英国大学整活，开设魔法硕士专业！网友：请开网课

The University of Exeter is seeking to harness growing interest in the subjects with a course that will explore the history and impact of witchcraft and magic around the world on society and science.

harness [ˈhɑːrnɪs] vt. 控制，利用（以产生能量等）

witchcraft [ˈwɪtʃkræft] n. 巫术；魔法

The multidisciplinary degree, which starts in September 2024, will draw on history, literature, philosophy, archaeology, sociology, psychology, drama and religion to show the role of magic on the west and the east.

The university said it was one of the only postgraduate courses of its kind in the UK to combine the study of the history of magic with such a wide range of other subjects.

Prof Emily Selove, course leader, said the MA in magic and occult science would reexamine "the assumption that the west is the place of rationalism and science, while the rest of the world is a place of magic and superstition", including how it underpins western culture, and how its relationship with the natural world can bring new perspectives to climate breakdown.

She said there was a "growing acknowledgment" in academia that texts dealing with magic or occult subjects have been “systematically neglected by scholarship” in medieval and early modern history, literature, and religion, as well as the history of science and philosophy.

occult [əˈkʌlt] adj. 神秘的；超自然的

Selove said there had been a lot of interest in the course since its launch, with the university receiving more than 100 inquiries.

《哈利波特与凤凰社》剧照 图源：豆瓣

The course will combine traditional western academic methodologies and more alternative approaches, with students able to complete their dissertation through a performance work.

It says it will equip students with skills including creative thinking, analytical thinking, curiosity and lifelong learning.

Students will have the option to take modules on dragons in western literature and art, the legend of King Arthur, palaeography, Islamic thought, archaeological theory and practice, the depiction of women in the middle ages, the book in medieval and early modern Europe, gender, society and culture in early modern Europe.

亚瑟王雕塑 图源：IC

The university said the course could prepare students for careers in teaching, counselling, mentoring, heritage and museum work, work in libraries, tourism, arts organisations or the publishing industry, among other areas of work.