Sophia Charyna

Sophia Charyna is a PhD Candidate and Teaching Fellow in the Department of English Literature and Creative Writing at Queen's University. Her research focuses on intersections between speculative fiction and religious studies, exploring how 20th-century authors created 'story-religions' to process modernity's upheavals. She holds a BA from the University of Saskatchewan and an MA from Queen's University.

Current projects include developing ENGL 273: Literature and the Fantastic (September 2025) and co-editing an anthology on Victorian Fantasy with Dr. Brooke Cameron. Her work bridges literary analysis with pedagogical innovation, emphasizing world-building's role in cultural critique.

Key research areas include: religious de/re/construction in digital narratives, messianic figures in SF, and queer temporalities in text. She has presented at ACCUTE, Midwest Popular Culture Association, and EGSS conferences, focusing on topics like Tolkien's cosmology and textual queerness in Samuel Delany's work.

Recent accolades include two Ontario Graduate Scholarships (2023-2025) and the R. Samuel McLaughlin Fellowship (2021-2022). Her doctoral dissertation, Imagining New Divinities in Twentieth Century Speculative Fiction, examines how authors like Herbert and Le Guin used fantasy to critique Western religious frameworks.