Standish James O’Grady’s Cuculain trilogy to Robert E. Howard’s Conan and Bran Mak Morn and then to contemporary high fantasy, focusing on the tabletop role-playing game Dungeons & Dragons. I look especially at the relationship between the figure of the barbarian in Howard and Dungeons & Dragons and perceptions of “Celts” in eighteenth- and nineteenth-century racial thought and argue that even as the fantastic barbarian has drawn on a wider array of signifiers, it remains closely tied to racialist conceptions of the Celts but with an inverted valuation, recuperating the Celts into a colonial and white supremacist fantasy combining Celtic, Germanic, and Indigenous elements. In a contemporary context, I argue that the Celticist barbarian of modern fantasy serves as both a continuation of the nineteenth-century relegation of Celtic-language communities to the fringe of “civilization” and as a settler-colonial replacement fantasy where Celtic “barbarian” can replace the Indigenous population whose societies and religions, refracted through colonial anthropology, are displaced and projected from the colonized Other into fantasy’s constructed (now-white) heroic “Celt”.

Bio: Nathaniel Harrington has a Ph.D. in comparative literature from the University of Toronto; in 2023-2024 he is an assistant professor in the Department of Celtic Studies at St. Francis Xavier University. His current projects are a critical study of “Celtic fantasy” and an exploration of the relationships between linguistic marginalization and speculative fiction. His other interests include Scottish Gaelic folklore, the philosophy of Miguel de Unamuno, speculative reading practices, and meeting new cats.

Nick Stember

Abstract: Desert Solitaire: Tales of the Strange, Fantastic, and Immortal in Nie Jun’s Seekers of the Aweto In this paper I will be considering Chinese cartoonist Nie Jun’s ongoing manhua (comic book) series, Seekers of the Aweto (Tian Chong Cao). Launched in February 2022 with The Hunt Is On (Dadi de zhuilie), the first of three projected volumes, the series is set in a semi-mythical alternate universe. By opening with an artist painting on the wall of a cave in Dunhuang, an important site for Buddhist, Taoist, and other syncretic religious practices located on the Silk Road in today’s far western Gansu province, Nie suggests that the story about to be told will take place in the medieval period of 200 to 1000 CE. The tale which unfolds, however, is quickly revealed to be one in which magical spirits and demons roam the land, most important among them being the sacred Aweto, who protect and nourish life in the arid desert landscape of central Asia. In my reading of this comic, I show that in so doing, Nie draws both on the historical legacy of “tales of fantastic” (chuanqi) and “strange” (zhiguai) events, and also on the more contemporary tradition of xianxia or “immortal heroes.” Despite presenting a potential allegory for contemporary social tensions, I find that Seekers of the Aweto exists in uneasy tension with political engagement, reveling instead in the anarchic free play of image and text. In this amorphous “third space” of unreal phantasy, Nie is able to forge a world of ecological (im)possibilities that is only dimly described by procrustean readings of subversive (or indeed, authoritarian) intent. As such, the case is made that this is a text which ultimately embraces harmony with nature, and the reclusive “non-doing” of early Taoists such as Laozi and Zhuangzi.

Bio: Nick Stember (he/him) is a historian and translator of Chinese literature and popular culture. He recently defended his PhD dissertation on “pulp science” in early Reform-era (1976-1986) comic books in the Department of East Asian Studies at the University of Cambridge. Next year he will be joining the New East Asian Museum Tales project at the National Museum of Denmark as a postdoctoral researcher, where he will be exploring depictions of Taoist self-cultivation in popular culture.

Abstract: Age’s Mischief: Writing Ageing into the Fantastika in Kazuo Ishiguro’s The Buried Giant In Kazuo Ishiguro’s The Buried Giant , characters grapple with the haunting presence of the she-dragon, Querig. Believed to be all-powerful and treacherous by most humans, Querig is also the origin of a forgetfulness that spreads like a plague across the lands. However, by the end of the novel, it is revealed that Querig is, in fact, frail and dying, contrary to the widespread belief in her timelessness. While The Buried Giant features no shortage of ageing characters, given that the protagonists are an elderly couple, the most striking representation of ageing emerges through the dragon—a fantastical creature. This paper aims to investigate how the prevalent theme of decline narratives, common in contemporary cultures, is reimagined within a fantasy setting and applied to fantastic creatures. By delving into the portrayal of ageing creatures and the depiction of intra-specific interactions, often asymmetrical and unethical, this research seeks not only to interrogate the dangers of decline narratives but also to emphasise how these narratives, when woven into fantastical realms, equate ageing with the non-human—blurring the lines between us and the fantastical. This examination of the representation of ageing in the fantastical setting of The Buried Giant hopes to contribute to a broader understanding of the implications of decline narratives and their impact on our relationship between both ageing human and non-human entities. This exploration seeks to shed light on the ethical dimensions of such narratives, encouraging a reconsideration of how we perceive and portray ageing within the realms of fantasy literature.

Bio: Ning Lee is a graduate of the University of Edinburgh, where she earned her master’s degree in Literature and Modernity: 1900 to the Present. For her master’s dissertation, she explored ethics and orphanhood in the works of Kazuo Ishiguro. She will start pursuing a doctoral degree at National Taiwan University this spring. Ning’s engagement with Ishiguro’s works has been a transformative aspect of her academic journey, significantly shaping her research interests. Beyond her dedication to Ishiguro’s oeuvre, she is committed to examining the complexity of ageing and old age in contemporary society through the lens of literary and cultural productions.

Olivia Scarr

Abstract: (Un)homely Cultivations: the botanical Other as the ‘Monstrous Feminine’ in Short Fiction of the Fin de Siècle

By the end of the 19th century, domestic horticulture was a well-established bourgeois pastime, with indoor cultivation of ‘exotic’ plant species made possible, firstly, by a proliferating industry of plant importation from England’s colonies, and, secondly, glazed glass cases which allowed for the protected transfer of plants. Victorians were confronted with strange plant species both on foreign territory and in the heart of their home, where the natural world was (re)created in glasshouses. Building on Homi Bhabha’s understanding of Freud’s unheimlich as capturing “the estranging sense of the relocation of the home and the world in an unhallowed place” (141), this paper focuses on Victorians’ conceptualisations of the botanical Other in relation to, and contention with, their novel surroundings; anti-mimetic fictions of the time created worlds very similar to the Victorian reader’s own, yet interspersed these with strange and fantastical elements, and in the late 19th century, analogous to other monsters of the era (i.e. Dracula), plants developed an appetite for (fictional) human beings. Putting to question the explicit feminisation and sexualisation of plant horror fiction, this paper highlights Victorians’ ambiguous engagement with their natural environment in short fictions of the period, i.e. Fred M. White’s ‘The Purple Terror’ (1898), H. G. Wells’ ‘The Flowering of the Strange Orchid’ (1894), Arthur Conan Doyle’s ‘The Naval Treaty’ (1893) and ‘The Lost World’ (1912), probing beyond the various ‘faces’ of the monstrous feminine to investigate ideological struggles and material strategies of fin de siècle society contending with the vast expansion and simultaneous diminution of their known world.

Bhabha, Homi K. “The World and the Home”. Social Text 31/32. Third World and Post-colonial Issues (1992): 141-153.

Bio: Olivia Scarr (she/her) Born 1993 in Vienna and raised in Austria and South Africa, she studied Comparative Literature and History at the University of Vienna before graduating with a master’s degree in Anglophone Literatures and Cultures. Alongside her studies she tutored bachelor and master students of the English department (literature and cultural theory courses) while personally specialising in the field of (Victorian) materiality studies and medical and environmental humanities. She has worked in theatre (dramaturgy) and for designaustria, is an avid reader of fantasy and historical fiction, and dabbles in novel writing from time to time.

Rachel Cairns

Abstract: Fat in the Forgotten Realms: Fat embodiment, monstrosity and the non-normative body in participatory fantasy storytelling This paper will interrogate the potentiality for fat embodiment and occupation of the non-normative and monstrous body in participatory fantasy storytelling – namely, in digital and tabletop role-playing games. Fat studies scholars have established fatness as a discrediting characteristic that limits one’s access to the status of personhood (Farrell, 2023), or a readable text that offers a shorthand for laziness, lack of morality, and indulgence in excess (Murray, 2008). In short, fatness marks one as Other, and as existing in a monstrous or non-normative body. This paper will investigate participatory storytelling as a potentially radical site of fat liberation and exploration, utilising Larian Studios’ Baldur’s Gate 3 , and Wizards of the Coast’s Dungeons and Dragons 5th Edition system as two linked but unique case studies. An important aspect that this paper will consider is fat embodiment, which fat scholar Kimberly Dark argues is central to achieving fat liberation (Dark, 2023). That is to say, it must be considered to what extent we are granted access to the inner worlds of fat characters. I will consider to what extent, through character creation and customisation, and play and choice, players are able to interact with and embody fatness. Some fat studies scholars consider that liberation can be found in embracing the monstrous status of the fat body – especially when considered in intersection with racial and genderqueer liberation (White, 2021; Owen, 2015). This paper will take special care considering how imagined racial difference and monstrous classification, central to the construction of Dungeons and Dragons (Carpenter, 2023), might complicate or reinforce racialised fatphobia. I will consider if either the digital or tabletop role-playing game format can be used to deconstruct the fat/person dialectic and the normative body, or if fatphobia is entrenched and reinforced by the systems that construct them.

Bio: Rachel Cairns (she/her) is a first-year PhD researcher at the University of Strathclyde. Her research focuses on fatness and monsters who eat in 19th-century fairy tales and monster fiction. Also at Strathclyde, Rachel received her BA Hons in English, Creative Writing and Journalism and MLitt with Distinction in Interdisciplinary English Studies. Rachel is a recipient of the Peggy Grant Prize and the Global Research Award. In 2019-2021, Rachel served as a Sabbatical Officer, where she rooted her work within liberation work, and received the Strathclyde Women in Leadership Network Committee’s Choice Champion Award.

Rachel Harrison

Abstract: From Her Mind to Herland: The Women Conjuring Gynotopia My paper focuses on the ‘conjured worlds’ of Gynotopia. This referring to the phenomenon of female Science Fiction authors creating countries, cities or entire planets inhabited by and designed solely around the needs of women. Through the emancipatory powers of the female mind, these worlds reimagine fundamental aspects of our existence. They invert gender roles to critique gendered hierarchies and spheres in society such as the scientific, religious, and political which women have historically been excluded from. These female authors conjure fictional worlds in which we witness an extreme inversion of the position of women in society, resulting in men becoming the ‘othered’ sex. Men become the victims, the subjugated, the reduced or simply the erased. This is explored through methods of psychological subjugation in Katharine Burdekin’s The End of This Day’s Business (1989). Other Gynotopias explore physical gender segregation such as the female-only worlds of Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s Herland (1915), Rokeya Hossain’s Sultana’s Dream (1905), and Mary Bradley Lane’s Mizora (1890). Some dissolve notions of gender binary altogether such as Burdekin’s Proud Man (1934), and Marge Piercy’s Woman on the Edge of Time (1976). While men in these worlds are othered, seen as lesser or as a threatening, non-human presence, women are depicted as goddesses. They are often larger, stronger, less fragile creatures – Amazonian in nature, thriving in their unbridled existence. However, there is a darker side to the reimagined women of the Gynotopia. Often (in Anglophone Gynotopias) this ‘superwoman’ is depicted as inherently Aryan. Thus, unfortunately, the Gynotopias of the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries in particular fail in their feminism as they promote the pseudo-science of eugenics in their quest for perfection. I will explore the reasons for women conjuring these Gynotopias, outlining their characteristics and their lesser-discussed flaws using the case studies mentioned above.

Bio: My name is Rachel Harrison. I am in the third year of my PhD at the University of Dundee. My thesis title is ‘Reclaiming Gynotopia: Female Authored Ustopian Novels and Science Fiction’. My research interests include lesser recognised female SF authors who have made a large contribution to SF and utopian fiction. I also specialise in ‘Gynotopia’ or Feminist Utopian Fiction. I had a paper published in the SFRA Fall Issue 2022 titled ‘Exploring the Banishment and Reformation of Masculinity in Scientific Gynotopias’ in which I discuss what I identify as the 2 key models of Gynotopia and their approach to masculinity (Separatist and Integrational).

Rebecca Gault

Abstract: (Re)Creating Marginalised Identity in the Omegaverse

Fan culture is the site of reinterpretation of popular media including, but not limited to, the practice of writing fanfiction. Within the culture of fanfiction is a proliferation of subgenres, one of which is that of the omegaverse. Omegaverse fanfiction constitutes an alternate universe wherein characters from media are written into a surrogate structure of gender; as alphas, betas, or omegas. By examining the trends within Omegaverse fanfiction in the context of fan studies and feminist theory, we can explore how these transformative texts intercede in conversations about sex and gender within the original texts. When we consider Omegaverse fanfictions as operating within the speculative mode, we can break sex and gender discourses down into building blocks with which fanfiction authors are free to rebuild a new structure with. Within this speculative mode, however, we often see that marginalisation is recreated; omegas are often derided and looked down upon within the original conception of this gender structure while alphas are seen as desirable and betas as nothing out of sorts. In constructing this hierarchy, Omegaverse authors are given a lens through which they can examine the marginalisation of those marked as Other by their gender signifier. Throughout, this paper will aim to explore the alternate gender structure provided by the Omegaverse and the ways in which this can function as a form of ‘low theory’ – as established by Halberstam – with the possibility to explore different ways of thinking when it comes to sex and gender.

Bio: Rebecca Gault is an early-career academic from Glasgow, Scotland. She has a MA in English Literature and an MLitt in Fantasy Literature from the University of Glasgow. Their research interests include monstrosity, gender and sexuality studies, LGBTQ+ studies, and modes of fantasy. With previous research on the sexual and gender politics of monstrosity in fantasy literature, she is an up-and-coming researcher and writer in fields of the fantastic. She is the co-host of Out To Get You, a queer horror podcast (@OutToGetYouPod on Instagram) featuring guests such as award-winning author Gretchen Felker-Martin. Rebecca can be found on BlueSky at @phoenixforce.

Rebecca Lloyd

Abstract: Reuse, recycle: Terry Pratchett’s Igors and the monstrous remade body.

Margrit Shildrick (2002) argues that the indeterminacy of the monster body disturbs as it exposes assumptions about how we figure identity. Conflicting claims about the body as a guarantor of identity, challenging the security of distinctions between ‘us’ and ‘others’, are evident in representations of the Igors, minor but recurring humanoid characters in the Discworld novels of Terry Pratchett. Igors practice various surgeries and modifications both on themselves and others, thus literally embodying visually and philosophically competing discourses about bodies and forcing a reflection on whether identity and the body are self-evidently synonymous. The Discworld novels as fantasy literature incorporate elements not entirely possible in Roundworld, (our world), and the tribe of Igors have certain strange magical powers. But Discworld echoes and refracts Roundworld designations of monstrosity because responses to Igors, both of humour and terror, demonstrate Shildrick’s claim that monsters ‘are always too close for comfort’. Devoted to science and medical practices situating the body as the passive recipient of the anatomo-clinical gaze, Igors conduct transplantations amongst themselves and for others, taking parts from the dead as prosthetics, repairing and making whole the living because they believe that to do otherwise is wasteful. If their actions in restoring bodies to completeness apparently reinscribe the social biases of ableism, Igors themselves, bearing scars and non-normative bodies as signifiers of skill and belonging, present an alternative view of normality. But they are also bio-artificers, crossbreeding species and artificially growing body parts, creating non-human and vegetable hybrids with often horrific results. This paper will explore how Pratchett challenges the reader on presumed certainties about the relationship of identity to the body, exposing anxieties as both nonsensical, through humour, and, yet, simultaneously terrifying, so that we must ask ourselves who makes monsters?

Bio: I am an independent researcher on Terry Pratchett, Gothic creatures, landscapes and humour: publications include ‘Dead Pets’ Society: Gothic Animal Bodies in the Films of Tim Burton’ in Tim Burton’s Bodies: Gothic, Animated, Corporeal and Creaturely (2021), and ‘The Human Within and the Animal Without? Rats and Mr Bunnsy in Terry Pratchett’s The Amazing Maurice and His Educated Rodents’ in Gothic Animals (2020). My most recent publication is ‘Ghostly Objects and the Horrors of Ghastly Ancestors in the Ghost Stories of Louisa Baldwin’ in Women’s Writing , Vol. 29 (2), July 2022, with co-author Professor Ruth Heholt.

Rebecca Pearce

Abstract: “All in a Day’s Work for a Hero”: Once Upon a Time and the Fantastical Byronic Hero-Villain Cycle

Peter Thorslev argues at the turn of the 19th century, gothic literature had created a ‘peculiar hybrid ‘hero-villain’ or ‘villainous hero’ (6). Lord Byron, inspired by these tales, created his ‘Byronic Hero’, a dark, brooding and mysterious figure, but most importantly ‘ensouled and humanized’ (8). Byronism is revived across two hundred years of fantasy fiction; in the figure of the vampire, werewolf and other supernatural beings. Created on the brink and between the boundary of both hero and villain, the popularity and continual reimagining of the Byronic Hero demonstrates how our perspectives on all three archetypes can change. The Byronic appeared first as a villain Vampyr in John Polidori’s novella, and two centuries later, recast as the hero in Twilight and Buffy the Vampire Slayer . Where the villain is often ‘Othered’, the contemporary Byronic hero re-centers this evil as sympathetic, thereby subverting normative boundaries. This is clear in Disney’s reimagining of their classic villain catalogue into heroic stories: Maleficent (2014), Cruella (2021), but particularly exemplified in Once Upon a Time (2012-18), a fantasy show that synthesises multiple Disney properties. This popularised Byronic Hero-Villain is illustrated in Captain Hook, a classic fairytale character given great pathos in the narrative quest to recast him as a hero and love interest. Rumplestiltskin is an amalgamation of multiple fairytale villains, several non-human. He serves as Hook’s foil, reflecting both sides of the Byronic Hero-Villain coin. I argue that this repeated re-centering of what it means to be a hero and villain is a cycle. Using Once Upon a Time ‘s villainous characters, I demonstrate our current cycle of villains turned heroes destabilises simple categories. Drawing upon both Byronic scholarship and fantasy research, this study aims to draw out the cyclical nature between the archetypal Byronic hero, fantasy villains, and re-embracing the ‘Other’.

Bio: Rebecca Pearce is a PhD Researcher at Brunel University London; her thesis is titled “Mad, bad, and dangerous to know”: Feminist Revisions of Byronic Heroes in Contemporary Fantasy Television”, explores the popular archetype’s representation in modern television. Having previously studied her MA (Birkbeck, University of London) and BA (Brunel) in Film and TV, her interests are focused on the supernatural and intersection of pop culture & literature. She has written for Critical Studies in Television (CST) Online and recently published a book review in Revenant Journal: Critical and Creative Studies of the Supernatural .

Scarlett Butchers

Abstract: “This was a place of wonders once”: David Rudkin’s Magical Landscapes ‘“This was a place of wonders once”: David Rudkin’s Magical Landscapes’ examines the ways in which the fantastical elements in David Rudkin’s 2009 stage play Merlin Unchained , particularly examples of magic, seem to emanate from the natural landscapes within which the human characters live. Throughout this play, magic is deeply embedded within the fabric of the earth and this manifests both through creating a landscape that is in some way sentient while also allowing magical abilities to be passed from the earth to human characters, becoming a gift granted to those who forge true connections with nature. Using both an ecocritical and cultural materialist approach this paper will suggest that through examining the portrayal of magic in this play it is possible to gain a greater understanding of how the land was viewed at the time of the play’s conception. Therefore, this approach will also create a space to consider how this perception has changed in our current state of climate crisis. This paper will argue that the magic occurring throughout Merlin Unchained is directly shaped by the relationship between the natural landscape and the characters that live within it, becoming a dynamic force that manifests differently depending on the state of this connection.

Bio: Scarlett Butchers is currently undertaking a PhD at the University of Lincoln exploring the relationship between people and the land in the work of dramatist David Rudkin. Her research interests include the impact of landscape on national identity, folk horror and sentient landscapes throughout art and literature. An overarching interest for Scarlett is the way the climate crisis haunts popular culture, appearing in different guises but remaining ever-present.

Şevval Tufan

Abstract: Liminal Worlds, Marginalised Beings and Disabled Bodies in Ihsan Oktay Anar’s The Atlas of Misty Continents and Amat Ihsan Oktay Anar, a renowned name in the world of Turkish Literature, takes his readers on a mesmerizing journey through the captivating worlds of his fantastical literary works. One of his most remarkable works is Puslu Kıtalar Atlası (translated as The Atlas of Misty Continents ), where he expertly weaves postmodern elements into his writing. In this enthralling tale, time seems to have lost its grip and the characters appear detached from their surroundings. As the story reaches its conclusion, a surprising turn of events reveals that these characters, who have been constant companions throughout the narrative, are nothing but figments of a dream. Anar’s skilled storytelling transforms familiar places into mysterious and enigmatic realms, leaving readers spellbound. Anar’s masterful placement and portrayal of fantastical creatures in his works grant us profound glimpses into the intricate landscapes of his imaginative worlds. Within this surreal realm, certain characters, marked by their unique physical appearances and disabled bodies, face marginalization within the context of the story. Moreover, Anar skillfully incorporates culturally-inspired entities like vampires, ghouls, and karakoncolos, imbuing his fabricated universes with a distinct and intriguing dynamic. This study draws upon Jeffrey Jerome Cohen’s “Monster Theory” as its conceptual lens, exploring the intersection of disability studies and posthuman studies in the analysis of İhsan Oktay Anar’s Puslu Kıtalar Atlası and Amat . By closely examining the characters situated within these interwoven worlds, the research sheds light on their experiences of marginalization, their embodiment of minority identities, their disabilities, and how they are perceived as monstrous beings.

Bio: Şevval Tufan (she/her), completed her BA in English Language and Literature with a minor in Translation and Interpreting at Hacettepe University, Turkey in 2022. Currently, she is advancing her academic journey with an MA in American Culture and Literature at the same institution. Beyond her studies, Şevval works as a lecturer at Ankara Science University. Her research interests are ecofeminism, science fiction, fantastic studies, and video game studies.

Siravich Khurat

Abstract: Shoukan: The Summoners who conjure the other Half of their Souls

Otherwise known as evocation, the act of summoning is one form of conjuration. Those wielding the art of calling upon another being are Summoners. With Japanese Fantasy as the scope, this paper has classified summoners into Singular Summoners who are bound to a partner and Compendium Summoners who are able to summon a selection of beings. For this paper, the interest lies in exploring the former under the framework of a partnership between a human and a ‘monster’ (the inhuman) to examine how the monster reflects the human as one-half of their soul, as explored in Digimon (Digital Monster) Media Mix series. To elaborate, when a partnership is formed only between one human and their corresponding monster, we can observe the interaction between the two and how one influences the other. Quintessentially, the monster tends to embody an aspect of the human, whether ideal or hidden. The paper will analyse closely how such a partnership presents the duality of the Other and the Self and how the representation of monsters across iterations conforms and challenges expectations of their fantastical origins and respective narratives. To that end, the analysis will apply theoretical discourse regarding monsters and their relationships to humans, including Cohen’s seven theses of monster (1996) and Zwan’s psychoanalysis into ‘monster’ (2022), to scrutinise two focal samples of singular partnership this paper has observed. One is an archetypal partnership that emerges through Digimon, Final Fantasy (a Japanese Role-Playing Game series), and Persona (a JPRG series). In parallel to this cross-series observation, the other is a partnership group in a single (JRPG) series: Kiseki/Trails. This dual scrutiny is expected to illuminate the Self-Other dynamic in Fantasy critically while concurrently revealing the creative approach to character design formed from such duality.

Bio: Siravich Khurat is a first-year PhD student at the University of Portsmouth, with affiliation to the Faculty of Creative and Cultural Industries’ School of Film, Media, and Communication, who holds an MLitt in Fantasy from the University of Glasgow. His interest lies in studying specific themes within the Fantasy genre across a range of compatible stories. He has a particular focus on Japanese narratives across media (Japanese Media Mix) and a keen interest in creative writing in English that integrates aspects of Japanese storytelling.

Supriya Baijal

Abstract: Magical Realms of Morality and Mystery: Reimagining Reality in The Adventures of Amir Hamza and Five-and-Twenty Tales of the Genie

This paper aims to explore the conjured worlds and creatures in Musharraf Ali Farooqi’s translation of The Adventures of Amir Hamza and the translation of Śivadāsa’s Five-and-Twenty Tales of the Genie , emphasizing their role in reimagining fundamental aspects of existence. Both texts, deeply rooted in medieval Indo-Persian and Sanskrit epics, offer a rich tapestry of fantastical elements that challenge and redefine our perceptions of reality, morality, and identity. In The Adventures of Amir Hamza , the translation unveils a world where the heroic, the magical, and the ethical intersect. This narrative conjures a realm where Amir Hamza, a legendary warrior, battles against not just physical adversaries but also engages with moral dilemmas, often against a backdrop of mystical creatures and fantastical settings. The paper will explore how these elements of fantasy serve to illuminate and question traditional notions of heroism, justice, and human emotion. Similarly, Five-and-Twenty Tales of the Genie presents a series of magical tales woven with riddles and moral quandaries. The fantastical genie and the narrative’s setting in an otherworldly realm invite readers into a space where reality is constantly reimagined. Each tale, culminating in a challenge to King Vikramaditya, serves as a conduit for exploring deeper philosophical and ethical questions, effectively using the fantasy genre to probe the essence of dharma and leadership. The study aims to demonstrate how these ancient narratives, through their fantastical creatures and conjured worlds, offer unique insights into the human condition. By examining how these texts use fantasy to delve into themes of morality, leadership, and identity, the paper seeks to contribute to the understanding of fantasy literature as a medium for exploring complex human experiences. The analysis will underscore the transformative power of fantasy in reimagining our perceptions of the known world, highlighting the enduring relevance and depth of these classic tales in contemporary discourse.

Bio: Dr Supriya Baijal has a PhD in Children’s Literature and Literary Theory from Dayal Bagh Educational Institute, Agra. She is currently at student at Trinity College Dublin where she is pursuing a MPhil in Digital Humanities. She has presented papers at several international conferences and has attend two summer schools in children’s literature at University of Antwerp.

Abstract: Holly Berries Like Drops of Blood: Conjuring the Green Knight as Monster in Prose and Film

“No monster tastes of death but once”, writes Jeffrey Jerome Cohen in Monster Culture (Seven Theses), but it’s debatable whether the Green Knight ever tastes death at all, in most versions of the tale. This paper proposes to read different incarnations of the Green Knight through the lens of monster theory, particularly in the monster’s role “as an embodiment of a certain cultural moment” (Cohen, 1996) and as an intermingled figure of both fear and desire. The “physically attractive, splendidly dressed” (Winny, 2001) Knight of the original poem already exhibits some of the monstrous tension between fear and desire that later writers have emphasised and explored. Kat Howard’s short story ‘The Green Knight’s Wife’ (2016) is a subversion in which the Knight’s game, having continued into the modern era, is turned back on him by his long-suffering wife who is sick of her part in it. Her story Once, Future (2018) also features a Green Knight, but this one is a figure disembodied from his cultural moment, “a thing unique, sole and unexpected” (Howard, 2018) but one out of time, with no more role to play beyond his presence. David Lowery’s 2021 film version of The Green Knight performs a separation of sorts between the Knight, figure of fear conjured up by Gawain’s mother, and Sir Bertilak, figure of desire. This separation is not complete, however, and is blurred by Gawain’s anxious fear of desire itself, and the film also complicates the original story’s kissing game by doubling Bertilak’s wife with Essel, Gawain’s forbidden love. Through these texts, I plan to examine the ways in which these monstrous Knights find themselves drawn into the same actions time after time in different contexts, and how the structure of this centuries-old tale grows around them even when transplanted into new soil.

Bio: Tam Moules has an MLitt in Fantasy Literature from the University of Glasgow and a BA (Hons) in English Literature from Anglia Ruskin University. Their research is currently focused on queerness in Arthuriana, and outside of academia their creative practice is currently focused on photography.

Abstract: Made a Villian: ND Stevenson’s Nimona and a Lesson in Difference ND Stevenson’s science fiction fantasy graphic novel Nimona (2015) and the film adaptation Nimona (2023) details the journey of Nimona – a shape-shifting, chaos-brewing villain-in-training – as she recruits Ballister Blackheart as her mentor. Together, the most sought-after villains attempt to dismantle the Institute, the ruling organization that maintains control through force. While several articles examine Nimona’s fluid identities, gender, and more generally heteronormative perspectives, this project shifts to focus on Ballister Blackheart. I posit that perceived as the main villain, Blackheart is a refreshing reimagination of a villain with a disability. Unlike more historical comics such as Mole Man, Donovan Caine, and Dr. Poison which José Alaniz catalogs, Blackheart is perceived as a villain by a world that refuses to see fault in the oppressive entity that is the Institution, however, he is not actually villainous. In fact, part of Blackheart’s “villainy” is his rigid morals, namely that he attempts to minimize damage to the environment and beings around him. Blackheart’s loss of his right arm during a routine joust physically and socially disables Blackheart’s aspirations to serve the Institute. Even in Stevenson’s fantasy world, being disabled limits one’s options because of society’s perception. Blackheart is fully capable of living independently, and the various enhancements to his cyborg arm enable him to be a successful hero, not a villain. This project is a close analysis of Blackheart as a disabled character and argues that he is made into a villain only through the lens of a society that continues to cling to its conventional beauty standards and ostracizes anyone who does not fit. Stevenson’s novel provides insight into how a world so focused on superficial control and privileging specific bodies can still be changed through the actions and words of beings that have been cast off and villainized by the world.

Bio: Tara West is a Ph.D. student from the Literature for Children and Young Adults program at The Ohio State University. Her research interests include examining portrayals of relationships that break and dismantle cisheteronormative assumptions and investigating representations of characters with disabilities in young adult speculative literature.

Vaibhav Dwivedi

Abstract: Of Faceless Monsters and Secret Terrors: Analysing the Hybrid Anatomy of Slenderman

Slenderman is yet another mysterious creature in a long-standing tradition of urban-legends. However, at the heart of its fame lies a persistent riddle. As a monster that resides wholly on the internet, the truth about its fictive status is merely a click away. A puzzling question emerges – despite knowledge of such bogus origins, why did Slenderman still accumulate such widespread belief? This paper seeks to analyse Slenderman’s ‘monstrosity’ by examining its hybrid existence. I will incorporate a three-pronged approach to understand this anomaly – at the level of the physical, behavioural and narrative. Slenderman’s unusual physical traits – a humanoid presence accompanied by blank-face, its atypical psychological mannerisms – a sense of perpetual dread and inaction, portrays a creature that obfuscates the line between human and non-human. This paper argues that Slenderman’s horror emanates not from conventional markers of monstrosity but from the absence of what is deemed ‘normal’. Furthermore, the focus will be on Slenderman’s literary corpus. The web-of-stories that comprises its oeuvre are an array-of-texts written by multiple authors. As a result Slenderman will be read as an ‘authorless’ creature that has been incessantly appropriated. This paper will investigate the entanglement of the linguistic and the monstrous through the figure of the creature. Ultimately through the work of select scholars, the paper attempts to understand Slenderman as a democratic creature that defies easy categorisation. Slenderman is indeed a monster. But monsters rarely emerge out of a cultural void. They often contain within them the anxieties of the age. If Slenderman is truly the internet’s own monster, then one wonders – what does it tell us about our own beliefs? This paper seeks to look through the invisible cracks of the faceless monster and take a long hard look at its soul. One might be surprised by who – or what – lurks there.

Bio: Vaibhav Dwivedi is an Assistant Professor of English at St. Stephen’s College, Delhi University. His research interests include Cartography in Literature, Film Studies and Fantasy Literature. He’s also an independent photographer and filmmaker.

Vincent Pritchard

Abstract: The Conjuring Trinary: Systems of Summoning When speaking about conjuration as a specific subset of magic in media, it is largely represented in one of three general methods, with room for some variability in individual stories and worlds. These three “subschools” of conjuring account for the lion’s share of instances wherein a character uses magic to “summon” something, be it a creature, an item, or a person. Instances of a creature being plucked from its life and home to do the bidding of the conjurer sit next to the creation of items and people from whole cloth simply by the clever use of magic. In this article I propose to set down the three main methods of summoning, and analyse each of them with a lens toward the moral and ethical questions surrounding each of them, employing examples from Magic: the Gathering, Green Lantern, Percy Jackson, and more similar. I argue that, among the various types of magic that a magician might employ, conjuration requires a more complex and nuanced understanding of morality by the caster in order to be able to call themselves “just,” and that the ideas that govern conjuration are both creative and destructive depending on the intent of the user.

Bio: Vincent Pritchard is a Ph.D. candidate at Goethe University in Frankfurt, Germany, where he got his Master’s degree in 2023 in the field of Anglophone Literature, Media, and Culture. His doctoral focus is on the links between identity formation and participatory culture in cyberpunk. Vincent is a circus acrobat and adrenaline junkie in his free time, and he lives with his wonderful partner and their dog in Frankfurt. If you look, you might find him talking about books on YouTube.

Xiana Vázquez Bouzó

Abstract: Representations of the Alien Enemy in the Post-Anthropocene: Two Case Studies of Filmic Depictions of Otherness through Gender ( Under the Skin ) and Animality ( Nope )

Ever since the Hollywood science fiction films of the 1950s, the alien body has consistently embodied its contemporary social anxieties and fears. The tradition of hostile alien invasions within Hollywood cinema cannot be understood without looking at the history of US war propaganda against its long-standing political enemies: the Soviet Union, Japan and the Middle East. In this regard, we might think about films like The Thing from Another World (Nyby, 1951), The War of the Worlds (both Haskin’s 1953 and Spielberg’s 2005 versions), Invasion of the Body Snatchers (Siegel, 1956) or Independence Day (Emmerich, 1996). Whereas alien invaders and predators in the 70s and 80s were dominated by the Alien saga initiated by Ridley Scott in 1979, as well as the Predator saga started by John McTiernan in 1987, the 21st century has been witness to more sympathetic visions of alien invaders, as shown in successful productions like Denis Villeneuve’s 2016 film Arrival . I am particularly interested in the ways in which human-eating and predating aliens have moved from Alien ’s insectoid xenomorph or the scary creatures of Independence Day towards more complex creatures like those depicted in Jonathan Glazer’s Under the Skin (2013) or Jordan Peele’s Nope (2022). The two alien creatures from these films will be the main focus of this paper, especially looking at the ways in which gender, sexuality, disability and animality intersect in the representation of alienness and Otherness in their bodies. Through an antispeciesist, post-anthropocentric lens, I will look at how discourses that are critical of the species hierarchy have soaked contemporary fiction in which superior creatures (like aliens, but also vampires or nonhuman animal apex predators) hunt and consume human beings, and how the representation of such consumption is influenced by other analytical categories that question bodily normativity and its subsequent discriminations.

Bio: Xiana Vázquez Bouzó is a PhD candidate in English Studies at the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona. She holds a BA in English Philology and two MAs in Gender Studies and Applied Philosophy, and she specializes in literature and film (especially horror and science fiction), Critical Animal Studies and Feminist Studies. She is currently working on the representation of human-eating monsters in 21st-century film from an antispeciesist perspective. In the last years, she has taken part in several international conferences and has published part of her work, sharing her research about monsters and Critical Animal Studies within popular culture.

Zainab Wahab

Abstract: Monsters of Greed and Guilt: Examining Mythical Monsters as Symbols of Oppression in Tumbbad and Ghoul Works of fantasy confront us with differences that challenge our self-perception and understanding of reality. Often symbolized by terrifying creatures, demons, and monsters, the portrayal of these differences invites us to reevaluate the power dynamics between diverse groups. In his seven theses, Jeffrey Jerome Cohen defines the monster’s body as a cultural body characterized by “difference made flesh” whose alterity “originate(s) Within”, thus creating a link between monsters and individuals who perceive them as such (Cohen 41). Using insights from Cohen’s analysis, this paper interprets the mythical monsters in the Indian Hindi film Tumbbad (2018) and Netflix miniseries Ghoul (2018) as manifestations of oppressive systems such as caste and Hindu majoritarianism in India. In Tumbbad , a demon God from Hindu mythology called Hastar epitomizes the insatiable greed of the upper caste society and the exploitation of women under Brahmanical patriarchy. While Tumbbad enables the critique of monstrous legacies, Ghoul presents a dystopian future where ghul, a demon from Arabic folklore, is summoned to avenge the institutional murder of a Muslim man by exposing and weaponizing the guilt of complicit individuals. As an embodiment of the oppressor’s guilt, ghul exposes the brutality of state-sanctioned violence and majoritarian politics. Building on Ashis Nandy’s conception of mythologization as a moralizing process, the paper delineates monsters as cultural products who anthropomorphize the oppressor’s greed, violence, and guilt, highlighting the threat posed by historically oppressive and prejudiced ideologies to democratic systems. Varying from the conventional interpretation of monsters as pathologized depictions of socio-cultural deviations, the paper identifies them as representations of the violence perpetuated by oppressive systems, thus unveiling the monster’s potential to question discriminatory traditions, challenge hegemonic regimes, and subvert the unjust order.

Bio: Zainab Wahab is a postgraduate student of English Literature at the Jawaharlal Nehru University. Her research interests include the Aesthetics of Disgust, Body Horror, and Ecogothic. She writes poetry and enjoys reading about the architectural significance of historic buildings. Her preferred pronouns are She/Her.

Abstract: A Link Between the Historical Evolution of Creature Design in Fantastic Film and Fine-Grained Representation of Non-Human Experience?

In the last decades, special effect technologies have enabled significant changes in creature design: from Ray Harryhausen’s stop-motion skeletons The 7th Voyage of Sinbad , to the performance capture of Andy Serkis as Golum in the Lord of the Rings trilogy. Regarding practical effects, there has been progress in materials and prosthesis-making, animatronics and puppetry. This evolution has been even more impressive in the field of digital effects, especially via computer generated images (CGI), motion and performance capture, and digital editing. But as the technologies progress, has creature design changed? In this paper I argue that progress in special effects technologies increased the potential for a finer grained representation of non-human experience. In Narratology Beyond the Human , David Herman argues that there is a spectrum between coarse-grained and fine-grained ways to represent the experience of a character. Can we link the evolution of creature design, special effects, and the representation of the inner lives of imaginary creatures? I will focus on two topics: the integration between the creature and its environment, and the use of movement as a representation of inner states (body language and expressivity). To support this analysis I will compare and contrast reptile and simian characters of various time periods, linking the body structure of the creature and special effect technologies of the time to overall expressivity. Examples will be taken from various Godzilla and King Kong films, as well as from The Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit trilogies.

Bio: Zoe Wible did her PhD at the University of Kent. The title for her thesis is: “Fantastikaracters and folkbiology: A cognitive approach to imaginary creatures in fiction film”. Her research interests include Fantastika genres, cognitive media theory, imaginary creatures and storytelling conventions in visual narrative media. She also draws on recent developments in interactive media and forms of engagement, including video games and online fandom spaces.

Zvonimir Prtenjača

Abstract: X-Men’s White Gaze: Conjuring an Apocalypse of Superheroines of Colour

Unlike their comic book counterparts which have, since at least the 1970s and with varying degrees of success, been stimulating discussions of the minorities Othered due to their racial and gender identities, the critically acclaimed and box office-smashing X-Men films produced throughout the past two decades have decidedly bypassed them. Bryan Singer and Simon Kinberg, the director-screenwriter duo chiefly responsible for transposing the X-Men’s fantasy worlds from their source materials’ pages onto the silver screens, have conjured them up in live-action format under an objectifying White male gaze. This paper first briefly surveys how the X-Men film franchise utilizes this structure of dominance to centre its White male protagonists as agential lookers and proprietors of female characters of colour, the exoticized and domesticated looked-ats. It then engages in a close reading of Singer and Kinberg’s 2016 entry to the X-Men film series, X-Men: Apocalypse , in which the creators project their patriarchal desires towards African- and Asian-American women onto three superheroines, Storm, Jubilee, and Psylocke, and deliver them to the audiences through the eponymous antagonist’s and several White X-Men’s point of view. The component crucial to “maintaining” these women’s “intersecting oppressions,” argues the paper, are their gendered and racialized stereotypical renditions which Patricia Hill Collins calls “controlling images” (69). As Storm is ultimately contained within the image of the Magical Negress selflessly assisting the men around her, while Jubilee becomes their subservient and silent Lotus Blossom and Psylocke their hypersexualized and threatening Dragon Lady, the paper shows that X-Men: Apocalypse neither challenges these clichéd representations of African- and Asian-American women nor reflects their lived experiences through their mentioned cinematic surrogates. Rather, it sustains their depictions “as less human” and “more ‘natural’,” denying them “subjectivity” and fuelling off-screen “the political economy of domination” characteristic of “slavery, colonialism, and neocolonialism” (Hill Collins 71).

Keywords: Black and Asian women, racial and gender stereotypes, superhero film, White gaze, X-Men: Apocalypse Works Cited: Hill Collins, Patricia. Black Feminist Thought: Knowledge, Consciousness, and the Politics of Empowerment, Second Edition. Routledge, 2000.

Bio: Zvonimir Prtenjača (he/him/his) is a third-year PhD candidate and a teaching assistant with the Department of English at the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences (Josip Juraj Strossmayer University of Osijek, the Republic of Croatia), where he researches theories, politics, and practices of representation and difference in American popular culture. When he is not teaching English in his elementary school, he can be found either consuming excessive amounts of caffeinated beverages while annoying his girlfriend or watching and reading the newly released or published superhero film/TV show and comic book.

Realms of Imagination Launch Event

Thursday December 14 th , 6pm-7:30pm

Join the Centre for Fantasy and the Fantastic as we celebrate the launch of Realms of Imagination: Essays from the Wide Worlds of Fantasy , recently released by British Library Publishing as a companion volume to the Fantasy: Realms of Imagination exhibition.  This highly-illustrated book contains twenty essays providing a wide range of perspectives on Fantasy, its forms and its communities.  Collection editors Tanya Kirk and Matthew Sangster will be in conversation with essay authors Cristina Bacchilega , Dimitra Fimi , Sofia Samatar and Ann VanderMeer .

Cristina Bacchilega is Professor Emerita of English at the University of Hawai‘i-Mānoa and co-edits Marvels & Tales: Journal of Fairy-Tale Studies . Her books include Postmodern Fairy Tales: Gender and Narrative Strategies (1997), Legendary Hawai‘i and the Politics of Place (2006), Fairy Tales Transformed?: 21 st -Century Adaptations and the Politics of Wonder (2013) and several co-edited anthologies. Her current projects are collaborations, one on the fantastic in the Pacific, the other on justice in contemporary fairy tales.

Dimitra Fimi is Professor of Fantasy and Children’s Literature and Co-Director of the Centre for Fantasy and the Fantastic at the University of Glasgow. Both her monographs – Tolkien, Race and Cultural History (2008) and Celtic Myth in Contemporary Children’s Fantasy (2017) – won Mythopoeic Scholarship Awards; in 2021, she received the Outstanding Contribution to Tolkien Studies Award from the Tolkien Society. She co-edits the Perspectives on Fantasy book series (Bloomsbury) with Brian Attebery and Matthew Sangster.

Tanya Kirk is Lead Curator of Printed Heritage Collections 1601-1900 at the British Library, and is the lead curator for the major exhibition Fantasy: Realms of Imagination (2023-24). She previously co-curated several other literary exhibitions at the Library, including Terror and Wonder: The Gothic Imagination (2014) and Out of This World: Science Fiction (2011). She has edited five volumes of classic ghost stories drawn from the British Library’s collections, most recently Haunters at the Hearth: Eerie Tales for Christmas Nights (2022).

Sofia Samatar ’s first novel, A Stranger in Olondria (2013), won the 2014 William L. Crawford Fantasy Award, the British Fantasy Award, and the World Fantasy Award. She also received the 2014 Astounding Award for Best New Writer. Her novel The Winged Histories (2016) completed the Olondria duology, and was followed by Tender: Stories (2017), Monster Portraits (with the artist Del Samatar; 2018) and The White Mosque: A Memoir (2022). She lives in Virginia and teaches at James Madison University.

Matthew Sangster is Professor of Romantic Studies, Fantasy and Cultural History and Co- Director of the Centre for Fantasy and the Fantastic at the University of Glasgow.  His most recent book, An Introduction to Fantasy , was published by Cambridge University Press in 2023.  His essays on Fantasy include work on Mervyn Peake, China Miéville and imaginary cities.  His other books include Living as an Author in the Romantic Period (2021), Institutions of Literature, 1700-1900 (co-edited with Jon Mee, 2022) and Remediating the 1820s (co-edited with Jon Mee, 2023).  He co-curated (with Zoë Wilcox) the British Library’s 2011 exhibition The Worlds of Mervyn Peake and is external curator for Fantasy: Realms of Imagination (2023-24).

Ann VanderMeer is the founder of the award-winning Buzzcity Press. She was the editor-in-chief for Weird Tales (the oldest Fantasy magazine in the world) for five years, during which she was nominated three times for the Hugo Award, winning once. She has won the British Fantasy Award, the Locus Award and the World Fantasy Award. Anthologies she has edited or co-edited include Best American Fantasy (2007 and 2008), The Thackery T. Lambshead Pocket Guide to Eccentric & Discredited Diseases (2011), The Weird: A Compendium of Dark and Strange Stories (2011), The Time Traveller’s Almanac (2013), Sisters of the Revolution (2015), The Big Book of Science Fiction (2016), Current Futures: A Sci-fi Ocean Anthology (2019), The Big Book of Classic Fantasy (2019), AVATARS INC. (2020) and The Big Book of Modern Fantasy (2020). She currently works as an acquiring editor at Tor.com. Ann lives with her husband Jeff and their cat Neo in Tallahassee, Florida.

You can get your free ticket via this Eventbrite page .

GIFCon 2024: Conjuring Creatures and Worlds – Call for Papers

Centre for Fantasy and the Fantastic, University of Glasgow 

Submissions Closed

Event registration can be found here .  The Programme can be found here . 

Conference date: 15 th –17 th May 2024 (hosted online)    The Centre for Fantasy and the Fantastic is pleased to announce a call for papers for Glasgow International Fantasy Conversations (GIFCon) 2024, to be held online on 15–17 May, with the theme of ‘Conjuring Creatures and Worlds’. 

Fantasy is inherently an act of conjuration. When we create, dismantle, or engage with fantasy, we are conjuring magic: the impossible, the mysterious, the unknown, and the indefinable. Conjuring fantasy is an act of creation not necessarily defined by our existing modes of being or reality, yet it is always in conversation with our own world. Thus, when we enter fantastika, we necessarily enter a conjured world that invites us to reimagine fundamental aspects of our existence. One way it effects this is by encountering seemingly nonhuman creatures, through which we meet the magical, the uncanny, the monstrous, the Other, and perhaps most uncomfortably, ourselves. Brian Froud writes in Good Fairies Bad Faeries (1998) that “like any supernatural encounter, meeting a fairy—even one who is gentle and benign—is never a comfortable experience”. Samantha Langsdale and Elizabeth Coody argue in Monstrous Women in Comics that “the monster is difference made flesh”. The same is often true of the worlds these creatures exist in. Conjurations, then, are not wholly foreign; their components are knowable. Through fantasy we can conjure, and therefore communicate, with the necessarily mysterious, the otherwise ineffable. 

The act of conjuration is an ambivalent one, being both beyond and outside our own world yet inherently connected to it and therefore susceptible to the same limitations and preconceptions. In Race and Popular Fantasy Literature , Helen Young argues that “the logics of race and racial difference are so deeply ingrained in Western society that it is extremely difficult, often even for members of marginalised racial groups, to imagine worlds that do not have those structures.” Indeed, Fantastika has often been concerned with narratives where creatures “function as recognizable stand-ins for majorities and minorities and the inevitable conflicts that emerge between identity groups”. We are interested in explorations of marginalised identities, including creatures, systems of magic, and worlds concerned with (but not limited to) race, ethnicity, gender, queerness, class, and (dis)abilities. These conjured creatures and worlds offer an alternative viewpoint into other modes of identity and being. Additionally, the ways in which these fantasies are conjured is important. The medium through which the reader (in the broadest sense of the word) encounters and interacts with the fantasy affects its meaning.  

How do academics, creative practitioners, and fans conjure (and understand the conjuration of) fantasy, creatures and worlds? Fantasy and the fantastic have the capability to conjure the ephemeral and the horrific, the indefinable and the real, the Other and ourselves, but how do we understand these creations? And how do these encounters with creatures, magic, and worlds conform or challenge our understanding of the fantastic?  

GIFCon 2024 is a three-day virtual conference welcoming proposals for papers relating to this theme from researchers and practitioners working in the field of fantasy and the fantastic across all media, whether from within the academy or beyond it. We are particularly interested in submissions from postgraduate and early career researchers, and researchers whose work focuses on fantasy from the margins. We ask for abstracts for 20-minute papers. See our Suggested Topics list below for further inspiration. Please submit a 300-word abstract and a 100-word bionote via this form by January 5th, 2024 , at midnight GMT.   

We also ask for workshop descriptions for 75-minute creative workshops, for those interested in exploring the creative processes of conjuring these creatures and worlds into being from a practice-based perspective. Please submit a 100-word description and a 100-word bionote via this form by January 5 th , 2024 at midnight GMT .  

If you have any questions regarding our event or our CfP, please contact us at [email protected] . Please also read through our Code of Conduct . We look forward to your submissions!  

Suggested Topics include, but are not limited to, the following: 

• Fantasy texts and media by creative practitioners from marginalised backgrounds, and from beyond the anglophone and Anglocentric fantastic 
• Creatures as corporeal and/or spiritual beings  
• Worlds and magic as material or conceptual spaces, realms, or structures 
• Multi-media representations of creatures, worlds, and creators 
• Creating and recreating race, class, queerness, (dis)ability and other marginalised identities in fantasy  
• Explorations and representations of the Other in fantastika 
• Attraction to, repulsion or rejection of creatures and the nonhuman 
• Depicting alienation, body dysphoria, body swapping and transformation in fantasy  
• The anthropomorphising of objects and creatures 
• Human and nonhuman binaries, hierarchies, and dynamics 
• Conforming to and challenging conventional depictions of creatures e.g., mythic and supernatural traditions, folklore, fantastic tropes and iconic and archetypal characters  
• Representations of fantastical creatures for example cryptids, fae, magical creatures, supernatural beings, the undead, humanoids, animals, hybrids, AI, extraterrestrials, demons, monsters, horrors, boogeymen 
• Environments, alternate worlds, ecocriticism, posthumanism, the Anthropocene 
• Conjuring futures and pasts 
• Organic vs. artificial worlds, spaces and creatures 
• Conjuring as a destructive or creative act 
• Conjuring magic and magic systems 
• How fandoms and scholars recreate, reinterpret, or conjure creatures, worlds and magic systems 

Framing Fantasy: Brian Attebery and Matthew Sangster discuss the affordances of Fantasy

To celebrate the publication of Matthew Sangster’s An Introduction to Fantasy (Cambridge University Press, 2023) and Brian Attebery’s Fantasy: How it Works (Oxford University Press, 2022) receiving the 2023 Mythopoeic Scholarship Award in Myth and Fantasy Studies, Glasgow’s Centre for Fantasy and the Fantastic invites you to an online conversation between the two authors, exploring how we can make compelling cases for Fantasy’s particular qualities and values. The discussion will take place via Zoom webinar on Thursday 5 October 2023 , and will be followed by a Q&A session.

Matthew Sangster is Professor of Romantic Studies, Fantasy and Cultural History and Co-Director of the Centre for Fantasy and the Fantastic at the University of Glasgow. His new book, An Introduction to Fantasy , explores why Fantasy matters in the context of its unique affordances, its disparate pasts and its extraordinary current flourishing. His essays on Fantasy include work on Mervyn Peake, China Miéville and imaginary cities. His previous books include Living as an Author in the Romantic Period (2021), Institutions of Literature, 1700-1900 (co-edited with Jon Mee, 2022) and Remediating the 1820s (co-edited with Jon Mee, 2023). He co-curated (with Zoë Wilcox) the British Library’s 2011 exhibition The Worlds of Mervyn Peake and is external curator for the upcoming exhibition Fantasy: Realms of the Imagination (2023-4) .

Brian Attebery is Emeritus Professor of English and Philosophy at Idaho State University. He won the World Fantasy Award for his editing of the Journal of the Fantastic in the Arts and has been honoured by both the Science Fiction Research Association and the Association for the Fantastic in the Arts for his scholarly work. During his time as Leverhulme Visiting Professor of Fantasy at the University of Glasgow, he helped launch the Perspectives on Fantasy book series from Bloomsbury Academic Press, which he edits along with Dimitra Fimi and Matthew Sangster. His Mythopoeic Scholarship Award for Fantasy: How It Works (2022) is his third, following previous awards for Strategies of Fantasy (1992) and Stories about Stories: Fantasy and the Remaking of Myth (2013).

Get your free ticket here !

CFP: Tolkien sessions at ICMS Kalamazoo 2024

The Call for Papers for the 59th International Congress on Medieval Studies in Kalamazoo, Michigan, USA (May 9-11, 2024) is now open. Proposals of papers and contributions to roundtables are  due Sept. 15, 2022.  The Centre for Fantasy and the Fantastic , University of Glasgow, is sponsoring the following session: 

Here Be Dragons: Tolkien at the Medieval Margins

Modality: Virtual

Boundaries, margins and marginality are expanding areas of research in contemporary fantasy studies, in which Tolkien’s work is still central. Tolkien’s medievalist fantasy is particularly ripe for a reconsideration from the perspective of the edges rather than the centre: from negotiating the borders of fantastical geographies, to contested borders of genre within the legendarium, to acknowledging the perspective of racially, culturally, and ethnically marginalised readers, fans, and scholars. This session will continue the conversation which started at the Centre for Fantasy and the Fantastic’s 2023 international conference on boundaries and margins in fantasy .

Tolkien’s medievalist fantasy shows a keen interest in boundaries and margins: from negotiating fantastical geographies and their borders, to examining liminal characters in-between political/racial/cultural boundaries, even challenging borders of traditional genres within the legendarium (fairy-tale, romance, epic, science fantasy, etc.). At the same time, contemporary fantasy and Tolkien scholarship is at last opening up towards the experiences and perspectives of racially, culturally, and ethnically marginalised readers, fans, and scholars.

We invite paper proposals that seek to examine boundaries and margins in Tolkien’s legendarium, be they textual, linguistic, geographical, embodied, or imposed. 

All proposals must be made through the Congress’s Confex system.  Please carefully follow the instructions on the Congress’s  Call for Papers .

Deadline: Friday 15 September 2023

CFP: Tolkien sessions at IMC Leeds 2024

CFP: Leeds 2024 IMC Tolkien Sessions 

Paper abstracts are currently being sought for the following Tolkien sessions for the International Medieval Congress at Leeds, 1-4 July 2024.  The special thematic strand of this conference will be ‘Crisis’.  See more here .

We are very pleased that the 2024 IMC Tolkien Sessions will again be sponsored by the Centre for Fantasy and the Fantastic at the University of Glasgow .

Paper submissions are being sought for the following sessions:  

Tolkien’s Medieval Sub-creation in Crisis 

This session will examine different concepts of crisis in Tolkien studies. Papers may explore the types of crises Tolkien himself created in the body of his legendarium by his revising of several keys stories and legends at different times in his lifelong work.  Papers can address the significance of these narratives and their revisions in Tolkien’s shifting ideas about the world and cultures he was inventing. Papers may also explore adaptations of Tolkien works and how they create crises in our evolving understanding of the canon of Tolkien’s work and its reception.  

Bodily Crises in Tolkien’s Medievalism 

Papers in this session can explore crises/concerns of gender and bodily difference in Tolkien’s works including sexuality and disability.  Indicative areas to be examined include the role of bodies under physical duress, punishment, injury from battle or war, as well as bodies in transformation including prosthetics, spiritual transformation (good or evil) and how bodies and body transformation from Tolkien’s works are depicted in illustrations and in films and other media.  

Racial Medievalism in Tolkien Studies – A Session Celebrating the Works of Professor Dimitra Fimi, founder of Tolkien at Leeds

Papers in this session may respond to, critique and develop key ideas regarding Tolkien’s representations of race that were first explored in  Professor Dimitra Fimi’s ground-breaking 2008 book  Tolkien, Race and Cultural History: From Fairies to Hobbits , which won the Mythopoeic Scholarship Award for Inklings Studies in 2010. Fimi’s evolving body of work has brought to light neglected aspects of Tolkien’s creativity and world-building, including the centrality of the Elves, the role of linguistic invention, and the relationships between race and material culture in Middle-earth This session invites papers that explore Tolkien’s contexts, racial representations and world-building through engaging with and building upon the approaches Professor Fimi has set out in her academic work.

Tolkien: Medieval Roots and Modern Branches

This continuing Tolkien at Leeds session will accommodate wider topics and new approaches to Tolkien’s medievalism, ranging from source studies and theoretical readings to comparative studies of Tolkien’s works and Middle-earth studies.  

Crises in Researching Tolkien: A Round Table 

The Annual Tolkien at Leeds roundtable will explore the current crises facing Tolkien teachers, academics and researchers in Tolkien and Middle-earth studies.  Topics can include the various adaptions of Tolkien’s works that will continue to grow with new media deals, differing thoughts on treatment of Tolkien’s race, culture and sexuality in his works and the desire of scholars to see, analyse and contextualise more of Tolkien’s remaining unpublished papers.   

• Please submit a paper contribution title and abstract  by 31 August 2023  to  Dr. Andrew Higgins ( [email protected] ) 
• Length of abstracts: 150 words (max!)  
• Papers will be 15-20 minutes long (3 paper sessions will be preferred) 
• With your abstract, please include name and details of contributor (affiliation, address, and preferred e-mail address)

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Department of English » Gothic Studies » PhD Study in the Gothic

We provide doctoral supervision on all aspects of the Gothic, from the eighteenth century to the present day, and across disciplines, especially literature, film, television and video games. We also supervise dissertations in Gothic Creative Writing. You can browse through our specialist staff profiles for areas of expertise here .

If you would like to undertake PhD study in the Gothic, it is possible to apply for funding through the AHRC consortium for the North West. Details can be found on the North West Consortium Doctoral Training Partnership website .

For Gothic-specific queries, please e-mail us here . For general PhD application queries, please e-mail Dr Andrew Moor here .

Our Current Students And Their Projects

Rebecca alaise, ‘gothic soundscapes of the long nineteenth century: ethereal instruments and the divine voice’ (2020-).

This project explores the singing voice as a site from which a variety of gothic transgressions emanate, examining how interactions between literary representation and interpretation enhance gothic music’s alterity and amplify vocal uncanniness. This study considers the ways gothicists from the 1820s to the fin de siècle used sonic dissonance to subvert the celestial wholesomeness of ‘divine’ vocality through the corporeality of operatic Divas and musical virtuosos, as well as choristers and monks, allowing wider scrutiny of sonic gothic motifs. 

Contact Rebecca

Fredrik Blanc, ‘“In Deep Waters”: Thalassophobia and Oceanic Transcorporealities in Modern and Contemporary Weird Fiction’ (2019-)

Fredrik’s thesis explores the materiality of the sea as a Weird space and ontology. Focussing on sea monsters and hybrids as representational intermediaries between human and other-than-human agencies in the oceanic context, he aims to investigate and re-evaluate literary and cultural discourses surrounding the sea, from evolutionary controversies of the nineteenth century to the ecological crises of the present day.

Contact Fred

Katherine Anne Burn, 'The Shame(d) Subject: Reading the Phenomenology of Shame and Temporality in Contemporary British Fiction' (AHRC NWCDTP award, 2017-2020

Contemporary British fiction reveals a topography of cultural and elemental anxiety. Turbulent landscapes frame experimental narratives that seek to recalibrate the self in this newly emerging period of post-postmodernism. My thesis investigates the relationship between phenomenological shame and time, and ultimately, its effect on the ontology of the subject.

Contact Katherine

Hayley Louise Charlesworth, ‘Depraved’ Bisexuals: Biphobia and Bi-Erasure in Post-Millennial Gothic Television (2018-)

Hayley’s thesis combines studies in queer theory, television studies and the gothic to examine issues of biphobia and bi-erasure in post-millennial gothic television. In particular, this research identifies a trend of problematic depictions of bisexuality within the gothic, and questions why the transgressive, binary-rejecting nature of bisexuality has been overlooked in queer gothic studies. Hayley previously won Manchester Metropolitan University’s Outstanding Academic Achievement Prize, is a contributing guest speaker for Romancing the Gothic, and is one of the organisers of the Absent Presences project.

Contact Hayley

Alice Durocher, ‘Gothic Cities: Manchester, Edinburgh and Paris in Contemporary Literature and the Cultural Imagination’ (2021-)

Manchester, Edinburgh and Paris are often represented as gothicised cities. This thesis uses transcultural and hauntological theories and applies them to the urban space to analyse the gothicisation of these cities from the nineteenth century onwards. I argue that gothic attractions, which flourish in these cities, bring new significance to the gothicisation of the urban space.

Contact Alice

Kerry Gorrill, 'MUTATING MANORS MAKYTH THE MAN: Men and Domestic Space in American Gothic Narratives' (2018)

Kerry's area of interest is the relationship between the masculine subject and domestic space in American Gothic literature. In particular, her thesis explores the ways in which American Gothic frequently generates a particularly schizophrenic and fragile male subject whose presence in domestic space seems to force that space to come to life, mutate and interact with the subject in order to bring about his death or ejection.

Contact Kerry

Charlotte Gough, ‘In the Devil We Trust: Masculine Trauma and Satanic Panic in American Gothic Film’ (AHRC NWCDTP Award, 2018-)

Charlotte’s thesis examines a notable trend in America Gothic cinema of the 1980s and 1990s that engages with the ‘Satanic Panic’, a contextual phenomenon of widespread occult hysteria in the US. Drawing upon psychoanalysis, gender theory and American political studies, the project identifies this trend’s distinct relationship to, and representation of, toxic masculinity and national identity that defined this period. Such that is now being retroactively echoed by the political landscape and, similarly Satanic, popular screen culture of the Trump administration. Charlotte has previously been published in  The Irish Journal of Gothic and Horror Studies  and  Fantastika Journal .

Twitter: @CharGough7

Contact Charlotte

David Griffiths, ‘A Writer’s Investigation into Method and Gendering in Paranormal Young Adult Fiction’ (2019-)

David is writing a Young Adult novel,  How to Draw Ghosts . His thesis also traces narrative patterns and tropes across a range of contemporary paranormal fiction aimed at Young Adult audiences, covering the period from 1970 to the present day. He evaluates existing techniques for engaging YA audiences with supernatural and paranormal themes and is building on these to develop new storytelling techniques.

Contact David

Esther Hudson, ‘The Song of the Banshee: Voicing the Other in Historical Gothic Fiction’ (2020-)

Esther is writing a ‘crossover’ historical-gothic novel, told from the dual perspectives of an Irish banshee, and a young woman growing up in Dublin during the period 1916-22, who becomes embroiled in the Irish Rebellion. The novel explores a post-colonial reading of Anglo-Irish history and her critical work investigates how writers can give voice to ‘mute’ figures of history and myth.

Contact Esther

Kirsten Kasai, ‘The Cycle: Creative-Critical Exploration of the Veneration and Vilification of Witchcraft’ (2021-)

Kirsten is writing two complementary texts (a novel and a critical thesis) that explore archetypal representations of witches and witchcraft, and of their supernatural power by examining witches in relation to biological, female reproductive cycles. She addresses the cultural uses of the witch as a scapegoat, and how accusations of witchcraft and the persecution of the accused have been historically employed to sustain and reinforce economic, political, and sexual domination.

Contact Kirsten

Karmel Knipprath, ‘‘Always, worlds within worlds’: Clive Barker’s Transmedial Gothic, 1978-Present’ (2022-)

Karmel’s research identifies British-born polymath, Clive Barker, as an important yet significantly undertheorized figure in the field of Gothic Studies. Her thesis argues that Barker’s unconventional and sophisticated use of the Gothic has allowed him to successfully advance, expand, and, at times, completely reconfigure the formal, aesthetic, and political limitations of multiple media, including theatre, literature, film, and the plastic arts, across a four-decade career. 

Contact Karmel

James McCrae: ‘A Cultural History of the Animated Skeleton, 1700–1900’ (2019-).

James’s thesis seeks to provide a cultural history of the animated skeleton in British culture of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. Interdisciplinary in its approach, it seeks to enrich recent scholarship on the relationship between Gothic and death with insights gleaned from the history of funerary architecture and internment.

Contact James

Luke Moloney, Hybrid Geographies: Ecocritical Horror in Contemporary Science Fiction, 1998–2020' (2020-)

Luke’s thesis focuses on contemporary science fiction, demonstrating its engagement with ecological anxiety and anthropocentric modalities through its incorporation of the horrific. Their work aims to demonstrate the value of considering generic hybridity through an eco-critical lens, revealing transgressive and radical potentialities for living with, and through, the Anthropocene.  

Contact Luke

Matteo Polato, ‘The Role of Resonance-based Processes in the Emergence of Experiences of the Supernatural. (2019-)

Matteo’s research focuses on the study of supernatural experiences, exploring how notions of sound, vibration and resonance intervene in the sensation of the eerie. He is seeking a novel epistemological and methodological approach to highlight the mutual relationship between the material-affective and the cultural-discursive dimensions within those processual and performative dynamics, that pave the way for the possibility of the supernatural.

Contact Matteo  

Leonie Rowland, ‘Commodity Animism in the Japanese Gothic’ (AHRC NWCDTP Award, 2021-)

Leonie is researching Japanese Gothic depictions of commodity animism—that is, the symbolic animation of the material world in a commercial context. This marketing technique, emerging from the intersection of capitalist materiality and indigenous spirituality, provides a vehicle for the Gothic expression of alternative forms of horror that expose rather than reinforce the harm enacted by a socioeconomic system that desecrates the spiritual.

Contact: Leonie

Twitter: @leonie_rowland

Ali Shannan, ‘Middle Eastern Gothic Literature’ (2021-)

Ali’s thesis focuses on middle eastern gothic literature and how far this has moulded our understanding of rising hostile western attitudes towards the orient. Approaching these issues through geopolitics, the aim is to assess the postcolonial struggles through gothic texts and films, exploring how these conflicts have often represented or misrepresented events and how far this influenced our perspective of the middle east and all that it hides.

Contact Ali

Rob Sutton, ‘“We wonder how they think so soundly and speak so well”: Anne Grant and the Gaelic Rejection of Gothic Enlightenment’ (2018-)

Rob’s research aims to recuperate the writing of the nineteenth-century Scottish writer Anne MacVicar Grant. It diverges from existing scholarly criticism in that, rather than interpreting Grant as politically and culturally ambiguous, it proposes Grant’s fixed adherence to a Jacobite political and cultural ethos. His research explores how Grant’s commitment to the Gaelic origins of the Scottish people conflicted with contemporary notions of Scotland’s Gothic origins.

Contact Rob 

Isobelle Whinnettt, ‘Queer Female Voices in Gothic and Fantasy Contemporary Young Adult Fiction’ (2020-)

Isobelle’s thesis investigates novels published at the intersection of contemporary queer YA and Gothic Fantasy, evaluating common literary tropes and techniques. Her creative work, the novel ‘We Build Our Girls Grieving’, adds to this body of fiction a Gothic Fantasy novel with a queer female ensemble cast. As a queer female writer, Isobelle’s brings fresh insights to critical and creative work in this area and advocates for positive representation in genre fiction.

Contact Isobelle

Maartje Weenink, ’10 – 6 = 4, “king” – “man” = ‘”queen”: A Computational Approach to the representations of European National Identities in the British Gothic Novel “Genre” Using Word-Embeddings’ (2018-)

Maartje aims to create a large corpus of annotated late eighteenth- and early nineteenth century British Gothic fiction to computationally uncover trends in (the representation of European national characters and settings in) Gothic fiction using word-embeddings. This corpus will enable a quantitative approach towards comparing different sub-categories of the Gothic by relating the texts and their meta-data to the socio-historic contexts in which they were produced. 

Contact Maartje

Previously Completed Theses

• Dr Teresa Fitzpatrick, ‘Killer Plants & Gothic Gardeners: Gendered Eco-Monsters of The Gothic from 1890-2015’(2022)
• Dr Oliver Rendle, ‘Live. Laugh. Loathe.’: Cosmic Humour and Contemporary Pessimism in Literature and on Screen (1969-2019)’ (2022)
• Dr Rebecca Wynne-Walsh, ‘Basque Gothic Cinema (1990-2021): A Regionalist Challenge to the Spanish Model of National Cinematic Production and Cultural Identity’ (2022)
• Dr Alicia Edwards, ‘“There Are Things Going Bump in the Night All Over This Town”: Gothic Tourism, Haunted London, and the Geographies of Haunted Space’ (2021)
• Dr Heather O. Petrocelli, ‘Horror Film and the Queer Spectator: An Empirical Study of the Spectatorial Relationships between Queerness, Genre, and Drag Performance’ (2021)
• Dr Keith O’Sullivan, ‘“Somewhere I Had to Go”: The Postmodernist and Posthumanist Gothic Transmutations of Ramsey Campbell’s Longer Fictions, 1981—2016' (2021)
• Dr Nicole Dittmer, ‘Wilderness and Female “Monstrosity”: A Material Ecofeminist Reading of Victorian Gothic Fiction’ (2021)
• Dr Robyn Ollett, ‘Queer Lives through Dead Eyes: Observing the New Queer Gothic’ (2020)
• Dr Ian Murphy, ‘Art, Androgyny and the Femme Fatale in Decadent Fictions of the Nineteenth century’ (2020)
• Dr Andreea Ros, ‘“The Haunting Memory of Contagions”: Infectious Narratives and Crisis in Liberal Biopolitics' (2019)
• Dr Holly Hirst, 'The Theology of the Early British Gothic: 1760-1830' (2019)
• Dr Rachid M'Rabty, 'Beyond Transgression: Violence, Nihilism and Neoliberalism in Contemporary Self-Destructive Fiction' (2019)
• Dr Jonathan Greenaway, Language of the Sacred: The Nineteenth Century Gothic Novel and Imaginative Apologetics (2018)
• Dr Richard Gough Thomas, Scepticism and Experience in the Educational Writing of William Godwin (2015)
• Dr Jason Crellin, Schizo-Gothic Subjectivity: H.P. Lovecraft and Williams S. Burroughs (2014)
• Dr Mary Jane Ainsley, Contemporary Thai Horror Film: A Monstrous Hybrid (2012)
• Dr Zoe Lambert, When I Get Home: A Collection of Short Stories and Accompanying Critical Commentary (2010)
• Dr Gail Ashurst, In the Footsteps of The Wicker Man: Personal Mythopoesis and the Processes of Cult Film Fandom (2009)

PhD Development

In recognition of the growing number of Gothic postgraduate researchers at Manchester Met and in the North West, the Gothic Centre has thus far hosted two postgraduate-focused development days.

The Gothic Networking Day ran on the 12th of July 2014 and gave postgraduate researchers a unique opportunity to learn about Gothic Studies in the United Kingdom. The day included talks from the co-president of the International Gothic Association, the editor of the journal Gothic Studies, the editors of The Irish Journal of Gothic and Horror Studies, the commissioning editor of the Gothic Studies book series at the University of Wales Press, education professionals and representatives from Twisted Tales and Grimmfest Film Festival. The event was supported by the  Higher Education Academy  and was reviewed positively reviewed by the  The Gothic Imagination website .

The second of these days, the ‘Gothic Studies Postgraduate Training Day’, was held in June 2017. This was an opportunity to share information about presenting at conferences, writing for journals and networking. A plenary was given by Dr Emma McEvoy (University of Westminster) on Gothic Sound in Ann Radcliffe’s fiction.

In 2019, our PGR cohort organised Absent Presences: Shifting the Core and Peripheries of the Gothic Mode (27-28 June), a two-day conference inspired by their research.

In 2021, our PGR cohort organised the Gothic Approaches webinars to showcase their current work. The series is available to watch on YouTube .

PhD Admissions

Dates and Deadline

The online application for 2024 entry is now closed. The  APPLICATION DUE DATE for the entering class of 2025 is TBD. Please check back at the end of Summer 2024 for an update. 

What You Need to Know

• The application, including the statement of purpose, the writing sample, the names of three recommenders, and unofficial transcripts must be submitted  VIA THE WEB.  Late applications will not be accepted.
• The Stanford Application will be available as of late September.
• Do not wait until the last day to submit your application to allow for the possibility for technical difficulties. 
• Please make sure to include an unofficial transcript in your application materials. Official transcripts are not required until an offer of admission is made.  
• The Graduate Record Exam (GRE) is not required.
• Interfolio letters of recommendation may be sent by email to An Nguyen ( antnguyn [at] stanford.edu (antnguyn[at]stanford[dot]edu) ).
• Admissions decisions will take place during the last two weeks of February.
• Applicants will be notified by early March.

The selection of PhD students admitted to the Program in Modern Thought & Literature is based on an individualized, holistic review of each application, including (but not limited to) the applicant’s academic record, the letters of recommendation, the statement of purpose, personal qualities and characteristics, and past accomplishments.

The Program in Modern Thought and Literature recognizes that the Supreme Court issued a ruling in June 2023 about the consideration of certain types of demographic information as part of an admission review. All applications submitted during upcoming application cycles will be reviewed in conformance with that decision.

Application Procedure

The Program in Modern Thought and Literature seeks to admit students who, as individuals, exhibit great intellectual capacity and the intent to carry out innovative interdisciplinary programs of study, and who, as a group, are of diverse backgrounds and interests. Successful applicants show a commitment to literary or cultural studies, but must also be prepared to make their way in their chosen non-literary field or fields. The Program has a commitment to supporting non-traditional and emergent forms of scholarship. We accept students who have just completed their undergraduate degrees and also welcome students who have pursued careers or degrees in other fields.

An application to the Program in Modern Thought and Literature must include the following elements:

Statement of Purpose

• Supplemental section regarding your proposed interdisciplinary project

Writing Sample

• Letters of Recommendation

To apply for admission, please go to Graduate Admissions

To reach Graduate Admissions, please submit a ticket using the help section of your application in the SLATE portal.

Of primary importance, the  statement of purpose  should demonstrate that the applicant’s focus is interdisciplinary and can be effectively pursued at Stanford.  You should suggest a project or two that would provide a sense of how you wish to pursue interdisciplinary study, and why the Program in Modern Thought and Literature is a good fit for you.  Although there is no hard and fast requirement regarding length, the Statement of Purpose should be a concise description of your academic goals,  no longer than 1500 words.

Supplemental section

In addition to the statement of purpose, you will be asked to complete a supplemental section regarding your proposed interdisciplinary project. 

Because they must forge links among disciplines and seek out relevant faculty members from across the university, students in Modern Thought and Literature need to develop their projects earlier than students in more traditional fields. Applicants should also bear in mind that the academic job market is overwhelmingly discipline-focused. Please answer the following questions BRIEFLY (2-3 sentences for each) to indicate that you’ve considered these issues. It’s of course assumed that your project will change and evolve as you study; this is in no way a binding statement of purpose. (*All three questions are required.)

1. What is the central question you intend to pursue?

2. Describe the need for an interdisciplinary approach.

3. Explain the relevance of your project to at least one discipline or field within which you could situate yourself upon completion of your doctoral degree.

Similar issues should be addressed by those not planning to pursue an academic career. Where do you see your project taking you?

Submit a critical or analytic sample of scholarly writing, approximately  7000 words maximum . Although we encourage applicants to choose writing samples that display their interdisciplinary interests, this is not a requirement. Choose a sample that reflects your best scholarly work. The writing sample should not be a sample of creative writing. Applicants may submit two or more shorter samples to a total of about 7000 words, but keep in mind that shorter samples are usually less well suited to demonstrate your research and argumentation skills.

The writing sample and letters of recommendation should again indicate your preparedness for interdisciplinary work, and why your interests would be best served in a program such as ours.

Completed applications must be submitted by the due date above.

Knight-Hennessy Scholars 

Join dozens of  Stanford School of Humanities and Sciences students  who gain valuable leadership skills in a multidisciplinary, multicultural community as  Knight-Hennessy Scholars (KHS). KHS admits up to 100 select applicants each year from across Stanford’s seven graduate schools, and delivers engaging experiences that prepare them to be visionary, courageous, and collaborative leaders ready to address complex global challenges. As a scholar, you join a distinguished cohort, participate in up to three years of leadership programming, and receive full funding for up to three years of your PhD studies at Stanford. Candidates of any country may apply. KHS applicants must have earned their first undergraduate degree within the last seven years, and must apply to both a Stanford graduate program and to KHS. Stanford PhD students may also apply to KHS during their first year of PhD enrollment. If you aspire to be a leader in your field, we invite you to apply. The KHS application deadline is October 11, 2023. Learn more about  KHS admission .

Program Administrator

An Nguyen  (for questions about the application process) E-mail: antnguyn [at] stanford.edu (antnguyn[at]stanford[dot]edu)  

Modern Thought and Literature 450 Jane Stanford Way, Building 460, Room 219 Stanford University Stanford, CA 94305-2022

Only On-Line Applications Will be Accepted

Please note: there is no paper option for applications. All applications must be submitted online. Letters of recommendation should also be submitted online. Modern Thought & Literature will accept letters by mail only in exceptional cases and when absolutely necessary.  Your Statement of Purpose, your Writing Sample, and your Unofficial Transcripts must be uploaded with your online application. 

• University application forms (submitted online)
• A statement of purpose (submitted online)
• Transcripts from every post-secondary institution you have attended for at least one year as a full-time student (submitted online; official transcripts mailed to address below )*
• Three letters of recommendation (although we much prefer that the letters of recommendation will be submitted online, we will accept mailed letters when necessary); recommendation packets sent through Interfolio may be sent via email to An Nguyen ( antnguyn [at] stanford.edu (antnguyn[at]stanford[dot]edu) ).
• A recent (non-fiction) writing sample of approximately 7000 words.  PLEASE NOTE:  The Writing Sample must be submitted online. 
• Fee waivers are available for some applicants. Please visit Graduate Admissions for information on applying for an  Application Fee Waiver
• Application Fee Fee waivers are available for some applicants. Please visit Graduate Admissions for information on applying for an  Application Fee Waiver .
• Funding Package All Ph.D. students admitted to the program receive five years of 12-month financial support which is typically provided as fellowship stipend and tuition. Information about the cost of attendance and funding options are available from  Financial Aid Office . For Incoming Students
• Status Page : Where incoming students can find their matriculation checklist and Graduate Admissions mailing and email address for sending official documents.
• Official Transcripts & Degree Conferral Documents : Complete instructions for sending official documents.
• FAQ : Answers to frequently asked questions on requirements of admission for incoming students.

To access the MTL Applicant Checklist (after you have submitted your application), go to: https://gradadmissions.stanford.edu/applying/starting-your-application

• Check the agreement box and click “start application.”
• At the bottom of the menu on the next screen you’ll find:  Manage Your Account
• Choose “Review Your Activity” and to access the checklist.

Please Note:  Do not be concerned if the checklist indicates that your application is not complete due to missing official scores or official transcripts.

For the review process:

• “Self-reported” scores are acceptable.
• The uploaded “unofficial” transcripts are acceptable.

However, before any formal offer of admission can be made, official scores and official transcripts must be submitted.

Links for international applicants

• Stanford’s assessment of foreign degrees https://gradadmissions.stanford.edu/applying/international-applicants
• Frequently Asked Questions https://gradadmissions.stanford.edu/about/frequently-asked-questions/international-students
• Required Examinations Most international students must take the TOEFL (Test of English as a Foreign Language).  Information on the required tests (including information on exemptions from the TOEFL requirement) can be found at: https://gradadmissions.stanford.edu/about/frequently-asked-questions/gre-and-toefl
• Information for international students at Stanford Visit the Bechtel International Center site: https://bechtel.stanford.edu/
• Fee waivers are available for some applicants. Please visit Graduate Admissions for information on applying for an  Application Fee Waiver .

Department of English

You are here

Ph.d. in literature.

Our PhD students are involved in a range of interdisciplinary and public initiatives. For example, some affiliate with interdisciplinary  Designated Emphases ; others have received grants to create  podcasts , convene interdisciplinary  working groups , or organize and annual graduate student conferences . Each year one student participates in a year-long exchange program with the  Obama Institute for Transnational American Studies  in Mainz, Germany; some have worked as Graduate Assistants and researchers for research centers such as the  Medieval and Early Modern Studies Program , the experimental media  Modlab , and the university’s  Datalab .

Students graduate with the qualitative and quantitative skills necessary for professional research and teaching in English, as well as extensive pedagogical training and a range of teaching experience that includes writing and composition, as well as designing and teaching Introduction to Literature courses. Our Alumni Directory  includes titles of recent dissertations, as well as information about the diverse careers for which the PhD has helped prepare our graduates. There is an option to complete an MA in literature , but it is not a stand-alone program.

Questions? Contact: [email protected]  

Admissions / Online Application

Degree requirements for the Ph.D. program   (links to more details) include 50 units of coursework with at least 44 units taken for a letter grade, proficiency in one foreign language proficiency before degree conferral, preliminary and qualifying examinations, and a dissertation. In addition, there are also opportunities for students to pursue a Designated Emphasis and gain teaching experience.

Coursework Requirements

2 Core Courses (8 units)

• English 200: Introduction to Graduate Studies (taken as Satisfactory/Unsatisfactory)
• One survey course in literary theory (Critical Theory 200A or 200C taken for a grade).

1 Workshop (2 units)

• English 288: Prospectus Workshop (taken as Satisfactory/Unsatisfactory); students may petition to complete this course independently with a Prospectus Adviser.

10 Graduate-level Seminars (40 units)

• All courses must be taken for a grade.
• Five courses must satisfy the breadth requirement (see below).
• Five courses will be comprised of electives (see below).
• Students may count one undergraduate 100-level course as one of their ten required courses.
• Aside from ENL 200, no course graded Satisfactory-Unsatisfactory may count as one of the twelve required seminars. Independent and group studies may not be taken for a grade.

13 Total Graduate Courses (50 units; 44 units taken for a grade)  Additionally, students who enter the Ph.D. program without a MA degree can earn one en route to the Ph.D. degree.

The English Ph.D. requires a reading knowledge of one foreign language before completing the degree; it is not an admissions requirement. This could be satisfied through previous or current coursework or an exam. Any of the following demonstrates proficiency:

Completion within the past eight years of 3 semester-length, or 4 quarter-length courses in a foreign language at the undergraduate level. Students must earn a passing grade, but courses may be taken on a Pass/No Pass basis.

Students may take the Placement Test offered by the UC Davis Language Center , testing out of the language at the intermediate level.

A Pass in the language exam offered in the English Department at the beginning of Fall or Spring quarter each year.

The breadth requirements must be fulfilled by coursework in the Department of English or coursework taught by English Department faculty.  Five courses (of the total 40 units above) will satisfy this requirement. Students must complete two Earlier Period courses, and two Later Period courses, and one Focus course. 

Earlier Period Courses Pre-1800; or Pre-1865 if the course focus is on American literature

Later Period Courses post-1800; or post-1865 if the course focus is on American literature

Focus Course Interdisciplinary, Identity, Genre, Other National, Method, Theory

Faculty and/or the Graduate Advisor may choose to designate a course as fulfilling more than one category, but students may use the course to fulfill only one requirement. For instance, a student could use a course on women in Early Modern literature to satisfy the Earlier Period requirement, or the Focus (Identity) requirement, but not both. A student could use a course on Cold War Drama to satisfy the Later Period requirement or the Focus (Genre) requirement, but not both.

The electives requirement can be fulfilled by actual offered seminars inside or outside the English Department.  Five elective courses will satisfy degree requirements. UWP 390 is acceptable as one of the electives. Also, be aware 299s are ungraded but still count towards overall units. With the approval of the Graduate Adviser, students may also enroll in a graduate class at another University of California campus through the Intercampus Exchange Program .

Students who enter the Ph.D. program with MA coursework from another institution may petition the Graduate Adviser for a Course Waiver up to three of the twelve required seminars; each approved petition will reduce the number of required courses by one. Students may not reduce their coursework to fewer than nine seminars.

Students holding an MA may also petition the Graduate Adviser for course relief for up to five of the breadth requirements; each approved petition allows the student to substitute elective courses. ENL 200 may not be waived or relieved.

For each waiver or relief request, students must submit to the English Graduate Office a Course Waiver or Relief Request form (available in the office) along with the syllabus from the course and the student's seminar paper.

Graduate students may participate in a Designated Emphasis (DE) , a specialization that might include a new method of inquiry or an important field of application which is related to two or more existing Ph.D. programs. The DE is awarded in conjunction with the Ph.D. degree and is signified by a transcript notation; for example, “Ph.D. in Literature with a Designated Emphasis in Native American Studies.”  More information .

In the Spring Quarter of the second year or Fall Quarter of the third year of graduate study, students take a Preliminary Examination in two historical fields and one focus field. Three faculty members conduct the oral examination, each representing one of the fields. Prior to taking the Preliminary Examination, students must have completed the following:

Introduction to Graduate Studies (ENL200)

Survey of Literary Theory (CRI200A or CRI200C)

Four of five Breadth Requirements

Four of five Elective Requirements

Additionally, students select one focus field. A student may devise her/his own focus list in collaboration with two faculty members or, as is more common, choose one from among the following:

Black Studies

Critical Theory

Disability Studies

Ecocriticism and Environmental Humanities

Film Studies

Media Technologies

Performance Studies

Postcolonial Theory

Psychoanalysis

Queer Feminisms

Queer Theories

Race and Ethnicity Studies

Science and Literature

Science Fiction

English 299 (Independent Study) is ordinarily used the quarters before the Preliminary Examination to prepare for the oral  examination and is graded Satisfactory-Unsatisfactory. Students may register for ENL 299 under the Graduate Advisor or a faculty member in the field of their exam for the quarter(s) they intend to study.

In the event that the student does not pass the exam, the exam chair will report the decision to the Graduate Adviser, who will work with the committee to decide whether the student should be given a chance to retake the exam (no less than six months later) or whether the student should be dismissed from the program. The Graduate Adviser will report this final decision to the student within 72 hours of the exam’s conclusion.

Any remaining requirements after taking the Preliminary Examination must be completed before scheduling the Qualifying Examination.

Students will select two historical fields from among the following list.   Students who would like to do non-consecutive historical fields need to get prior approval from the Graduate Adviser.  These lists and additional helpful documents can be accessed via our box folder "Preliminary Exam" in the English Graduate Program file.

The Qualifying Examination  happens as early as the spring of the third year and should be taken no later than the spring of the fourth year . The reading list for this exam, which is conducted orally, is constructed by the student in consultation with his or her three-person dissertation committee. When making their lists, students may consult the standard lists for preliminary exams available on the department's Box site. If the student has elected a designated emphasis (DE), materials from that field should also be incorporated into the Qualifying Exam reading list.

Graduate Studies requires the Qualifying Examination Application (GS319) to be submitted at least 30 days prior the the scheduled exam date.

Qualifying Examination Committee  The student, in consultation with their Prospectus Adviser and, if needed, the Graduate Adviser, nominates  four   faculty to serve on the Qualifying Examination Committee: 

• The three proposed Dissertation Committee members 
• One member must be from outside the English graduate program (this may be a member of the Dissertation Committee). 

The QE Committee is responsible for administering the exam. Neither the “Prospectus Adviser” nor the Dissertation Director (in many, though not all, cases these will be same) may be the chair of the QE Committee. Students with a designated emphasis (DE) must include one faculty member affiliated with the DE on both their qualifying and dissertation committee. DE paperwork must be approved before the QE application is submitted. The exam will focus on the Prospectus and the Qualifying Exam reading list. The bibliography of the prospectus will normally overlap substantially with the Qualifying Exam reading list.

The Qualifying Exam Report (GS343) must be submitted withing 72 hours of the exam. Upon successful completion, students receive the Candidacy for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy, Plan B (GS321) .

If you are disabled, you are entitled to accommodations for all requirements of the program you’re enrolled in, a process formally handled by the Student Disability Center . We recommend starting the process of coordinating with the SDC early in your graduate school journey, as it can take time for the Center to process information.  We must work with the SDC to implement your accommodations for your exams.  Please indicate your need for accommodations to us as soon as possible, so we can include the Center in our exam scheduling process.  Please notify us by the fourth week of the quarter in which you intend to sit the exam.

The dissertation must be an original work of scholarship and/or interpretation. It may be critical, bibliographical, historical, or biographical in its subject. Students work with a dissertation director and consult with two official readers as well as with other faculty knowledgeable about the project. A dditional details . 

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• Course Descriptions
• Executive Director
• Wenzhou-Kean University

David S. Hogsette, PhD

Professor of English Literature and Executive Director of the School of English Studies at Wenzhou-Kean University

Fantasy Literature and the Great War

The following proposal was accepted for the 2018 Center for Vision and Values conference.

Fantasy Literature and the Great War:

The response of j. r. r. tolkien, c. s. lewis, and lord dunsany.

It is an understatement to say World War I, or the Great War as it was known before the Second World War, was like no other prior war. Trench warfare was horrifically gory, and the resulting war of attrition was ghastly in its necessary reduction of the human soldier to a mere machine of war numbered among millions of other expendable human military machines. This “Great War,” a most ironic and tragic misnomer, profoundly affected Western socio-political realities and cultural production for decades. The West, indeed the world, would never be the same.

Artists, musicians, poets, essayists, novelists, and dramatists reacted in diverse and profound ways to the horrific realities of this war that was supposed to end all wars. The early twentieth century, for the West, was marked by an unflinching optimism in the progress of science, economics, and culture. National pride and colonial nationalism were at a fever pitch. Notions of patriotism, nationalism, and military heroism were idealistic, noble, and inspiring. When war broke out, many believed this optimistic patriotic idealism would carry the day. As the war dragged on and millions lost their lives and millions others were wounded in battle, early twentieth-century idealism and optimism transformed into existential crisis, horror, disillusionment, apathy, and, in some cases, despair.

The existing cultural norms and artistic tropes no longer made sense considering the existential horror of the First World War. A revolution in literary production took place, giving rise to experimental fiction that privileged the emotional, the descriptive, the subjective, and the psychological, and the preferred literary form was realism. Various cultural grand narratives began to be challenged, and the local, subjective perspectives were privileged. Such literary transformations would be exasperated by the Second World War, giving rise to what was eventually labelled postmodernism.

However, during these anxious post-WW I literary revolutions and artistic crises existed a small group of intellectuals and writers who chose to respond in a radically different and counter-cultural way. These curious writers rejected cynical realism and relativistic subjectivism and embraced, instead, a visionary and even idealistic mythic perspective. Instead of dismissing ancient literary traditions as no longer relevant and even inadequate to capturing the contemporary dispirited spirit of the age, these writers purposely and intentionally invoked epic narrative, quest romance tales, and fantastical myth as literary means to address the intellectual, spiritual, and existential concerns of post-war society.

Mythopoeic fantasy, for these writers, served not as mindless escapism but, rather, functioned as a corrective to spiritually empty and culturally bankrupt realism. In this paper, I will examine how such veterans of WW I as Lord Dunsany, J. R. R. Tolkien, and C. S. Lewis wrote mythopoeic fantasy literature as a means of questioning post-war cynicism, challenging the assumptions of materialism, and providing a corrective to the moral and spiritual malaise common in early twentieth-century realist literature.

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DPhil in Literature and Arts

• Entry requirements
• Funding and Costs

College preference

• How to Apply

About the course

The DPhil in Literature and Arts is a part-time doctorate in the Humanities offered by the Department for Continuing Education, focusing on a subject in British cultural history, which falls between the 15th and 20th centuries.

The DPhil in Literature and Arts is an advanced research degree by part-time research. Usually this course is intended for students who have already completed the MSt in Literature and Arts , although other suitably qualified students who have completed a master’s degree in the humanities may also apply. Students will often be building on research and skills developed during the MSt in Literature and Arts.

The DPhil programme shares the same historical and multi-disciplinary scope as the MSt. It may encompass the disciplines of literature, art and architectural history, history, and history of ideas.

Compared to the MSt, however, students will be working independently towards their own deeply researched 100,000 word thesis, building on sustained independent research over a number of years, and focusing on a specific subject in depth.

Admission is through the Department for Continuing Education. All graduate students on this course will be members of the department’s Graduate School. The part-time DPhil regulations normally require a minimum of four years' part-time study, equivalent to twelve terms, up to a maximum of eight years part-time study.

As a part-time student you will be required to attend course activities and related obligations in Oxford for a minimum of 30 days each year.

There will be flexibility in the dates of attendance, which will be determined by mutual agreement with your supervisor. You will have the opportunity to tailor your part-time study and pattern of in-person attendance in liaison with your supervisor. It is expected that you will join all online course activities during your period of study.

You will be strongly encouraged to participate in seminars and meetings with staff and other researchers in the University of Oxford. The major commitment of your time will be to individual study and research, involving wide and intense reading, collection of primary evidence, analysis and writing. You will be expected to attend and to contribute to the wide range of research seminars, conferences and workshops organised in the University. You will also have access to specialist training courses offered by the Bodleian Library and IT services.

Supervision

The allocation of graduate supervision for this course is the responsibility of the Department for Continuing Education and it is not always possible to accommodate the preferences of incoming graduate students to work with a particular member of staff. A supervisor may be found outside the Department for Continuing Education.

Supervision on the DPhil will be provided by a supervisor, usually Professor or Associate Professor from within the Department for Continuing Education. Please refer to the Department for Continuing Education website to see the areas of expertise and supervision offered for this course. Your supervisor will help you to develop a programme of research and writing although a research proposal should be at a well developed stage at the time of application.

Students on the DPhil are required to attend a minimum of 30 days of university-based work each year for the duration of their studies, usually that involves meeting their supervisor at least once a term.

You will be admitted initially as a Probationary Research Student (PRS), in line with University regulations on doctorates. During the probationary period, you will develop and begin work on the thesis topic. You will develop research skills through a range of training and skills development primarily offered via the Department for Continuing Education Graduate School, as well as across the University.

Students must apply for a Transfer of Status from PRS to DPhil status between the sixth and the eighth academic term after admission, each academic year at Oxford having three terms. This involves the submission of a piece of written work that is examined by two assessors, neither of whom will be your supervisors. This process is to ensure that your work is of potential DPhil quality and that the methodology of the research is appropriate and feasible. Upon successful completion of the Transfer of Status, you would usually undertake a period of primary fieldwork/data collection over one to two years.

You will also be required to apply for a Confirmation of Status as DPhil sometime between the twelfth and eighteenth term after admission. This will also involve the submission of a piece of written work that is assessed by two assessors, neither of whom will be your supervisors. The Confirmation of Status assessment is different to the Transfer of Status assessment as the assessors will be focusing on how the research is progressing, the quality of the draft chapters/papers, and on the plan for completion. The assessors will be looking to ensure that you are making the appropriate amount of progress in the development of your thesis, so that thesis submission will be achieved within the time limit.

You will be expected to submit a deeply researched 100,000 word thesis after eighteen or, at most, twenty-four terms from the date of admission. To be successfully awarded a DPhil in Literature and Arts you will need to defend your thesis orally (viva voce) in front of two appointed examiners.

Graduate destinations

Support in making decisions about graduate destinations will be provided by the course team. Many students at the Department for Continuing Education continue to work full-time or part-time while they study. You will also have access to the University Careers Service. 

Changes to this course and your supervision

The University will seek to deliver this course in accordance with the description set out in this course page. However, there may be situations in which it is desirable or necessary for the University to make changes in course provision, either before or after registration. The safety of students, staff and visitors is paramount and major changes to delivery or services may have to be made in circumstances of a pandemic, epidemic or local health emergency. In addition, in certain circumstances, for example due to visa difficulties or because the health needs of students cannot be met, it may be necessary to make adjustments to course requirements for international study.

Where possible your academic supervisor will not change for the duration of your course. However, it may be necessary to assign a new academic supervisor during the course of study or before registration for reasons which might include illness, sabbatical leave, parental leave or change in employment.

For further information please see our page on changes to courses and the provisions of the student contract regarding changes to courses.

Entry requirements for entry in 2024-25

Proven and potential academic excellence.

The requirements described below are specific to this course and apply only in the year of entry that is shown. You can use our interactive tool to help you  evaluate whether your application is likely to be competitive .

Please be aware that any studentships that are linked to this course may have different or additional requirements and you should read any studentship information carefully before applying. 

Degree-level qualifications

As a minimum, applicants should hold or be predicted to achieve the following UK qualifications or their equivalent:

• a master's degree, usually with dis tinction in a Humanities subject ; and 
• a first-class or strong upper second-class undergraduate degree with honours in any relevant subject.

For applicants with a degree from the USA, the minimum GPA normally sought is 3.7 out of 4.0.

If your degree is not from the UK or another country specified above, visit our International Qualifications page for guidance on the qualifications and grades that would usually be considered to meet the University’s minimum entry requirements.

GRE General Test scores

No Graduate Record Examination (GRE) or GMAT scores are sought.

Other qualifications, evidence of excellence and relevant experience

• Publications are not expected.

English language proficiency

This course requires proficiency in English at the University's  higher level . If your first language is not English, you may need to provide evidence that you meet this requirement. The minimum scores required to meet the University's higher level are detailed in the table below.

*Previously known as the Cambridge Certificate of Advanced English or Cambridge English: Advanced (CAE) † Previously known as the Cambridge Certificate of Proficiency in English or Cambridge English: Proficiency (CPE)

Your test must have been taken no more than two years before the start date of your course. Our Application Guide provides  further information about the English language test requirement .

Declaring extenuating circumstances

If your ability to meet the entry requirements has been affected by the COVID-19 pandemic (eg you were awarded an unclassified/ungraded degree) or any other exceptional personal circumstance (eg other illness or bereavement), please refer to the guidance on extenuating circumstances in the Application Guide for information about how to declare this so that your application can be considered appropriately.

You will need to register three referees who can give an informed view of your academic ability and suitability for the course. The  How to apply  section of this page provides details of the types of reference that are required in support of your application for this course and how these will be assessed.

Supporting documents

You will be required to supply supporting documents with your application. The  How to apply  section of this page provides details of the supporting documents that are required as part of your application for this course and how these will be assessed.

Performance at interview

Interviews are normally held as part of the admissions process.

Interviews will be held with all short-listed candidates and it is expected that the majority of eligible candidates will be interviewed. Interviews will be held any time after application by arrangement with short-listed candidates. Interviews are conducted with a minimum of two academics on the interview panel.

Interviews may be held via Microsoft Teams, at the discretion of the Programme Director, when travelling to Oxford is difficult or impossible for the candidate within the interview period.

How your application is assessed

Your application will be assessed purely on your proven and potential academic excellence and other entry requirements described under that heading.

References  and  supporting documents  submitted as part of your application, and your performance at interview (if interviews are held) will be considered as part of the assessment process. Whether or not you have secured funding will not be taken into consideration when your application is assessed.

An overview of the shortlisting and selection process is provided below. Our ' After you apply ' pages provide  more information about how applications are assessed . 

Shortlisting and selection

Students are considered for shortlisting and selected for admission without regard to age, disability, gender reassignment, marital or civil partnership status, pregnancy and maternity, race (including colour, nationality and ethnic or national origins), religion or belief (including lack of belief), sex, sexual orientation, as well as other relevant circumstances including parental or caring responsibilities or social background. However, please note the following:

• socio-economic information may be taken into account in the selection of applicants and award of scholarships for courses that are part of  the University’s pilot selection procedure  and for  scholarships aimed at under-represented groups ;
• country of ordinary residence may be taken into account in the awarding of certain scholarships; and
• protected characteristics may be taken into account during shortlisting for interview or the award of scholarships where the University has approved a positive action case under the Equality Act 2010.

Processing your data for shortlisting and selection

Information about  processing special category data for the purposes of positive action  and  using your data to assess your eligibility for funding , can be found in our Postgraduate Applicant Privacy Policy.

Admissions panels and assessors

All recommendations to admit a student involve the judgement of at least two members of the academic staff with relevant experience and expertise, and must also be approved by the Director of Graduate Studies or Admissions Committee (or equivalent within the department).

Admissions panels or committees will always include at least one member of academic staff who has undertaken appropriate training.

Other factors governing whether places can be offered

The following factors will also govern whether candidates can be offered places:

• the ability of the University to provide the appropriate supervision for your studies, as outlined under the 'Supervision' heading in the  About  section of this page;
• the ability of the University to provide appropriate support for your studies (eg through the provision of facilities, resources, teaching and/or research opportunities); and
• minimum and maximum limits to the numbers of students who may be admitted to the University's taught and research programmes.

Offer conditions for successful applications

If you receive an offer of a place at Oxford, your offer will outline any conditions that you need to satisfy and any actions you need to take, together with any associated deadlines. These may include academic conditions, such as achieving a specific final grade in your current degree course. These conditions will usually depend on your individual academic circumstances and may vary between applicants. Our ' After you apply ' pages provide more information about offers and conditions . 

In addition to any academic conditions which are set, you will also be required to meet the following requirements:

Financial Declaration

If you are offered a place, you will be required to complete a  Financial Declaration  in order to meet your financial condition of admission.

Disclosure of criminal convictions

In accordance with the University’s obligations towards students and staff, we will ask you to declare any  relevant, unspent criminal convictions  before you can take up a place at Oxford.

The department is committed to supporting you to pursue your academic goals. 

The Rewley House Continuing Education Library , one of the Bodleian Libraries, is situated in Rewley House. The department aims to support the wide variety of subjects covered by departmental courses at many academic levels. The department also has a collection of around 73,000 books together with periodicals. PCs in the library give access to the internet and the full range of electronic resources subscribed to by the University of Oxford. Wi-Fi is also available. The Jessop Reading Room adjoining the library is available for study. You will have access to the Central Bodleian and other Bodleian Libraries.

The department's Graduate School provides a stimulating and enriching learning and research environment for the department's graduate students, fostering intellectual and social interaction between graduates of different disciplines and professions from the UK and around the globe. The Graduate School will help you make the most of the wealth of resources and opportunities available, paying particular regard to the support and guidance needed if you are following a part-time graduate programme. The department’s graduate community comprises over 600 members following taught programmes and more than 70 undertaking doctoral research.

The department provides various IT facilities , including the Student Computing Facility which provides individual PCs for your use. Many of the department's courses are delivered through blended learning or have a website to support face-to-face study. In most cases, online support is delivered through a virtual learning environment. 

Depending on the programme you are taking with the department, you may require accommodation at some point in your student career. Rewley House is ideally located in central Oxford; the city's historic sites, colleges, museums, shops and restaurants are only a few minutes’ walk away. The department has 35 en-suite study bedrooms, all with high quality amenities, including internet access.

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All masters' and DPhil applicants are considered for Clarendon Scholarships . The department is committed to seeking scholarship support for other students wherever possible.

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The University expects to be able to offer over 1,000 full or partial graduate scholarships across the collegiate University in 2024-25. You will be automatically considered for the majority of Oxford scholarships , if you fulfil the eligibility criteria and submit your graduate application by the relevant December or January deadline. Most scholarships are awarded on the basis of academic merit and/or potential. 

For further details about searching for funding as a graduate student visit our dedicated Funding pages, which contain information about how to apply for Oxford scholarships requiring an additional application, details of external funding, loan schemes and other funding sources.

Please ensure that you visit individual college websites for details of any college-specific funding opportunities using the links provided on our college pages or below:

Please note that not all the colleges listed above may accept students on this course. For details of those which do, please refer to the College preference section of this page.

Further information about funding opportunities for this course can be found on the department's website.

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Following the period of fee liability , you may also be required to pay a University continuation charge and a college continuation charge. The University and college continuation charges are shown on the Continuation charges page.

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Additional information

Please note that you are required to attend in Oxford for a minimum of 30 days each year, and you may incur additional travel and accommodation expenses for this. Also, depending on your choice of research topic and the research required to complete it, you may incur further additional expenses, such as travel expenses, research expenses, and field trips. You will need to meet these additional costs, although you may be able to apply for small grants from your department and/or college to help you cover some of these expenses.

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In addition to your course fees, you will need to ensure that you have adequate funds to support your living costs for the duration of your course.

For the 2024-25 academic year, the range of likely living costs for full-time study is between c. £1,345 and £1,955 for each month spent in Oxford. Full information, including a breakdown of likely living costs in Oxford for items such as food, accommodation and study costs, is available on our living costs page. The current economic climate and high national rate of inflation make it very hard to estimate potential changes to the cost of living over the next few years. When planning your finances for any future years of study in Oxford beyond 2024-25, it is suggested that you allow for potential increases in living expenses of around 5% each year – although this rate may vary depending on the national economic situation. UK inflationary increases will be kept under review and this page updated.

If you are studying part-time your living costs may vary depending on your personal circumstances but you must still ensure that you will have sufficient funding to meet these costs for the duration of your course.

Students enrolled on this course will belong to both a department/faculty and a college. Please note that ‘college’ and ‘colleges’ refers to all 43 of the University’s colleges, including those designated as societies and permanent private halls (PPHs). 

If you apply for a place on this course you will have the option to express a preference for one of the colleges listed below, or you can ask us to find a college for you. Before deciding, we suggest that you read our brief  introduction to the college system at Oxford  and our  advice about expressing a college preference . For some courses, the department may have provided some additional advice below to help you decide.

The following colleges accept students on the DPhil in Literature and Arts:

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• Campion Hall
• Harris Manchester College
• Kellogg College
• Linacre College
• Regent's Park College
• St Catherine's College
• Wycliffe Hall

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If you're currently studying for an Oxford graduate taught course and apply to this course with no break in your studies, you may be eligible to apply to this course as a readmission applicant. The application fee will be waived for an eligible application of this type. Check whether you're eligible to apply for readmission .

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You should refer to the information below when completing the application form, paying attention to the specific requirements for the supporting documents .

For this course, the application form will include questions that collect information that would usually be included in a CV/résumé. You should not upload a separate document. If a separate CV/résumé is uploaded, it will be removed from your application .

If any document does not meet the specification, including the stipulated word count, your application may be considered incomplete and not assessed by the academic department. Expand each section to show further details.

Proposed field and title of research project

Under the 'Field and title of research project' please enter your proposed field or area of research if this is known. If the department has advertised a specific research project that you would like to be considered for, please enter the project title here instead.

You should not use this field to type out a full research proposal. You will be able to upload your research supporting materials separately if they are required (as described below).

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If known, under 'Proposed supervisor name' enter the name of the academic(s) who you would like to supervise your research. Otherwise, leave this field blank.

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Whilst you must register three referees, the department may start the assessment of your application if two of the three references are submitted by the course deadline and your application is otherwise complete. Please note that you may still be required to ensure your third referee supplies a reference for consideration.

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If you are a current master's student or have completed a master's course, one of your referees should be your supervisor or course director from this course. If you do not provide a reference of this type, the department will usually ask you to do so before completing the assessment of your application.

Your references will support intellectual ability, academic achievement, motivation, ability to work in a group.

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If possible, please ensure that the word count is clearly displayed on the document.

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• method: some discussion of your disciplinary approach to dealing with sources and constructing your thesis and what this approach can offer. Some of the following considerations may apply. At what level is your inquiry: micro or local, regional or national, comparative or transnational? Will you be using case studies?

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It will be likely that your ideas will subsequently change in some ways as you investigate the evidence and develop your project. You should nevertheless make the best effort you can to demonstrate the extent of your research question, sources and method at this moment.

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• Literature, and Rhetoric and Composition

Universities with good professors in Fantasy and Science Fiction

By Smokydog October 14, 2012 in Literature, and Rhetoric and Composition

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Hello! Does anyone know about professors specializing in those genres? I would appreciate any information on the subject. Thanks in advance!

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Look up Rob Latham at UC Riverside. Also, UC Riverside has a huge special collection of science/fiction fantasy. It is a prominent area of study in UC Riverside's program.

• wreckofthehope and lisajay

Thanks for the info! Does anyone else know about other universitities, just in case?

wreckofthehope

Kansas has the Gunn Center for the Study of Science Fiction.

asleepawake

Florida Atlantic University - There is an MA in Science Fiction & Fantasy and PhD in Comparative Studies.

Well, I don't think her focus is in science fiction & fantasy, but Professor Jenny Mann at Cornell taught a great seminar on Utopian Fiction that included lots of sci-fi/cyberpunk books!

All of these sound really good!

• 2 months later...

chaucerettescs

I know this is late, but for anyone out there interested in these fields for next year's round of apps, the University of Michigan has a lot of really great resources for fantasy/science fiction, first and foremost being Eric Rabkin who teaches fantasy and/or sci-fi just about every semester, runs the fantasy/sci-fi book group on campus, and is doing some all around amazing stuff: http://www-personal.umich.edu/~esrabkin/

Michigan also has a lot of profs who teach courses where you can get good doses of fantasy and sci-fi like Lisa Makman, who teaches children's literature courses, and Gina Brandolino, who teaches a couple classes on fantasy/horror.

I've also had a lot of professors here who were generally very cool about letting me flex my fantasy/sci-fi/horror muscles (as they are some of my sub-specializations). This year I wrote research papers on post-structuralist reader response in the Harry Potter fandom, the influence of Moby-Dick on sci-fi horror film, and the use of fairy tale imagery in Charlotte Brontë and George Eliot, all for classes that were distinctly NOT geared towards fantasy or sci-fi.

Genre studies students in general often have pretty slim pickings when it comes to choosing programs/courses, but, if nothing else, Michigan has a really great atmosphere that will grant you some leeway.

gradschoolwannabe

One of my interest areas is 20th c. American sci-fi. There's quite a few schools actually, you can try use google site: search function to look at a program that you're interested in's website. Cyberneticists work with science fiction quite a bit, so there's another option. Bruce Clarke at Texas Tech does interesting work, N. Katherine Hayles at Duke is one of the founding members of cybernetic study in literature. Most of the programs that are in my signature below have a faculty member who works in science fiction at the very least a small amount.

practical cat

Noting though that both of them are lecturers, not professors.

True! I should have noted that.

I just wanted to add that I went to Western Washington for my B.A. there is a great group of professors with interest in Science Fiction in their literature department.

tyler curtain at UNC chapel hill was just elected to the MLA science fiction/utopian & fantastic literature discussion section's executive committee, so maybe look into that?

OctaviaButlerfan

DeWitt Douglas Kilgore at Indiana University is one, and Samuel Delany at Temple University is another. I know of a few more, but they are at universities that only offer an M.A. in English.

enchantedforest

i have a similar question, but for fairy-tales, or victorian reception of fairy-tales? any leads on people in the field?

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Master of Arts

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