Shadows in the Ivory Tower
The Evolution of Dark Academia in Sci-Fi and Fantasy
By: Amy May
Once confined to the ivy-covered walls of elite institutions, dark academia has evolved far beyond its aesthetic roots. Defined by its brooding intellectualism, fascination with death, and romanticization of knowledge, the genre has taken on new life within the realms of science fiction and fantasy, where the dark corridors of learning lead not only to personal ruin but also to other worlds, forbidden magics, and dystopian futures.
A Brief History of Dark Academia
The term dark academia gained popularity online in the late 2010s, thanks in part to Tumblr, Pinterest, and TikTok aesthetics. However, its literary roots run much deeper.
In many ways, Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein (1818) is the ‘ancestor’ of dark academia, a cautionary tale of a brilliant young scientist whose obsession with knowledge leads to monstrous consequences. Later novels like Donna Tartt’s The Secret History (1992) would crystallise the modern version of the genre: moody intellectuals obsessed with classical ideals, secret knowledge, and the moral ambiguity of brilliance.
Though originally grounded in realism, dark academia has naturally bled into speculative fiction, where ideas of forbidden knowledge and intellectual hubris find fertile, often catastrophic ground.
The Gothic Campus Novel Emerges
In fantasy, academia often takes the form of magical universities and elite institutions of arcane learning. But when these institutions become gothic, insular, and morally grey, the atmosphere transforms, ushering in dark academia.
Key Themes:
Forbidden knowledge (spells, languages, sciences)
Moral ambiguity of genius
Institutional corruption
Class and power structures
Death and existentialism
Take Lev Grossman’s The Magicians (2009): Brakebills University is a magical school, but its students grapple with depression, addiction, and the crushing realisation that knowledge alone does not equate to meaning.
R.F. Kuang’s Babel (2022) modernised the genre’s core by grounding it in historical linguistics and colonial critique. Set in an alternate 19th-century Oxford, the novel uses dark academia to dissect empire, translation, and the cost of intellectual complicity.
Dark Academia in Sci-Fi: Knowledge as Dystopia
In science fiction, dark academia veers into the realm of technological overreach, epistemological horror, and institutional collapse. The "academy" here might not be a literal school but a research facility, a corporate think tank, or a space-bound university.
Imagine a dying Earth where the last bastion of learning is a crumbling orbital library or a future where AI curates what knowledge is "safe" to read.
Neon Yang’s Tensorate series blends sci-fi and fantasy, exploring a post-colonial world of scholars and tinkerers where knowledge is as much a tool of liberation as it is a mechanism of control.
Ada Palmer’s Terra Ignota (2016) begins with a dense academic voice reminiscent of Enlightenment philosophy, but slowly reveals a world where intellectual utopia masks deep ethical corruption. What happens when philosophers rule the world and decide who is allowed to think?
In sci-fi, dark academia becomes a mirror held up to our own institutions, where education isn’t always freedom, but sometimes the mechanism of power.
Essential Dark Academia Reads in Sci-Fi and Fantasy
Babel by R.F. Kuang (2022)
Genre: Historical Fantasy
An elite translation school feeds the British Empire with magical silver bars—and four students must decide whether to uphold or destroy the system. One of the definitive dark academia novels of the 21st century.
The Library at Mount Char by Scott Hawkins (2015)
Genre: Cosmic Horror / Fantasy
A strange, brutal story about a group of “librarians” raised by a god-like being to master arcane disciplines.
The Magicians by Lev Grossman (2009)
Genre: Fantasy
What if Hogwarts were full of depressed, disillusioned post-grads? A subversive take on magical education and a staple of the genre.
A Deadly Education by Naomi Novik (2020)
Genre: YA Fantasy
Set in a magical school that tries to kill its students, this series critiques institutional apathy and elitism while delivering magic, survival, and biting sarcasm.
Gideon the Ninth by Tamsyn Muir (2019)
Genre: Science Fiction
Necromancy, swordplay, sarcasm, and ancient arcane knowledge hidden in decaying libraries. Part sci-fi, part gothic, entirely dark academia in tone.
Beyond the Candlelit Classroom
Dark academia in sci-fi and fantasy is more than brooding students and dusty tomes. It's a literary lens focused on the intersection of knowledge and power, often revealing the shadows cast by institutions we were taught to revere. As it evolves, the genre is increasingly used to critique colonialism, capitalism, elitism, and the myth of objectivity especially within spaces traditionally seen as neutral or noble, like the university or the laboratory.
In speculative fiction, dark academia becomes a site of conflict where knowledge is both salvation and damnation, where libraries hold both liberation and control, and where learning is not safe, but dangerous, transformative, and deeply political.
As new voices enter the genre, especially from historically excluded perspectives, we’re seeing fresh takes that challenge what academia means and who it’s for. The result is a body of work that’s not only atmospheric and intelligent, but urgent, radical, and necessary.
So whether you're drawn to cursed syllabi, secret societies, arcane faculties, or philosophical space operas, dark academia in sci-fi and fantasy invites us to ask:
What is the cost of knowing too much? And who pays the price?