200+ topics to study like a 17th century scholar (burdened by obsessive passion) & research guide

a list of rabbit holes & topics to embellish your personal curriculum, and a research guide to follow

in 2025, i began treating research as a hobby—a slow and intentional way to keep my mind working. after stumbling across tiktok videos of people sharing their personal curriculums and the subjects that fascinate them, i felt the pull to do the same. there’s something so lovely about choosing a niche, curious topic and following it wherever it leads, letting your mind stretch and wander. and as a bonus, you’re rewarded with the kind of strange little facts that make their way into dinner conversations or trivia games.

i sometimes like to turn my research into essays, papers, posters and projects, just like i did in school. other times though, the research is fun on its own, and doesn’t need super intentional documentation. it doesn’t have to be a grand, month-long study or anything formal. research can be a soft hobby for your quieter moments, a way to trade mindless scrolling for something that actually feeds you.

i’ve put together a little list (little… it’s quite long) of topics i’ve enjoyed or would love to study, all drawn from some of my favourite interests. history, the arts, folklore and conspiracies. i’m sharing it here in case you need inspiration for your next study session. save it, return to it, and let curiosity lead the way.

---

literature and film — for when you want to dig deeper into what you watch and read

(written works, ancient literature, authors, storytelling, film history, media production)

• how the works of shakespeare influenced modern language

• ovid’s heroides and the mythological female voice

• ophelias madness monologue and symbolism behind it

• the theme of redemption in classic literature

• aesop’s fables

• lost, forbidden, or “cursed” texts

• marginalia and doodles in medieval manuscripts

• the play 4 saints in 3 acts by gertrude stein — the history of the production

• mary shelly while writing frankenstien

• dark origins of fairytales

• the disastrous production of the wizard of oz

• how jim henson created the muppets

• the history of puppetry

• cursed films

  • poltergiest

  • the exorcist

  • rebel without a cause

• the lost plays of ancient greece

• the role of censorship in the shaping of victorian novels

• early roman performance poetry and imrov

• the history of colour film

• cult classic films that were ‘failures’ but have a lasting impact on cinema

• books and movies influenced by automatic writing (spirit writing)

• hidden esoteric symbolism in cinema

• subliminal messaging in film

• the history of banning books

• the epic of gilgamesh

• the invention of modern high fantasy

• the history of bibliomancy

• nosferatu 1922 and the influence of local vampire legends

• james joyce’s finnegans wake and

• lost epic poems such as:

  • the battle of maldon

  • the cynewulf poems

  • the telegony

  • the finnesburg fragment

  • the iliou persis

• the history of banned books and why they become banned

• the disney animators strike of 1941

---

history and science — for when fact is stranger than fiction

(documented history, space, archaeology, biology, physics, real people/events)

SCIENCE

• supernovas

• mycorrhizal networks

• electroreception and electrogenesis

• what was found at the bottom of the mariana trench

• anatoli bugorski — survived a nuclear particle accelerator

• quantum theory and physics

• the fibonacci sequence in nature

• alex the parrot

• earth’s very early history (hadean)

• exoplanets

• the taos hum

• chernobyl’s red forest

• the marfa lights in texas

• the immortal jellyfish

• pando the quaking aspen clone

• lysenkoism in soviet agriculture and its disastrous consequences

• the greenland subglacial lakes, and the bacteria that live there

• rogue planets and black holes

• white dwarf stars

• whe wow! signal (1977)

• gravity probe B

ANCIENT HISTORY

• the antikythera mechanism

• the library of alexandria theories

• the sex lives of ancient greek and roman elites

• imhotep, architect of the oldest egyptian pyramid

• cleopatras daughter

• the siege of masada

• the antikythera shipwreck

• the tomb of china’s first emperor - qin shi huang and the the terracotta army

• the amber road

• the sumerian king list

• the hanging gardens of babylon

• the tomb of pharaoh tutankhamun, and weird burial artifacts

• julius caesar and cleopatras affair

• the rosetta stone and its role in deciphering egyptian hieroglyphs

• persecution of pagans in the late roman empire

• the catacombs of kom el shoqafa in alexandria, egypt

HISTORY

• victorian “cures” for female hysteria and the medicalization of women

• medieval animal trials

• victorian mourning traditions

• the paris catacombs

• the lost colony of roanoke

• the dissolution of the monasteries in 1500s rome

• theodora of constantinople

• the salem witch trials

• the circus blizzard of 1980

• dorothy good — youngest girl ever accused of witchcraft, and samuel ray

• the alcatraz prison escape

• edward v the 12 year old king of england

• murders in the muzo mineshafts

• the humbert affair

• historical practices for human waste disposal

• ainu people of Japan

• the history of route 66

• thomas eddisons part in deciding where hollywood would be

• nellie bly

• the red flag fleet, the largest pirate fleet in history

• tituba before salem

• the mammoth cave of kentucky

• princess louise, queen victorias rebel daughter

• the history of christmas

• the little girl who accused her whole family of witchcraft in 1612

• albert pierrepoint — a british executioner

• the assassination of kim jong-un’s half-brother kim jong nam

• the bal des ardents

• barnet burns — the english sailor who lived as a pākehā māori

• the 1696 window tax

• the history of arctic exploration

• the tudor era

• the “ravensbrück rabbits”

• the real story of marie antoinette

• egyptomania

• the death of the poet lord byron

• the voyage of the russian baltic fleet

• the space race

• the boston molasses flood

• The Golden Age of Piracy

• the history of witchcraft

---

folklore and myth — for when you’re craving something magical

(mythology, magic, religious belief, occult traditions, symbolic cosmology)

• the lore of the fae and faeries

• the children of woolpit

• the voynich manuscript

• the codex gigas

• arthurian legends and the story of merlin

• mermaids in myth

• the lore of the selkies

• the history of alchemy

• folklore of the aurora borealis

• camille monfort, the so-called amazonian vampire

• vampire legends across different cultures

• hunting for a unicorn horn: narwhal tusks in medieval monsters

• history of unicorn mythology

• theodicy

• the history of tarot

• history of grimoires

• folk tradition of the benandanti

• the myth of the baba yaga and her hut

• ancient mesopotamian underworld

• lykaion cannibalism, arcadian werewolf

• black annis

• the wild hunt

• fylgja — a nordic folklore supernatural being or spirit which accompanies a person in connection to their fate or fortune

• the history of jinn

• adze

• alchemy and the transformation of metals

• the book of thoth

• the legend of tlaloc’s children

• nüwa and her role in chinese mythology

• the legend of the flying dutchman

• spirit communication in 19th-century victorian magic

• pontianak

• the morrigan

• the children of lir

• the tale of the golem

• alchemical symbolism in art and manuscripts

• solstice and equinox rituals

• the history of curses and blessings in agriculture

• folk explanations for natural disasters — like tornadoes, earthquakes, etc.

• the story of krampus

• sabbat rituals and celebrations in early modern european witchcraft

• lunar magic practices in witchcraft

• the history of witch familliars

• the philosopher’s stone in alchemy

folk stories from around the world:

ireland (celtic folklore)

• the banshee – awailing spirit whose cry foretells death

• the púca – a mischievous shapeshifting spirit

• cú chulainn – hero of the ulster cycle

• the children of lir – siblings turned into swans for 900 years

japan

• kitsune - magical fox spirits with multiple tails

• yuki-onna - a ghostly snow woman

• momotarō - the peach boy who fights demons

• trashima tarō - a fisherman who visits an undersea palace

• tengu - supernatural mountain beings

scandinavia (norse & nordic folklore)

• the nisse - a household guardian spirit

• the draugr - an undead revenant

• the uldra - a beautiful forest woman with a hidden tail

• fenrir - the monstrous wolf of ragnarök

• krampus - a horned christmas punisher

germany:

• hansel and gretel - children lost in the woods

• rumpelstiltskin - a trickster who spins straw into gold

• the pied piper of hamelin - a mysterious piper who lures children away

• weiße frau - the white women, elf-like spirits which may derive from german paganism

greece (ancient greek myth)

• medusa - a gorgon whose gaze turns people to stone

• persephone - queen of the underworld; explains the seasons

• orpheus - tries to rescue eurydice from death

• theseus - slayer of the minotaur

india

• the mamayana - the story of rama and sita

• the mahabharata - epic of the kurukshetra war

• vetala - a corpse-dwelling spirit

• naga – divine serpent beings

indigenous north american traditions

• wendigo – a cannibalistic winter spirit

• raven – a creator and trickster figure

• sedna – goddess of the sea and marine animals

• manitou - spiritual life force present in all things

• skinwalkers - malevolent shape-shifters

arctic / inuit

• sedna - goddess of sea mammals; controls hunting success

• qalupalik - humanoid sea creature that kidnaps children

• tornarsuk - powerful shamanic spirit; protector and guide

• sila - spirit of the sky, weather, and life force; sometimes personified

• kiviuq - legendary hero who goes on epic journeys, encounters spirits and monsters

russia:

• vasilisa the beautiful - a heroine who overcomes baba yaga with wit

• baba yaga - the fearsome witch who lives in a hut on chicken legs

• koschei the deathless - an evil sorcerer whose soul is hidden away

• domovoi - guardian spirit of the home

• rusalka - water nymphs, sometimes dangerous, sometimes benevolent

• bogatyrs - knightly heroes of russian epic tales, like ilya muromets

---

conspiracies and mysteries — for when you want to question everything

(unproven claims, speculative explanations, modern myths, institutional secrecy)

• walt disney frozen head conspiracy

• the bermuda triangle mystery

• real life time travellers — documented cases

  • mike marcum — the man who says he built a time machine

• ss. warratah ship disappearance

• california hoax of 1893 chicago worlds fair

• the secret societies that rule elite campuses

• the history and spiritual belief of remote viewing

• morphic resonance

• the dark side of the troubled teen industry

• the vanishing of doggerland (an archaeological ‘conspiracy’)

• the time cube

• the kaz II “ghost ship” mystery

• the smithsonian hiding skeletons of giants

• 33 thomas street

• action park — an extremely dangerous theme park

• cults:

  • heaven’s gate

  • branch davidians

  • aum shinrikyo

  • the peoples temple

  • the manson family

  • children of god

  • FLDS

  • scientology — and the history of l ron hubbard

  • NXIVM

  • unification church (the moonies)

  • source family

  • love has won — mother god

  • buddhafield

• high profile art theft / museum heists

• MKUltra

• the chronovisor in the vatican basement

• dorced sterilization programs in the 20th century

• the magdalene laundries

• the dyatlov pass incident

• the flannon isles lighthouse mystery

• COINTELPRO — illegal FBI projects

• operation mockingbird

• secret detention facilities

• the black eyed children

---

a study ritual—to guide your research and reflection

• set the scene

  time of day, drink, music, mood. set up a little study section, get your notebook and favourite pen, a drink, light a candle.

• a central question:

  what am i trying to understand?

• context:

  the 5 w’s: who/what/when/where/why? (and how)

• strangeness:

  what’s the weird, dark, or unexpected part?

• meaning:

  what does this reveal about people, belief, or fear?

• connection:

  what does this remind me of or link to elsewhere?

• lingering thought:

  one question i’m left with.

marginalia:

• open the text / subject— a book, article, film still, manuscript scan, lecture

• mark instinctively— underline what sticks out to you, circle what confuses you, star what feels important before you know why. be messy and free with it.

• margin whispers— write words or fragments in the margins—fear, power, heresy, loss, control, sacred, forbidden. little notes or questions you’re left with.

• interrupt the text— question the author directly in the margins (why? for whom? at what cost?) write like you’re talking to the source.

• collect symbols— sketch or jot recurring images, metaphors, or motifs

finish this practice in your journal. sit with yourself and your thoughts. write about how your research makes you feel. what part of it inspires you? what do you want to know more of?

some journal prompts:

• what sentence or detail refuses to leave my mind?

• what does this topic suggest people were afraid of losing? or finding?

• what feels unresolved, censored, or deliberately forgotten?

• if this text had a moral or warning, what would it be?

• how does this connect to another subject i’ve studied recently?

• what emotion did i feel most strongly while reading—curiosity, dread, reverence?

• what question would i ask (the author, creator, first hand account) if i could?

---

i hope you found something that sparked interest for your next research deep dive. let curiosity guide your way.

—kyla ⏾

ps. what topic has always interested you?