Fantasy Studies Fellowship

The Fantasy Studies Fellowship is an undergraduate social and intellectual organization dedicated to the study of the Fantastic, established by Dr. Lori Campbell-Tanner in 2005.

If you have a passion for the Fantastic, or if you simply love books, the Fantasy Studies Fellowship provides a forum to voice opinions, exchange ideas, improve analytical skills, and make friends.

We meet about once per month to share ideas, analyze, and debate. Discussions will focus on material chosen by the group from all sub-genres including High and Low fantasy, the gothic, science fiction, fairy/folktales, children's fiction in books as well as other media including video games, television programs, and graphic novels. Members are also encouraged to share original creative writing and fan fiction.

Readings

Readings, films, and the like are chosen by the group. We usually read about one per month and are always looking for new suggestions, so join us and add yours to the list!

Here are some of the books we've discussed so far:

The Fifth Season: N.K. Jemisin

Hunger Games: Suzanne Collins

We Hunt the Flame: Hafsah Faizal

Piranesi: Susanna Clarke

Shadow and Bone: Leigh Bardugo

Scorpio Races: Maggie Stiefvater

Mexican Gothic: Silvia Moreno-Garcia

The Eye of the World book/Wheel of Time Amazon series: Robert Jordan Cinder: Marissa Meyer

Song of Ice and Fire/Game of Thrones: George R.R. Martin

American Gods: Neil Gaiman

Artemis Fowl: Eoin Colfer

The Lion, The Witch, and the Wardrobe: C.S Lewis

The Wizard of Earthsea: Ursula Le Guin

Good Omens: Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman

The Night Circus: Erin Morgenstern

The Golden Compass: Phillip Pullman

The Sandman, Volume 6: Neil Gaiman

Daughter of Smoke and Bone: Laini Taylor

Avatar: The Legend of Korra

Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time (video game)

Plus, critical works by Tom Shippey, Jack Zipes, Colin Manlove, Rosemary Jackson, Joseph Campbell, and other major fantasy/folklore/sci fi scholars.

The FSF also host special events and conferences. In 2021-22, we hosted a series of career seminars featuring talks by our alumni members: Assistant Producer at Fred Rogers Productions, Arielle Reed, and Director of Cambria County Libraries, Ashley Flynn in the fall; and Marketing Assistant at Simon & Schuster Publishing, Brian Murray in the spring. Video recordings of these talks are available upon request. In 2019, we initiated “Many Worlds, More Voices: Diversity in Literary Fantasy” with a panel discussion featuring NYTimes best-selling author Victoria (V.E.) Schwab, along with Pitt alum and author Elwin Cotman, and Pitt lecturer in the Writing program, Daniel McMillan. In March 2015, The Fantasy Studies Fellowship hosted a conference on “Tolkien and Modern Fantasy” in honor of our tenth anniversary as an undergraduate student organization at Pitt. Students presented papers on texts including Harry Potter, The Lord of the Rings, Hunger Games, and more. The featured speakers at the conference were New York Times bestselling author of Daughter of Smoke and Bone trilogy Laini Taylor, and Tolkien Studies founding editor and Professor of English from Wheaton College, Michael Drout, PhD. For more information, or to join the FSF, contact Dr. Lori Campbell-Tanner.