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There’s no sorting hat, wands or flying broomsticks, but magical mysteries still await.
A university in the United Kingdom will be offering the country’s first ever postgraduate degree in magic and occult science, according to a report.
The University of Exeter will be offering the Master’s degree beginning in September 2024 amid a recent surge of interest in the history of witchcraft and magic, Emily Selove, an associate professor in medieval Arabic literature who is heading the program, told the New York Times.
The course will explore magic’s influence on society and science through the lens of Jewish, Christian and Islamic traditions, the Times reported.
While students won’t attend Defense Against the Dark Arts and Potions classes, the program offers unique courses such as a study of dragons in Western culture, literature and art and the depiction of women and witches in the Middle Ages.
Selove said she’s already been contacted by hundreds of prospective witches and wizards who are interested in the opportunity to explore such topics across academic fields.
“If we are looking for truly new and creative solutions to the problems that we as a society face, then we need to be honest and courageous about the fact that some of our tried and true methodologies do have a limit,” she told the newspaper. “Let’s cautiously and responsibly try some new or some old ideas that we’ve thrown out.”
Interest in magic and the occult has become widespread, especially among the younger, less religious generations — evidenced by numerous TikTok where the hashtag #WitchTok has videos viewed more than 50 billion times about identifying characteristics of witches and how to rid homes of bad energy, according to The Times.
Witches have also emerged as feminist symbols, according to Dr. Christina Oakley Harrington, a retired academic of medieval history and the founder of the London bookstore Treadwell’s, which specializes in literature on magic and spiritualism.
At her bookstore young women in their teens and early 20s are reading feminist literature about magic and the history of witchcraft, “which they wouldn’t have done 10 years ago,” she said.
Harrington said she and others in her circle with similar interests are considering enrolling in Exter’s program.
“Not because they’re idiots and think it’s going to teach them how to wave a magic wand and do a spell,” she said. “They’re people who have just a huge curiosity about the world and the way we perceive the seen and the unseen worlds.”
Pam Grossman, who hosts the popular “The Witch Wave” podcast and is leading this weekend’s Occult Humaties Conference at NYU, told The Times an interest in magic is not just for Harry Potter fans.
“Whether or not one believes in magic, it is still worthy of academic rigor because human beings have practiced magic for thousands upon thousands of years, and therefore it is worthy of study and attention,” she said.
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