“Magic and the occult have recently garnered significant interest, both within and outside academic circles, and they are at the core of society’s most pressing questions,” stated Professor Emily Selove, the program’s director, in a blog post on the university’s website. “This program addresses decolonization, the exploration of alternative epistemologies, feminism, and anti-racism.”
Selove, in a news release, further explained that the program aims to challenge the assumption that the Western world embodies rationalism and science, while the rest of the world is associated with magic and superstition.
The master’s program will be based at the Institute of Arab and Islamic Studies, with Selove emphasizing the importance of recognizing “the immense influence of the Arabo-Islamic world on Western culture and science, a history that has been omitted in the construction of our illusory portrayal of the West as uniquely rational.”
Modules offered within the program include topics such as dragons in Western literature and art, the legend of King Arthur, paleography, Islamic thought, archaeological theory and practice, the portrayal of women in the Middle Ages, and the philosophy of psychedelics.
