The European Enchantment Collective began in April 2020, when Elizabeth Dearnley and Katharine Fry decided to start a fairy tale reading group at the beginning of the pandemic. Meeting on Zoom almost every week during lockdown, the group became a much-needed community space, as well as a place of creative exchange for sharing stories, ongoing research, practice and projects.

With members coming from the fields of comparative literature, folklore, immersive theatre, the visual arts, filmmaking, psychotherapy and dance, and living across the UK, France and Austria, much of the group's focus has been on encounters and transformations between the human and animal worlds (particularly foxes and wolves), wearing or shedding skins, motherhood and the maternal body, and puppets, dolls and the uncanny.

The EEC are: Elizabeth Dearnley, Katharine Fry, James Matharu (University of Oxford), Georgia Panteli (University of Vienna), Samantha Sweeting and Apolline Weibel (University of Paris 1: Panthéon-Sorbonne).

In 2023 the EEC headed to Prague to lead workshop 'Hiding in Animal Skin' at Fairy Tales: A Global Inclusive Interdisciplinary Conference. This explored animal skins as sites of transformation in Red Riding Hood, Pinocchio, and Katharine's film Creepers.

More workshops and activities are planned - stay tuned for further developments!