New to the Directory

Exploring The Hobbit is a two-part series that looks beyond Tolkien’s beloved adventure to uncover the literary traditions and developing mythology that shaped it. Each module stands on its own and may be taken in any order: the first explores the children’s fantasy and fairy-story traditions that helped form The Hobbit, while the second follows the deep connections between the novel and the Silmarillion tradition Tolkien was developing at the same time. Together, they reveal The Hobbit as a work with roots reaching both backward into Tolkien’s literary influences and forward into the larger mythology of Middle-earth. [show less]

Tales from the Perilous Realm is a three-part series exploring three of Tolkien’s shorter works: Farmer Giles of Ham, Leaf by Niggle, and Smith of Wootton Major. Though each module stands on its own and may be taken in any order, together they offer a rich portrait of Tolkien as storyteller, philologist, and thinker beyond the world of Middle-earth. Through close reading, literary context, and critical debate, the series considers Tolkien’s distinctive approaches to comedy, allegory, fairy-story, subcreation, character, and the art of storytelling. [show less]

The Fantastical Other is a two-part series exploring TJ Klune’s The House in the Cerulean Sea and its sequel, Somewhere Beyond the Sea. Each module stands on its own as a close, discussion-based reading, but together they trace Klune’s evolving exploration of belonging, otherness, family, and the struggle to build a life of dignity in the face of institutional suspicion. Through the two novels, we’ll consider how fantasy, humour, domestic life, and acts of resistance become ways of asking who gets to belong—and what it takes to protect that belonging once it has been found. [show less]

This four-week lecture course sets The Hobbit alongside the legendarium Tolkien was building in the very same years, treating the two not as separate projects but as one imagination working in two registers at once. Each week pairs a one-hour lecture with a discussion session, moving through the Silmarillion tradition roughly as Tolkien himself was developing it across 1930 to 1933, while the material read against The Hobbit grows steadily closer to the book itself. Week 1 turns to The Shaping of Middle-earth's earliest Silmarillion and the 1930 "Quenta", establishing the doom of the Noldor, Thingol's hidden halls, and the shape of Beleriand's geography as the deep background Tolkien carried with him to his desk at 20 Northmoor Road. Week 2 sets that same "Quenta" beside selections from the "Lay of Leithian", watching Melian's Girdle, the unnamed Necromancer, and the corrosive "accursed dragon gold" passage surface, transformed, as the Elvenking's enchanted halls, Mirkwood's brooding absence of Gandalf, and Thorin's dragon-sickness over the Arkenstone. Week 3 reads Cantos I through III and VII through IX of the Lays of Beleriand's "Gest of Beren and Lúthien’" tracing Beren's vow and Felagund's dying oath, and the riddling exchange with Thû, against their submerged echoes in Bilbo's own dark bargain with Gollum. Week 4 closes with Rateliff's History of the Hobbit following the earliest surviving drafts back through the manuscript evidence for exactly how freely names, geography, and even whole characters moved between the two projects before either had settled into its final form. Tolkien's own 1950 confession to his publisher supplies the course's guiding premise and its title: "though shelved . . . the Silmarillion and all that has refused to be suppressed. It has bubbled up, infiltrated, and probably spoiled everything (that even remotely approached 'Faery') which I have tried to write since . . . Its shadow was deep on the later parts of The Hobbit." For anyone who has always read The Hobbit as a self-contained children's story, this course offers the pleasure of watching that containment quietly fail. Familiar moments acquire unexpected depth once set against their legendary counterparts: the Elvenking's halls carry the memory of Thingol's Menegroth, Mirkwood's unspoken dread borrows directly from Beren and Lúthien's Nan Dungortheb, and Thorin's fatal hoarding of the Arkenstone turns out to be Tolkien reworking, almost word for word, a warning about cursed gold he had already written years before. No prior familiarity with the wider legendarium is required, only a willingness to read The Hobbit as Tolkien himself was living with it, shadowed at every turn by an older, darker, half-finished mythology he could not quite keep out. By the end of four weeks, Bilbo's unassuming adventure will look considerably less self-contained, and considerably more haunted, than it did at the start. (*Note: Previous knowledge of The Hobbit is recommended before the start of the course.) Week 1 — The Shape of a World: The Shaping of Middle-earth Week 2 — Prose and Verse in Motion: The 1930 "Quenta" and the "Lay of Leithian" Week 3 — The Gest Revisited: The Lays of Beleriand Week 4 — In a Hole in the Ground: The History of the Hobbit [show less]

"Aldarion and Erendis" is the longest sustained narrative in Unfinished Tales, and one of the strangest things Tolkien ever wrote: a domestic tragedy set against the founding centuries of Númenor, in which a king's marriage collapses not through betrayal or villainy but through two entirely reasonable people wanting incompatible lives. Aldarion's sea-longing and Erendis's growing hatred of the ships that take him are never resolved into blame; the text lets both positions stand, and lets us watch a woman construct an entire alternative household at Emerië in response to a husband who cannot stop leaving. This course reads the tale slowly and in full, treating its incompleteness not as a deficiency but as a genuine interpretive problem: what does it mean that Tolkien's most searching account of a marriage's failure was left, quite literally, unfinished? Across four weeks we will trace the story from Aldarion's restless youth through Erendis's withdrawal, and the wreck of the marriage to its long echo in their daughter Ancalimë, whose own life becomes a kind of inherited argument between her parents. Sessions will pay close attention to the tale's rhetorical set-pieces - Erendis's speech on the nature of Númenórean men, Núneth's counsel, Gil-galad's letter to Meneldur - and to the way domestic and political registers keep bleeding into each other, so that a quarrel about a husband's absences turns out to be inseparable from questions of succession law, colonial expansion, and the slow drift toward the Downfall. Students should expect discussion-driven sessions grounded in close textual work; the aim is to arrive, by the final week, at a considered collective view of what this fragment is actually doing, and why Tolkien could neither finish it nor let it go. Week 1.1 An Unfinished Thing: This opening session establishes the textual status of “Aldarion and Erendis” before any close argument begins: what kind of object we are reading, and what its incompleteness asks of us as readers. Week 1.2 The Sea-Longing: Having established the tale’s frame, this session turns to Aldarion himself: the founding of the Guild of Venturers, his refusal of a fixed household, and the widening rift with Meneldur over trees, timber, and the uses of Middle-earth. Week 2.1 The Bough of Return: This session introduces Erendis and examines the tale’s habit of conducting courtship through objects — the bough of oiolairë, a diamond, a jewel — rather than through declared feeling. Week 2.2 Two Years, Then No More: This session follows the long betrothal through its central negotiation on the path up the Meneltarma — the exchange of tree and jewel — and asks what kind of promise each party believes they are making. Week 3.1 Emerië: With the marriage established, this session examines Erendis’s withdrawal to Emerië and the household she builds there — a counter-kingdom of women, sheep, and silence. Week 3.2 “Men in Númenor are half-Elves”: This session is built around the tale’s two great pieces of sustained rhetoric: Erendis’s speech to Ancalimë on the nature of Númenórean men, and Gil-galad’s letter to Meneldur on the nature of a gathering shadow. Week 4.1 Emerwen Aranel: The final week turns to Ancalimë as the inheritor of her parents’ unresolved conflict: her flight into disguise, her courtship by Hallacar, and the legal reform Aldarion enacts in direct response to his own failed marriage. Week 4.2 What the Fragment Refuses: The closing session steps back from close reading to synthesis. [show less]

In this module, we will look at the literary precursors to The Hobbit: works that helped establish the genre in which Tolkien was writing, or which influenced Tolkien’s own thinking. We will examine the themes and ideas of nineteenth-century children’s fantasy that may have inspired Tolkien, and consider how we may see them at work within the text of The Hobbit. Tolkien’s essay "On Fairy-stories" will provide the essential context to the whole module, as it is here that Tolkien lays out his full concept of what constitutes ‘fantasy’. By reading a number of literary precursors to The Hobbit, each week will reveal more about The Hobbit itself. Lectures will focus on four texts in order:

1. Through the Looking Glass – Lewis Carroll
2. Winnie-the-Pooh – A. A. Milne (pdf)
3. The Princess and the Goblin - George MacDonald
4. The Marvellous Land of Snergs - E. A. Wyke-Smith

Discussion of these texts and their relation to The Hobbit will then continue in the discussion sessions. [show less]

This four-week lecture course examines geography as a generative force in Tolkien's legendarium, treating landscape not as backdrop but as the engine of story, meaning, and feeling. Each week pairs a one-hour lecture with a discussion session, moving outward from the Shire to the furthest edges of the map while the critical lens deepens in parallel: philology and cartography in Week 1, ecocriticism in Week 2, the sublime and postcolonial critique in Week 3, and sacred geography and loss in Week 4. Tolkien's own account of his working method, given in a 1954 letter to Naomi Mitchison, provides the course's title and its guiding premise: he built the story to fit the map rather than the reverse. Participants will trace how that premise plays out across the legendarium, from the compressed histories encoded in place names such as Rivendell and Barad-dûr to the ideological work performed by the pastoral Shire, the contested racial coding of Mordor, and the eventual withdrawal of Valinor beyond any mortal map. For anyone who has ever lingered over the endpapers of a Tolkien novel tracing a river or a mountain range, this course offers a chance to read those maps properly, as texts in their own right. Along the way, familiar places take on new depth: the Shire's cosy fields turn out to carry buried questions of class and belonging, Mirkwood and Moria become studies in dread and the sublime, and the fading of Lothlórien and Valinor emerges as one of the legendarium's quietest, most powerful meditations on loss. No background in literary theory is required, only curiosity and a willingness to look again at a world many of us feel we already know well. Across four weeks, that familiar map will start to look a good deal stranger, and a good deal richer, than it first appeared. Week 1: Cartography, Naming, and the Birth of Middle-earth Week 2: The Shire and the Ecology of Home Week 3: Wilderness, Threshold, and the Sublime Week 4: Sacred Geography, Loss, and the Limits of the Map [show less]

This four-week hybrid course reads Tolkien's mock-heroic tale as a work that repays close attention despite its comic surface, tracing how genre parody, class satire, and dragon lore combine into a coherent statement about heroism and storytelling. Week One establishes the tale's pseudo-historical frame and its position within the medieval fabliau and burlesque romance traditions, alongside Tolkien's invented "Little Kingdom" and its Thames Valley geography. Week Two turns to Giles himself as an unheroic hero, examining how comic inversion, social satire, and register-driven characterisation undercut the conventional dragon-slayer. Week Three considers Chrysophylax Dives against the dragon tradition running from Fáfnir to Smaug, alongside the negotiation-over-combat plot and Garm the talking dog's unexpectedly shrewd commentary. Week Four situates the tale within Tolkien's wider philological play and his theory of fairy-story, closing with the reception history that has grown up around a work often dismissed as minor. For anyone who thinks of Tolkien chiefly as the architect of Middle-earth's high drama, Farmer Giles of Ham offers a delightful surprise: a slyly funny, deeply learned send-up of chivalric romance, complete with a reluctant farmer-hero, a dragon more interested in striking a deal than fighting to the death, and a dog with some of the story's best lines. Along the way, the course uncovers real bite beneath the comedy, in the tale's satire of rank and cowardice, its playful invented place-name history rooted in real English geography, and its quiet questions about who gets to be a hero and why. No prior familiarity with the tale is needed, only an appetite for Tolkien at his wittiest, and a willingness to take a "minor" comic story as seriously as it deserves. Week One: A Mock-Heroic World — Origins, Genre, and Frame Week Two: The Unheroic Hero — Giles, Class, and Comic Inversion Week Three: Dragons and Dogs — Comedy, Negotiation, and the Dragon Tradition Week Four: Philology, Legacy, and Meaning — Placing the Tale [show less]

This four-week hybrid course reads Tolkien's final published fiction as a valedictory work, one whose unusual survival of authorial notes and public critical disagreement make it uniquely suited to close, evidence-based study. Week One establishes the story's composition history, its origins in a rejected commission to preface George MacDonald's The Golden Key, and its status as an "old man's book" written in Tolkien's mid-seventies. Week Two turns to the central critical crux of the course, the disagreement between Verlyn Flieger and Tom Shippey over whether Smith should be read as allegory or resists that mode entirely, using Tolkien's own vacillating notes as primary evidence. Week Three examines the story's singular treatment of Faery as an experienced rather than a described place, testing Croft's concept of "faërian drama" directly against the text. Week Four closes with character study of Smith, Nokes, and Alf, tracing the theme of renunciation through the story's double structure of succession and drawing the four weeks together into a single account of what this story uniquely attempts. Week 1: Context — The Last Tale Week 2: Allegory versus Bounce — The Flieger–Shippey Debate Week 3: Faery and Faërian Drama Week 4: Characterisation, Craft, and the Passing of the Gift [show less]

This four-week hybrid course reads Tolkien's beloved story as a work that repays sustained attention on several levels at once, moving from how the story came to be, to what it might mean, to how it actually functions as prose. Week One situates the tale within Tolkien's biography, drawing on the wartime circumstances and the stalled composition of The Lord of the Rings that fed into its writing, and reads Niggle's confessed weakness for detail over completion as a form of self-portrait. Week Two takes up the story's fraught relationship with allegory, exploring the tension between Tolkien's stated dislike of the mode and his own allegorical remarks about the tale, particularly the reading of Niggle's unfinished canvas as a figure for his sprawling legendarium. Week Three traces the story's theological patterning, treating the Workhouse Infirmary as purgatorial space and the concept of subcreation as a lens on the Tree's transfigured ending, while remaining a literature course rather than a theology seminar throughout. Week Four turns to craft, examining Tolkien's characterisation of Niggle and Parish, his distinctively self-doubting narrative voice, and the story's afterlife alongside "On Fairy-Stories" in Tree and Leaf. WEEK 1: Origins — Composition, Context, and the Man Behind the Leaf WEEK 2: Allegory, Intention, and the Unfinished Work WEEK 3: Theological Currents — Purgatory, Grace, and Subcreation WEEK 4: Characterisation, Narrative Style, and Afterlife of the Text [show less]

This eight-session discussion course reads the sequel to The House in the Cerulean Sea closely and sequentially, tracking how the novel shifts its central question from one man's individual conscience to institutional accountability staged in public. Each session pairs a short close reading with questions tracing the book's key throughlines: the political hearing over David's status and the fight over language such as "occupying" versus "living," the household's use of comedy and domestic normalcy as forms of resistance under sustained institutional scrutiny, and the escalating confrontation with Miss Marblemaw as DICOMY's new inspector. The course follows the novel's own structure, from the deceptively calm domestic opening through the hearing sessions and surveillance, to the household's direct confrontation with Miss Marblemaw and the whole-book synthesis of the wedding and epilogue. For readers returning to Arthur, Linus, and the children after the first book's happy ending, this course offers a chance to sit with what "happily ever after" actually has to keep fighting for. Across eight sessions, we will trace Arthur's transformation from rescued outsider to public advocate testifying before a hostile tribunal, while considering how the household's joy, humour, and ordinary domestic rituals function as a form of political resistance in their own right. Discussion also returns throughout to the novel's dedication to the trans community, inviting participants to weigh where that resonance lands most clearly without settling on a single fixed reading. No prior background beyond the first novel is needed, and the final session again opens the floor for participants to revisit whatever passage or character has stayed with them. [show less]

This eight-session discussion course reads TJ Klune's cosy fantasy novel closely and sequentially, tracking how a story about a bureaucrat sent to inspect a magical orphanage builds a sustained argument about prejudice, institutional violence, and chosen family. Each session pairs a short close reading with questions that move from the immediate text toward the novel's larger throughlines: the language of "othering" and how it shifts as Linus's vocabulary changes, the contrast between DICOMY's polite bureaucratic prejudice and the village's open hostility, and the slow, cumulative process by which trust and affection are built through ordinary domestic scenes rather than a single dramatic turn. The course follows the novel's own pacing closely, from Linus's rule-bound arrival in Session 1 through the children's introduction and gradual settling-in, to the institutional confrontation of the later sessions and the whole-book synthesis of the final meeting. For readers drawn to found-family stories and gentle, hopeful fantasy, this course offers a chance to slow down and look more closely at a novel many will already love, asking what its warmth is actually doing beneath the surface. Across eight sessions, participants trace one man's transformation from compliant caseworker to someone willing to confront the system he once served, while considering harder questions the book raises along the way: whether cosy fantasy can say something serious about prejudice and bureaucratic harm, and what is owed to family that is chosen rather than given. Discussion moves at a relaxed, conversational pace and welcomes readers at any level of literary background, with the final session opening the floor for participants to revisit whichever character, passage, or line stayed with them most. [show less]

“Space was the wrong name. Older thinkers had been wiser when they named it simply the heavens…” In C.S. Lewis’s 1938 novel Out of the Silent Planet, Dr Elwin Ransom – a character suspiciously like the author’s friend J.R.R. Tolkien – is abducted and taken to Malacandra (Mars) where he sets about learning the Martians’ languages and exploring the planet. We will read through Lewis’s "planetary romance,” discussing the meaning behind the novel and how it fits in with Lewis’s ideas about religion, the medieval and renaissance worldview, and the ethics of space exploration. Out of the Silent Planet is the first part of Lewis’s Space Trilogy, but it can be read independently or in sequence with the other novels in the series. [show less]

“At Ransom's waking something happened to him which perhaps never happens to a man until he is out of his own world: he saw reality, and thought it was a dream.” C.S. Lewis’s Perelandra, published in 1943, asks the question: what if an alien Adam and Eve existed on another planet, and you had the chance to intervene and stop the downfall of this new Eden from happening? Dr Elwin Ransom arrives on Perelandra (Venus) on an important mission. He finds a land of floating islands drifting across a sea and a woman who is both wise and innocent. He must save this woman from the influence of an evil force. We will read through this novel, unpacking and analyzing its world-building, philosophy, and oneric descriptions. Perelandra is the second part of Lewis’s Space Trilogy, but it can be read independently or in sequence with the other novels in the series. [show less]

“Greater spirits than Malacandra and Perelandra will descend this time. We are in God's hands. It may unmake us both.” C.S. Lewis’s conclusion to his science-fiction trilogy, That Hideous Strength, was published in 1945. Unlike the previous two novels, it is set on Earth and does not have Elwin Ransom as its protagonist: instead, PhD student Jane Studock is the main character. Jane has been having strange nightmares, and when she seeks support she learns that they are not dreams at all, but visions. An evil organisation called the N.I.C.E. is hell-bent on enslaving the human race. Can Jane and her new friends stop them in time? We will read through this novel, discussing the ways the novel fits into the work and ideas of the Inklings – including J.R.R. Tolkien, Charles Williams, and Owen Barfield – and analyzing its themes, characters, and meaning. That Hideous Strength is the third part of Lewis’s Space Trilogy, but it can be read independently or in sequence with the other novels in the series. [show less]

Master of the macabre Edgar Allan Poe made many great contributions to literature, and one of the most enduring was the creation of his great detective, C. Auguste Dupin. Combining reason and imagination to use ratiocination for solving baffling mysteries, Dupin anticipated detective fiction and revolutionized crime fiction, paving the way for Sherlock Holmes and many other iconic characters who followed. Poe drew on the Gothic storytelling tradition and on real-life, true-crime cases to create his complex and fascinating mysteries. In this module, we will investigate his three interconnected Dupin stories—" The Murders in the Rue Morgue" (1841), "The Mystery of Marie Rogêt" (1842), and "The Purloined Letter" (1844)— to appreciate the inspirations behind, innovations in, and legacies of Poe’s pioneering tales. Week 1: "The Murders in the Rue Morgue" Week 2: "The Mystery of Marie Rogêt" Week 3: "The Purloined Letter" Week 4: The Significance of the Dupin Stories [show less]

Death is life's only certainty, and yet, no subject has inspired more diverse, profound, and contradictory answers across human history. Beginning with an examination of our own psychological defenses against death, this module then takes you on a global tour of how the world's great religious and philosophical traditions have grappled with mortality, giving you the opportunity to sit with the living practices of Judaism, Christianity, Islam, Hinduism, and Buddhism. We will ask: What happens when we die? How should we grieve? Is fear of death rational? And perhaps most importantly, can confronting our finitude actually teach us how to live more fully? Finally, we will turn to a discussion of near-death experiences, the human quest for immortality, and the ultimate philosophical question: If we could achieve immortality, would we actually want it? Designed for curious adult learners with no prior background in religious studies or philosophy, this course welcomes anyone processing personal grief, seeking to understand the beliefs of neighbors or colleagues, or simply lying awake wondering what it all means. All viewpoints are respected; you need not be religious or irreligious to participate, only open-minded and willing to reflect. By the end, students will be able to articulate core beliefs about death across major traditions, compare diverse approaches to dying and grief, analyze philosophical arguments about the fear of death, and reflect personally on how global wisdom has shifted their own assumptions. *Note: This module contains potentially disturbing material, but it is handled with respect and academic sensitivity. Because this course deals directly with death, dying, and the rituals surrounding the end of life, students will encounter:

=
1. Descriptions of corpses and burial practices, including discussion of cremation, excarnation (exposure of bodies to the elements), mummification, and traditional washing and shrouding rituals.
2. Graphic imagery from religious traditions, such as the Buddhist Bardo Thodol (Tibetan Book of the Dead), which includes vivid descriptions of the dissolution of the body and encounters with wrathful deities; Hindu iconography of the goddess Kali and Yama, the god of death; and Islamic teachings on the "trial of the grave" and the torments of hell.
3. Discussions of suffering and grief, including the emotional and psychological realities of losing loved ones and the process of mourning across cultures.
4. References to violence and sacrifice in religious and historical contexts, including crucifixion in Christianity, animal sacrifice in various traditions, and the ethical complexities of killing in war and capital punishment.
*Importantly, this course is NOT designed to be sensational or gratuitous. All material is presented in an academic, comparative, and respectful framework. The goal is understanding, not shock. Graphic descriptions are provided for cultural and ritual context, not for their own sake. Students are never required to view images or videos that would be considered disturbing; all content is delivered through lecture and discussion. Students who anticipate difficulty with any of these topics are encouraged to speak with the preceptor ahead of time. Accommodations such as advance notice of specific content or alternative reflection assignments can be made. Lecture Session 1 - Fear, Denial, and the Search for Meaning in Death Discussion Session 1 Lecture Session 2 - Judgement and Paradise: The Abrahamic Traditions of Judaism, Christianity, and Islam Discussion Session 2 Lecture Session 3 - Rebirth and Impermanence: The Dharmic Traditions of Hinduism and Buddhism Discussion Session 3 Lecture Session 4 - Near Death Experiences, Immortality, and Why Death Gives Life Meaning Discussion Session 4

[show less]

Once there were seven Blackwoods in the family home, but then the murders happened—and the village has never forgotten. Now only eighteen-year-old Merricat Blackwood, practitioner of sympathetic magic, remains on the estate with her agoraphobic sister and frail uncle, ostracized by the townspeople, secluded in a separate world. When an outsider interjects himself into the story, he disrupts the fragile truce everyone has made with the past and the future. We Have Always Lived in the Castle (1962), the final completed novel by master of Gothic storytelling Shirley Jackson, is a modern classic of mystery and psychological horror with a timely critique of gender, class, and community power dynamics. Join us as we explore Jackson’s haunting insights on isolation and identity, prejudice and paranoia, and memory and mob mentality. Week 1: Shirley Jackson and the Gothic Week 2: Psychological Horror and Sympathetic Magic Week 3: The Mob and the Other Week 4: Themes and Resonances [show less]

What is the meaning of life? This module examines four of humanity's most influential answers to that question. We will begin with a central ancient Hindu text, The Bhagavad-Gita, where students will learn about meaning from detached action and devotion to cosmic order. Students will then turn to Ancient Greece and learn about Aristotle's Nicomachean Ethics, where the philosopher located meaning in rational flourishing, virtue, and friendship. Next, students will confront the Hebrew Bible/Old Testament through The Book of Job, which challenges easy answers through the experience of unjust suffering. Finally, we round out our discussion with the modern views of Friedrich Nietzsche and his work Twilight of the Idols, declaring traditional values dead and demanding we create our own meaning. Students will learn to identify the core arguments of each text and trace the tensions that run through the human conversation about meaning: reason versus faith, action versus contemplation, self versus community, tradition versus freedom. Through four lectures and four discussion periods, students will build a personal toolkit for articulating and living their own thoughtful response to the biggest question ever asked. Lecture Session 1: The Bhagavad Gita - Duty and Cosmic Detachment Discussion Session 1 Lecture Session 2: Aristotle's Nichomachean Ethics - Virtue and Human Flourishing Discussion Session 2 Lecture Session 3: The Book of Job - Suffering and the Limits of Reason Discussion Session 3 Lecture Session 4: Nietzsche's Twilight of the Idols - The Death of God and the Call to Self-Creation Discussion Session 4 [show less]

Artificial intelligence is transforming the way many people work, create, and learn, but what is it, really? Over eight sessions, this discussion-based module explores AI from multiple angles: what it is and isn't, how people already encounter it in everyday life, and its potential as a practical thinking and creative tool. Together we'll examine real-world applications, creativity, ethics, and ways AI might support deeper and more meaningful work. Rather than advocating for or against AI, the course invites thoughtful, balanced discussion about how to navigate this rapidly changing technology. The module concludes with an open Q&A, giving participants the opportunity to explore their remaining questions and ideas. Session 1: Topic: What AI is (and isn't)? Discussion: What excites or concerns you about AI? Session 2: Topic: AI in daily use Discussion: How are you already using AI (if you are). Session 3: Topic: AI as a "Thinking Tool" Discussion: How can we use AI to help us think and how should we be wary of that? Session 4: Topic: AI in Everyday Life Discussion: What areas in life are tedious or monotonous that we can use AI to overcome. Session 5: Topic: Can AI help us create? Discussion: Can AI create and where is it appropriate to use? Where should humans remain central to the creation process? Session 6: Topic: Ethics Discussion: The ethical use of AI Session 7: Topic: AI as your administrator Discussion: How can you use AI to allow you to create more. Session 8: Topic: Q&A and Open Discussion [show less]

C.S. Lewis’s science-fiction trilogy, published between 1938 and 1945, is unlike any other series of science-fiction books ever written. The three books were partly written in response to the immorality Lewis saw in other science fiction novels and essays: namely ones by Olaf Stapledon, HG Wells, and JBS Haldane. Instead of depicting aliens on other planets as monsters who needed to be conquered, Lewis depicts the invading humans as monstrous and the aliens as godlier and more virtuous. He also incorporated many elements of medieval and renaissance literature into what he called his “planetary romances.” Although the novels centre on futuristic technology – including spaceflight and medical innovations – the narrative perspective belongs to a much older time. As a result, we can regard Lewis’s work as a type of ‘medieval science-fiction.’ Each module in this series focuses on a different novel in the trilogy, and students can take all three modules or chose to join the series for individual modules at any time during the course’s run. So, please join us as we explore these three incredible and genre-busting novels… after reading and discussing them, you will never see the universe in the same way again! [show less]