Romantasy & Feminist Literature ResearcherMichelle Esrig-Munguia
Positioning

Romantasy & Feminism—
scholarship about genre, desire, and feminist interpretation.

I’m an MRes‑level writer and emerging academic working at the intersection of Romantasy, feminist theory, and contemporary popular literature. My research examines how readers negotiate desire, power, and meaning across romance and fantasy conventions, and how digital participatory cultures shape the emergence and cultural legitimacy of Romantasy.

MRes Research & WritingRomantasy StudiesFeminist CritiqueFuture PhD Direction
ContactAcademic Activity
Research focus

Reading practices and the rise of Romantasy

I explore how Romantasy becomes a culturally resonant genre through feminist interpretation and digital participatory cultures, tracing how readers negotiate desire, power, and subversion across romance and fantasy conventions.

Method: close reading + feminist and cultural theory

Lens: genre emergence, feminist reading practices, affect, desire, digital communities

Trajectory: MRes groundwork → future PhD

My MRes maps Romantasy’s rise as a contemporary genre, providing the platform for a PhD that explores how embodied and affective resistance reshapes power within its speculative worlds.


ResistanceAffectPower DynamicsEmbodiment

MRes Working Title

Reading Romantasy: Feminist Meaning‑Making, Digital Participation, and the Subversive Emergence of a Contemporary Genre

This project examines Romantasy as an emergent hybrid genre shaped by feminist reading practices and digital participatory cultures. Drawing on Radway and contemporary BookTok/Bookstagram communities, it traces how readers negotiate desire, power, and subversion through narrative conventions. The project argues that Romantasy’s rise reflects a broader cultural shift in how feminised genres articulate autonomy, intimacy, and resistance.

Proposed PhD Working Title

Bodies of Resistance: Corporeality, Power, and Genre in Contemporary Romantasy


My proposed doctoral research investigates how Romantasy constructs the body as a site of inscription, vulnerability, and resistance. Through tropes of marking, weakness, affect, erotic autonomy, and embodied knowledge, the project theorises “corporeal resistance” as a feminist and speculative mode that exceeds the limits of realist fiction.
Academic Activity

Conferences & Roundtables

  • Conference Paper:  The Rise of Romantasy: Romance, Fantasy, and the Making of a Culturally Resonant Genre
    Centre for Fantasy • Fantasy’s Presents Past • June 2026

  • Conference paper: Technologies of Genre Regulation: Romantasy and the Marginalisation of Feminised Systems
    Centre for Fantasy • Gifcon 2026

  • Roundtable: Participant — PhD Roundtable on Health & Environment  • University of Strathclyde — March 2026 

Research questions

  • How does Romantasy frame desire, consent, autonomy, and power?
  • When does escapism function as critique and when does it reinforce the status quo?
  • How do readers and communities (BookTok, fandom, publishing)shape the politics and legitimacy of genre?
  • What counts as “feminist” pleasure in narrative, who gets to desire, and at what cost?
Creative & Production Credits
My background in creative production and editorial work informs my approach to narrative, genre, and storytelling.


Creative & Production Skills

  • CG & Motion Design
  • Brand & Marketing Strategy
  • Web Design & Builds
  • Social Content & Strategy
  • Fimmaking (incl. pre-production & post-production)

Film, TV & Publishing Credits

  • Nightmares Film Festival - Official Selection
  • Executive Producer • Happy Anniversary
  • Producer • She Was So Pretty 2:  Be Good for Goodness Sake
  • Producer • Start From Where You Are (TV)
  • Producer • Going for Gold (Unreleased)
  • Editor • Start From Where You Are (Book)
  • Editor • The Entrepreneur’s Locker Room (Book)
    • Contact

    Let’s connect

    Email: Michelle.Esrig-Munguia@strath.ac.uk

    LinkedIn: Michelle Esrig-Munguia

    Social: Instagram

    Open to collaborations, speaking, and research conversations.

    Background

    Writer and emerging academic focused on Romantasy, feminist theory, and the politics of embodiment. My current MRes research examines how feminist reading practices and digital participatory cultures shape the emergence of Romantasy as a contemporary genre. I draw on a diverse interdisciplinary background, including a BS in General Business Administration (Marketing & Economics) and an MFA in Visual Effects Animation (Distinguished Graduate, Summa Cum Laude).