We might quit Brain Junk and run off to the University of Exeter for their brand new Masters program in MAGIC. Not Hogwarts (darn) but you'd be studying the role of magic in society. Listen to our podcast while you apply!!!!

Show Notes:

University of Exeter Magic and Occult Science MA

NPR interview with Prof. Sajjad Rizvi

Fun book recommendation (that is not for young kids): The Magicians

A second fun book rec because Trace cannot be stopped: The Lefthanded Booksellers of London

Transcript

[00:00:02] Speaker A: Welcome to Brain Junk. I'm Trace Kerr.

[00:00:05] Speaker B: And I'm Amy Barton. And this is everything you never knew you wanted to know about getting a master's degree in magic and occult science.

[00:00:17] Speaker A: Oh, this is. Okay, I'm going to shut up. You start talking. I'm interested. Let's go.

[00:00:22] Speaker B: Okay. This caught my eye and I'm like, I would like to talk with trace about how we could actually have a degree in magic and magical things and all because trace and I both, I think you a little bit more than me, love that magical world and books are magical to begin with. But then that just magic within books as part of the plot is completely delightful. And I thought, oh my gosh, we can talk about that. It's going to be great.

[00:00:50] Speaker A: Yes. And then just the weird and the odd and the things where you're like, did I see that out of the corner of my eye? Is this, you know, magic being a concept?

[00:00:59] Speaker B: Yes, exactly.

So you have to go to the University of Exeter in England.

[00:01:05] Speaker A: Fancy this.

[00:01:07] Speaker B: But it is a master's degree. It does have parameters. It's housed in their Arabic and Islamic studies department, which I think is really interesting and not Eurocentric of them and acknowledges the age of our world and that magic is ancient, ancient, ancient this. It's pretty much always existed with people because there's things we couldn't explain.

So I like that it acknowledges that because we're always going to come back around to Europe. Don't worry, we're going to get back there. But we are going to get to Merlin. But we don't need to start with Merlin.

[00:01:40] Speaker A: No.

[00:01:41] Speaker B: And just a quick definition for those of you that hear words but haven't really thought you operationally use them but haven't defined them. Esotericism is secret knowledge for a small group of people. Also describes mystical, spiritual or occult points of view. And occult is supernatural, mystical or magical beliefs, practices or phenomena. Just in case you need a refresher there.

[00:02:03] Speaker A: Esotericism, yes.

[00:02:06] Speaker B: That is part of the wording of their degree. So when people get a little bit oogie boogie about magic and the occult and religion comes into play, they're kind of hand in glove. They are historically. So I just thought it's worth defining those things in case you're like, I'm not talking about converting over to the dark side. Although of course there's always that somebody is going to use magic for evil.

[00:02:32] Speaker A: Yeah.

[00:02:33] Speaker B: But let's talk about the educational background first. Exeter was founded in 1855 by Sir Stafford Northcott. It is such a good name and he started a school of arts. He envisioned that as a cultural cente...

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