Three Wise Guys
Episode #021, listen direct or from iTunes and subscribe!
Topic: Fantasy and Sci-fi in society and academia. Why these genres of books and movies are not taken seriously by either society of academia, Why they are passed over for prizes and awards to other, frankly, more boring works. And is the public perception of them changing with the like of The Lord of the Rings, Harry Potter and Game of Thrones?
Soap Box: Is a rebuttal and reply to several listener comments from the last few shows, featuring several comments from here at WordPress, topics cover, GMO’s, Globilization and media.
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Three Wise Guys 
There is a growing segment of academia that looks at fantasy and sci-fi literature, film, and video games. It’s been slow progress (the first professional organization focused on sci-fi was created in the 1970s), but it’s there. The Science Fiction Research Association and The International Association of the Fantastic in the Arts have good journals and conferences. There are also a significant number of Tolkien sessions at the Kalamazoo medievalist conference every year. We’re still a minority, but we’re definitely there.
There is definitely a strong grass roots movement to support Sci-fi and fantasy, we interviewed Prof Corey Olsen who has given papers and classes on Tolkien and historical fantasy. What the real issue is acceptance with the wider academic community, the inroads into the general public are being made by the big budget movies and TV series.
My own experience, admittedly at a fairly liberal grad school, is that acceptance is growing relatively rapidly. After a slow start in the 70s, I think things have been picking up in the last two decades. My grad school offered a sci-fi focused course for undergrads and grads. Many classes (when possible) from African-American lit to YA lit included at least one piece of fantasy or sci-fi, as did probably 50-60% of the composition courses. Parts of Europe may be a bit ahead, as I can recall a couple universities offering Science Fiction Studies undergraduate degrees, but can’t think of any in the States.
On the publishing side, McFarland press is a great outlet for academic sci-fi and fantasy publishing and I’ve heard that Ohio State University Press is strongly considering sci-fi criticism as a possible specialty (Kent State University Press has a respectable number of titles in its catalog too).