Exeter College hosts ‘The Weird and the Wonderful’ fantasy seminars led by Professor Stuart Lee

Exeter College has long been associated with giants of the fantasy literary world – from J. R. R. Tolkien and William Morris to alumnus Philip Pullman. Now, thanks to the work of Professor Stuart Lee, Associate Member of the Senior Common Room, Exeter is playing a leading role in shaping how the genre is studied, celebrated, and shared. 

In Michaelmas Term 2025, Professor Lee launched The Weird and the Wonderful, the third in a series of annual public-facing seminars exploring fantasy literature in all its strange and captivating forms (the series in 2023 and 2024 were focused on Tolkien). Hosted in Exeter’s Fitzhugh Auditorium, the series has already drawn some 1,200 attendees, with talks recorded for wider access via Oxford Podcasts. The seminar is part of a growing programme of events that connect academic insight with public enthusiasm for fantasy fiction. 

That programme reached new heights in September 2025, when Exeter hosted a three-day Summer School on Fantasy Literature, supported by Bloomsbury Publishing. Held across the Fitzhugh Auditorium and Cohen Quad, the event welcomed 90 in-person participants and over 1,600 online viewers from around the world. Attendee satisfaction was high, and the content – including sessions led by Bloomsbury founder Sir Nigel Newton and bestselling authors Katherine Rundell and Samantha Shannon – has since attracted over 14,000 views on YouTube. 

Exeter’s alumni are also playing a part in this flourishing literary conversation. Dr Margaret Kean (1985, English) returned this term to give a talk on Philip Pullman as part of the Weird and Wonderful series – a fitting link to Exeter’s deep-rooted ties to the genre. You can watch Dr Keans lecture on Youtube. 

To watch past lectures and explore upcoming talks, visit Fantasy Literature | University of Oxford Podcasts or fantasyliteratureschool.web.ox.ac.uk.