November 2026 Modules

Immerse yourself in the profound dialogues of J.R.R. Tolkien's "Athrabeth Finrod ah Andreth", a philosophical and metaphysical exploration of love, mortality, and hope within the legendarium of Middle-earth. This class invites you to delve into the intricate conversations between Finrod, an Elven king, and Andreth, a wise-woman of the race of Men. Their discourse investigates the depths of human (and Elven) existence, examining the divergent perspectives on life, death, and the overarching destiny of their worlds.

Throughout this course, we will dissect the rich layers of Tolkien’s narrative, uncovering the symbolic and thematic significances that make "Athrabeth Finrod ah Andreth" a cornerstone of his mythopoeic work. Together, we will work on a comprehensive analysis of the text, contextualizing it within Tolkien's broader legendarium and drawing connections to his other works. Our aim will be to gain a deeper understanding of the philosophical questions posed by Finrod and Andreth, and how these reflect Tolkien’s own views on faith, despair, and redemption.

Whether you are a seasoned Tolkien scholar or a passionate enthusiast of his world, this class offers an opportunity to engage with one of the most profound and lesser-known dialogues in Middle-earth, enriching your appreciation for Tolkien's genius and the enduring legacy of his work.

Immerse yourself in the profound dialogues of J.R.R. Tolkien's "Athrabeth Finrod ah Andreth", a philosophical and metaphysical exploration of love, mortality, and hope within the legendarium of Middle-earth. This class invites you to delve into the intricate conversations between Finrod, an Elven king, and Andreth, a wise-woman of the race of Men. Their discourse investigates the depths of human (and Elven) existence, examining the divergent perspectives on life, death, and the overarching destiny of their worlds.

Throughout this course, we will dissect the rich layers of Tolkien’s narrative, uncovering the symbolic and thematic significances that make "Athrabeth Finrod ah Andreth" a cornerstone of his mythopoeic work. Together, we will work on a comprehensive analysis of the text, contextualizing it within Tolkien's broader legendarium and drawing connections to his other works. Our aim will be to gain a deeper understanding of the philosophical questions posed by Finrod and Andreth, and how these reflect Tolkien’s own views on faith, despair, and redemption.

Whether you are a seasoned Tolkien scholar or a passionate enthusiast of his world, this class offers an opportunity to engage with one of the most profound and lesser-known dialogues in Middle-earth, enriching your appreciation for Tolkien's genius and the enduring legacy of his work.

C.S. Lewis is one of the most prolific and influential writers of the 20th century. And yet, in his early career as an Oxford don, he viewed himself as a failed poet. Moreover, his most canonical and transformational writing happened during the most stress-filled periods of his life. This short course allows students to peek into the writing life of C.S. Lewis. Our goal is to see through the lines of printed text by visiting the letters and archival remains of Lewis in a virtual setting. Most of C.S. Lewis's papers remain undigitized and unpublished, available only locally at archives in North America and England.

As Professor Brenton Dickieson has visited these archives, he is able to invite students to appreciate C.S. Lewis's writing life by looking at the way that he consciously and unconsciously built his literary career. This course is for writers who are developing their own habits and literary life-prints, as well as folks who are curious about C.S. Lewis's life beyond the biographies and bestselling books.

We are not doing text close readings, but looking at the “paratextual” information available to us: writing drafts, letters, diary entries, manuscripts and typescripts, title, and the like.

Week 1: Lewis: Pen, Ink, Paper
• C.S. Lewis’s Single-jointed Self-Conception as a Writer
• What Lewis Says about his Writing Habits
• Legendary Bonfires, Stuffed Dolls, and American Suckers: A Story of Lewis’s Papers and Manuscripts
• The Screwtape MS. Story: Part 1

Week 2: Leaves, Bombs, Stains
• The Screwtape MS. Story: Part 2
• “Villainous Handwriting”: Charlie Starr’s Lewis Handwriting and Rough Draft vs. Fair Draft
• Reconsidering the Lindskoog Affair with Manuscript Evidence of “The Dark Tower”

Week 3: Joy, Theft, Death
• “The Quest of Bleheris”: Lewis’s Teenage Novel

Week 4:
• Is it True that Lewis Wrote in a Single Draft?
• A Grief Observed
• Tumbling Through the Wardrobe: The Discovery of Narnia
• Arthurian Torso
• A New Sketch of Lewis’s Writing Process(es)

Note: This course includes a significant amount of visual material on the screen. Please contact the SPACE team if you have visual accessibility requirements and we will do everything we can to accommodate.

This module dives into K-Pop Demon Hunters as both a pop culture phenomenon and rich site of critical inquiry. Blending fandom, performance, media industries, K-Pop culture, aesthetics, and myth, the course asks: what does it mean when idol culture meets demon lore? How do K-pop’s global circuits of production and fandom intersect with anime conventions, East Asian mythologies, and transnational media flows? Students will study the series as text, brand, and cultural event—moving beyond hype to examine the structures, production practices, and myths that make it compelling.

The module combines accessible theory and film analysis with lively discussion, close reading, and collaborative analysis. Guest scholars in East Asian Studies and Anime Studies will offer focused perspectives on mythology, media mix strategies, and cross-cultural adaptation.

This class is rigorous but playful—an experiment in taking fun seriously, and there's no need for any experience in any of these areas to take this course.

*Note: Please make sure you watch the film before this module starts.

This course is an examination of Susanna Clarke's Piranesi. It details the multi-layered influences and implications of the novel. This mystery/fantasy novel plunges readers into the strange world known only as “The House”, a flooded labyrinth of statues where the narrator Piranesi lives. The course details the multimodal connections of Clarke’s novel from the artwork of Giovanni Battista Piranesi (1720-1778) to C.S. Lewis’s world of Narnia.

Through lecture, discussion and supplemental readings, this module is designed to give students a solid basis to understand and analyze Clarke’s engaging and fascinating story. While a copy of the novel will be required for the course, all supplemental readings will be provided.

We will look at labyrinth mythology and Greek philosophy, surrealism, and dream logic. This class is intended for anyone interested in reading and exploring the intricacies of fantasy, especially those who love a good mystery!

The module will follow an 8-session structure as shown below:

Outline	8-Session Structure
Week 1	Session 1: Introduction to Portal Fantasy, Susanna Clarke, Piranesi art and Novel.
	Session 2: The Labyrinth in fiction. Assigned reading overview. Read and discuss pages1-39.
Week 2	Session 3: Surrealism and dream narratives. Assigned reading overview. Read and discuss pages 39-82.
	Session 4: The Allegory of the Cave. Assigned reading overview. Read and discuss pages 85-122.
Week 3	Session 5: C.S. Lewis Influence and Connections. Assigned reading overview. Read and discuss pages 125-170.
	Session 6: Assigned reading overview. Read and discuss pages 173-217.
Week 4	Session 7: Assigned reading overview. Read and discuss pages 217-245.
	Session 8: Discussion of Complete Novel.

“There is nothing in the world so irresistibly contagious as laughter and good humor.”

Let’s finish the year by savoring two of Dickens’ Christmas tales!
A Christmas Carol is a beloved classic for a reason. Bitter and lonesome, the miserly Ebenezer Scrooge loathes Christmas and everything to do with it. Three ghostly visitations will show Scrooge the error of his ways, taking him on a transformative journey toward redemption.

Published one year later, The Chimes is one of Dickens’ lesser-known Christmas stories. A poor man, the elderly Toby ("Trotty") Veck is convinced he and his family deserve their wretched condition. Is there any point giving his blessing for his daughter Meg to marry? A vision brought on by goblins invites him toward a gentler and more merciful understanding of the world, reminding him of the power of love at the turning of the new year.

Together, these two Christmas novellas give readers hope in the face of poverty and despair.