Assorted Medieval Monsters
I don’t think there’s such a thing as a PhD in Monster Studies quite yet, but I wouldn’t rule it out.
MEARCSTAPA, which stands for Monsters: the Experimental Association for the Research of Cryptozoology through Scholarly Theory and Practical Application, is committed to the study of medieval monsters—where they came from, what they can tell us about the people who dreamed them up, and increasingly, what lessons they might still offer today.
They’ve even established a connection between the fears and phobias of a given period of time and what kinds of monsters they preferred.