A new research centre at Glasgow University is set to study all things fantasy.
Long associated with a sense of magic, the university will become the first in the world to launch a research centre focused on fantasy this week.
The Centre for the Fantasy and the Fantastic comes five years after Glasgow academics launched the world’s first masters in Fantasy Literature.
Launching on Wednesday, the centre will be led by Dr Dimitra Fimi and Dr Rob Maslen.
Dr Dimitra Fimi, a senior lecturer in fantasy and children's literature and a specialist on J.R.R Tolkien said the centre will focus on all types of fantasy.
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She said: "It will look at different expressions of the fantastic – literature, art, illustration, games & gaming as well as film & TV.
“And of course Glasgow is the perfect location for students in this field.
"We are surrounded by expressions of fantasy and the fantastic in the university’s very architecture.
"But this is also a future facing university interested in world leading cutting edge research which will now include our Centre for Fantasy and the Fantastic.”
Senior lecturer in English Literature Dr Rob Maslen added: "Fantasy can be found everywhere in twenty-first-century global culture, in films, TV shows, plays, games, comics, the visual arts, and literature from picture books for the very young to multi-volume epics and one-off experimental forms.
"I can’t wait to discover where its projects will lead us.”
The centre hopes to bring together academia and the fantasy community of creators and performers.
Award-winning fantasy author Ellen Kushner said: “As a fantasy writer, I stand on the shoulders of storytellers stretching back through time, everything from the post-war children’s book authors I grew up reading, to the folk telling tales by the fire they’d heard from their grandmothers in their turn.
"An entire Centre making sure this knowledge is valued, perpetuated, and will exist to inform future generations fills me with joy."
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