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MA in Magic and Occult Sciences

Darat said:
How do those extracts support your claim?
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Barbara Dunn:

I subsequently undertook independent research into classical, Arabic and mediaeval astrological knowledge/practice, whilst pursuing a career as a freelance astrological consultant/columnist for UK/European publications. Prior to joining Exeter University I was employed by the Sunday Mirror. In 2007 I was assisted by a grant from the Urania Trust for writing Horary Astrology Re-Examined: The Possibility or Impossibility of the Matter Propounded, published in 2009.
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So she wrote the astrology column for a bunch of newspapers.

Sarah Scaife says she lives in a "more than human world".

Lucy Hilliar:

Three leading Adepts are case studies; Annie Horniman, Florence Farr and Moina Mathers. For these women their magical selves had more personal significance than their marital status. In these women, concepts of ‘The High Priestess’, ‘the Divine Feminine’ and the ‘Scarlet Woman’ may be perceived. Expanding on the work of Mary K. Greer, this paper will prove that marital status, financial independence and sexuality impacted on these women’s magical and mundane experiences in negative and positive ways.
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Really not seeing a lot of skepticism on display there. YRMV.
 
theprestige said:
And also in the published texts. I assure you my methods of clairvoyance are entirely mundane, and mediated by nothing more than the four fundamental forces of the Standard Model.
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Yes, the four spiritual forces that flow through the aetherical leylines! You can read all about it in my doctoral dissertation The Minotaur's Balls: Towards a Semiotic Convergence of Mythopoeticism in Eclectic Transformative Paradigms In Early Christian Alchemy soon to be published by Marvel Comics! It will include a coupon for a half-price jumbo shrimp entree from Grabby's! "If it crawls on the ocean floor, you can eat it at Grabby's!"
 
TragicMonkey said:
I read that thing twice and am still unclear: are they studying this as history, as in the history of belief in the occult? Because that is a legitimate historical subject, studying what people in the past believed and what they did because of those beliefs, and how remnants of those beliefs live on.

Or is it a study of magic as if it were a real thing? Because that is silly.

It's the difference between a course on studying religions, and a course preaching those religions.
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Sounds to me like it's sort of up to the student to decide.

Might be some interesting source material for an aspiring writer of the Fantasy genre.
 
Puppycow said:
Sounds to me like it's sort of up to the student to decide.

Might be some interesting source material for an aspiring writer of the Fantasy genre.
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Seems like the kind of thing academia is pretty good at sorting out itself. Funding and publication is a competitive process.

Good scholarship will get published in more reputable journals and lead to more funding or career advancement or prestige while dubious scholarship may get published in pay-to-play publications of poor reputation and lead to a career dead end.
 
TurkeysGhost said:
Seems like the kind of thing academia is pretty good at sorting out itself. Funding and publication is a competitive process.

Good scholarship will get published in more reputable journals and lead to more funding or career advancement or prestige while dubious scholarship may get published in pay-to-play publications of poor reputation and lead to a career dead end.
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Professorship at a university for the study and practice of magical thinking seems like a career dead end to me. And modern history is clear that there is a large demographic of people who are happy to pay mediocre schools for useless degrees. Academia pretty good at sorting itself out, but not everything sorts to the top.
 
theprestige said:
That's because you haven't thought it through. Imagine being the professor who has to listen to a student talk about their D&D character for two hours, because it's their master's thesis.
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What's the salary? It doesn't sound like a pleasant job, but if the pay is sufficient it could be endured. I'd rather do that than work in retail again.
 
TragicMonkey said:
What's the salary? It doesn't sound like a pleasant job, but if the pay is sufficient it could be endured. I'd rather do that than work in retail again.
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Generally speaking, academia jobs are in extreme demand. Adjuncts in a variety of fields, including precious STEM, are doing far worse for next to zero pay for just the slim chance of getting tenure track position.
 
Thermal said:
Sounds like you could CLEP the degree.

Also, chiming in that this is a bull **** degree for those who want letters after their names without being in a legitimate discipline.
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I'd go so far as to say it's a bull **** degree for a specific kind of student whose magical thinking practices aren't getting enough validation, even from a typical liberal arts college.
 
theprestige said:
I'd go so far as to say it's a bull **** degree for a specific kind of student whose magical thinking practices aren't getting enough validation, even from a typical liberal arts college.
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Education is a business, you make money by offering the consumer what they want. Not all schools can literally afford to be academically rigorous.
 
TragicMonkey said:
Education is a business, you make money by offering the consumer what they want. Not all schools can literally afford to be academically rigorous.
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I have an accredited Doctorate around here somewhere in I think Metaphysics that I used to win a bet. Of course, the esteemed academic institution kind of owned the accredition mill, but that didn't change the color of the cash I won.
 
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