Dr Theresa Specht holds a PhD in German Medieval Literature. She currently works at the University of Siegen (Germany) as postdoctoral associate. Besides medieval literature (Courtly romances, narrating space, Cockaigne texts, etc.) she is especially interested in the adaptation of medieval motifs and narratives in contemporary Epic Fantasy. As Principal Investigator of the Project "Popular Middle Ages: Narratives and Inventories of Fantasy in multimedia systems" at the Cooperative Research Centre "Transformations of the Popular" she investigates, how transmedia storytelling and the building of multimedia franchises, as known from the story worlds of J.R.R. Tolkien's Arda/Middle-Earth or George R.R. Martins Westeros, influence the adaptation and transformation of medieval literature and culture in the Epic Fantasy genre.
