World-leading Fantasy Scholar Coming to Glasgow as Leverhulme Visiting Professor
Published: 10 December 2018
A world-leading fantasy literature expert is coming to the University of Glasgow for a prestigious visiting professorship.
A world-leading fantasy literature expert is coming to the University of Glasgow for a prestigious visiting professorship.
Professor Brian Attebery will join the Fantasy Hub at the University’s College of Arts for the Spring Semester 2019 as Leverhulme Visiting Professor in Fantasy.
During his six-month Visiting Professorship in Glasgow, the internationally-renowned fantasy theorist and scholar will give five lectures, which are all open to the public.
Professor Attebery, a Professor of English at Idaho State University, and editor of the world-leading Journal of the Fantastic in Arts, has written three key monographs on fantasy as well as numerous other books, articles and essays.
His work has played a crucial role in establishing some of the main theoretical and critical tools for analysing fantasy.
Professor Attebery said: "I'm excited to join the fantasy group at the University of Glasgow, which has already assembled an impressive concentration of fantasy scholars and students."
The School of Critical Studies at Glasgow boasts the world’s first MLitt programme on Fantasy, established by Dr Rob Maslen in 2015.
Dr Maslen said: “We're delighted to welcome Professor Brian Attebery to Glasgow as Leverhulme Visiting Professor in Fantasy.
“He is widely regarded as the foremost authority on fantasy literature in the world, and our graduate students and researchers have been discussing and citing his work for years.
“To have the opportunity to hear him and talk to him in person will be, for many of them, a dream come true.”
The Fantasy research cluster includes experts on a wide range of fantasy and fantastic narratives, including Dr Maslen, Dr Dimitra Fimi, Dr Rhys Williams, and Dr Matt Sangster.
Dr Fimi said: "Professor Attebery's lectures and engagement with colleagues and students will enhance the research culture of the Fantasy Hub at Glasgow. We are really looking forward to welcoming him here."
Professor Attebery’s visiting professorship from January to July 2019, funded by the Leverhulme Trust, will strengthen the fantasy community and research culture at Glasgow.
He will be the keynote speaker at the Glasgow International Fantasy Conversations (GIFCon) event in May 2019, now in its fourth year.
Professor Attebery will also deliver five public lectures on fantasy, on topics ranging from the epic of Gilgamesh to the Harry Potter books, and from the Anthropocene to utopias and collaborative imagination.
The first of Professor Attebery’s five lectures, which is open to the public, starts on the 21 January 2019 and is entitled “Burning Harry Potter and Other Ways of Misreading Fantasy”.
All five lectures are free but due to the capacity of the lecture theatre anyone wishing to attend needs to book here.
The first of Professor Attebery’s five lectures, which is open to the public, starts on the 21 January 2019 and is entitled “Burning Harry Potter and Other Ways of Misreading Fantasy”.
All five lectures are free but due to the capacity of the lecture theatre anyone wishing to attend needs to book here.
First published: 10 December 2018