Past Sessions

Associate Professor of English at Alderson Broaddus University in West Virginia

Tolkien and Lewis

Dr. Charlie W. Starr is an Associate Professor of English at Alderson Broaddus
University in West Virginia. He teaches, writes, and lectures on Classic and American
literature, film, theology, and on the works of C. S. Lewis and J.R.R. Tolkien. Charlie has
published numerous scholarly essays, over a hundred popular articles, a dozen chapters
for book anthologies, and seven books (fiction, non-fiction, and scholarly) including his
most recent study, The Faun’s Bookshelf: C. S. Lewis on Why Myth Matters. Charlie has
published over a dozen never-before-seen C. S. Lewis manuscripts including a lost sequel
to The Screwtape Letters and will soon be releasing more new Lewis documents. Dr.
Starr has been hailed as the world’s leading expert on C. S. Lewis’s handwriting.

Professor of Philosophy & Humanities at Saint Louis University

Saruman’s Sophistry and Gandalf’s Wisdom: Augustinian Rhetoric in Tolkien’s the Lord of the Rings

Craig A. Boyd is Professor of Philosophy & Humanities at Saint Louis University. Among the books, he has published are The Virtues: A Very Short Introduction with Kevin Timpe (Oxford University, 2020), Virtues and Their Vices co-edited with Kevin Timpe (Oxford University Press, 2014); Faith and Reason: Three Views, with Alan Padgett and Carl Raschke (Intervarsity Press, 2014), and A Shared Morality: A Narrative Defense of Natural Law Ethics (Brazos Press, 2007). His scholarly articles have appeared in such venues as The Heythrop Journal, Christian Scholar’s Review, Christianity & Literature, New Blackfriars, and The American Catholic Philosophical Quarterly. He has recently published articles on “The Humility of Sam Gamgee,” “The Wisdom of Gandalf, “The Thomistic Virtue of Hope in Leaf by Niggle,” and “The Vice of Curiositas in Augustine, Aquinas, and Tolkien.” His areas of academic interest include medieval philosophy, the virtues, natural law ethics, and the writings of Tolkien.

Tolkien Artist

Middle Earth through the eyes of an Artist

Will is an old school Middle Earth illustrator/fantasy artist. Having one foot in England and one in the United States and working in both in traditional and new media, he finds inspiration in natural landscapes, the writings of J.R.R.Tolkien, and Bible images.

Honorary Junior Research Fellow at the University of Buckingham

Responsive sacrifices and affective responses from Hobbits and Other Middle Earth Residents

Dr Sarah Waters is an Honorary Junior Research Fellow at the University of Buckingham, and her research centres on the undiscussed but important relationship between Lewis’ writings and Shakespeare, she is currently working on a book on Narnia and Shakespeare which is part of her broader research project on Lewis’ work on Shakespeare and the interconnected nature of his academic and fiction writing. She has published on Lewis’ science fiction and its allusions to Shakespeare and is also interested more broadly in how the Inklings engaged with Shakespeare, beyond just those walking trees of Tolkien. Connected and yet worlds apart, she completed an interdisciplinary medical humanities PhD which brought Shakespeare, early modern proto-medical treatises, present-day psychiatric practice and diagnostics, and contemporary psychosocial research into dialogue. Her thesis focused on the gendering, labeling, and voice crushing of the female experience of melancholia in the early modern period and depression now, with plenty of Shakespeare but not a word from the Inklings.

Software Engineering Instructor at Waukesha County Technical College

Navigating Technology with Tolkien

Matt Green is a life-long technologist, from assisting his dad in distributing projects and sound systems at church as a child to learning to program as a pre-teen in the early 80s. When his employer, Metavante, created the first Internet Banking Web Site he was tasked with training the first group of web developers who would make these sites. After more than a decade of managing the technical skill development for Metavante, Matt joined the faculty at Waukesha County Technical College’s (WCTC) Web and Software Developer program. Matt focuses on teaching Mobile and Web Development along with automation, IOT, and scripting. Additionally, Matt is the co-faculty advisor of the IT Club that has won multiple state and national competitions in Information Security and Java Programming as well as teaching and coordinating global business courses that engage students in multiple countries. Matt has spoken at multiple WordCamp (WordPress) events, Study Abroad, and Higher Education Conferences in Wisconsin and throughout the US.

His graduate studies at Concordia University Wisconsin focused on technology and education and he is currently pursuing a Doctorate in Contextual Ministry with a focus in Faith-Based Communication. Matt will be sharing findings and thoughts from his current studies and research. Matt learned to love Tolkien’s writings in his undergraduate studies–Even though his degree is in Business Computing and Computational Mathematics, his favorite undergraduate course was a Tolkien literature course taught by Mike Foster at ICC (Illinois Central College).

When Matt is not studying or teaching about technology, he is probably grilling, baking, or hanging out with his wife and daughters who are all current college students.

Independent scholar, has previously served as Professor of English Literature at Taylor University, Huntington University, and Nyack College

The Doom That We Must Deem”: Medieval Literary Models for Tolkien’s Dialogue on Fate and Providence in The Lord of the Rings

Joe Martyn Ricke, an independent scholar, has previously served as Professor of English Literature at Taylor University, Huntington University, and Nyack College. He holds a Ph.D. from Rice University, where he studied with Jane Chance. He also served as the Director of the Center for the Study of C. S. Lewis & Friends at Taylor University from 2015 – 2020. During that time he directed two international conferences, published three books and five scholarly articles, and led four summer research projects with groups of undergraduates. His work on Shakespeare, especially the characterization of shrewish women, has resulted in numerous conference presentations and several publications including “Parody, Performance, and the “Ultimate” Meaning of Noah’s Shrew” in Mediaevalia; “Kate, the Commonplace: The Framing of the Shrew,” in the MLA volume Approaches to Teaching Taming of the Shrew; and “Snarky Shrews: Gender Comedy and the Uses of Sarcasm” in the book Words that Tear the Flesh: Essays on Sarcasm in Medieval and Early Modern Literature and Cultures. He has been a participant in four NEH Summer Research Seminars or Institutes. He is a poet, a singer/songwriter, an actor and director, and a gardener. He is also the founder and host of the weekly InklingFolkFellowship, a worldwide (Zoom) gathering of scholars and fans of the Inklings. In 2010 he founded and has since organized the C. S. Lewis and the Middle Ages sessions at the International Congress on Medieval Studies. His most recent essay will be published in the forthcoming issue of Sehnsucht: The C. S. Lewis Journal.

An Inklings Son Remmebers

I am Robert “Humphrey” Havard’s second son, Mark and I was born in Oxford in 1935. While I was still a teenager, I would sometimes be invited to accompany my father to an Inkling informal Tuesday morning get-together at the Eagle and Child pub or at Studley Priory. Professor Tolkien lived on our street and was a neighbor. My younger sister and I were on one occasion asked by the Lewis brothers to stay at the Kilns for a few days to take care of it and provide care for Mr Paxford who was suffering from flu at that time. The Lewises were taking a short trip to Ireland.. All this must have taken place between 1950 and 1953 because I left home in 1953, immediately after being graduated from high school and entered a Benedictine monastery.
I was given the religious name of Colin. I went up to Oxford as a monk and obtained an MA in Modern History there. In 1964 I was sent to the United States to supplement the community at what is now St Louis Abbey. Ten year’s later I asked to be dispensed from my vows and the priesthood and moved to New York City.  During the 14 years I was there, I married my wife, became the father of two sons, and entered a second career as a computer consultant. We returned to St Louis in 1988 and have lived and worked here since then. I am now retired and am fortunate to have my two sons still living here. Our one grandson brings us great joy. I go by Colin rather than Mark except in my immediate family.

Professor Emeritus ICC

Interviewer for An Inkling’s Son Remembers

Professor Mike Foster has served as the North American representative of the Tolkien Society (Great Britain) since 1995. He has been a member of the Mythopoeic Society scholarship awards committee for Inklings scholarship and fantasy scholarship since 2000. He has presented and subsequently published papers at a wide variety of conferences in the United States, Canada, and England, and has been featured in interviews on Tolkien on ABC-TV World News Tonight and in magazine and newspaper articles published around the world, including the Chicago Tribune, Manchester Guardian, Los Angeles Times, Der Stern, The Prairie Sun, the Peoria Journal Star, and others syndicated and published throughout the United States and abroad. Foster retired from Illinois Central College in East Peoria in 2005. While there he taught classes in Tolkien. Mike also has quite a large number of publications, including “Teaching Tolkien,” published in The Lord of the Rings: 1954-2004 , “An Unexpected Party: Tolkien in the 1960’s” which was published in The J.R.R. Tolkien Encyclopedia in 2006, and quite a few reviews and essays in Mythlore: A Journal of J. R. R. Tolkien, C. S. Lewis, Charles Williams, and Mythopoeic Literature.

Pastor, Cornerstone Church and Librarian, Urbana Free Library

When the Road Darkens

In this talk Seth Kerlin (MDiv, Regent College) will be discussing the importance of suffering and journey in Tolkien, in particular how it relates to a life of discipleship with Christ.  In Tolkien’s world safety and comfort are seen as soporific at best, with risk-taking and subsequent suffering seen as necessary building blocks of spiritual maturation.  Likewise, in His teachings and through His own life Jesus exhibits the necessity of suffering for any who would count themselves His disciples.  To travel a spiritual journey means to engage evil directly and as such we who follow Christ all find ourselves in some fashion at the gates of Mordor.  In this way we leave the world of perpetual childhood (the Shire) and become wounded warriors of compassion and insight (Bilbo, Frodo) who need divine healing to finish their journey to complete wholeness.

Artist; Professor at Illinois State University

Will Coats is an artist who is a long term resident of Middle Earth. He has enjoyed a career creating images in the prosaic world of corporate clients, but wants to move into story illustration, and has recently returned to his roots in the Misty Mountains to ply his trade, creating drawings and paintings of our friends of the pages.  He would like to share these, the first fruits of his work, by describing processes and motivations with passion and pictures.  Galadriel to his Celeborn, Karen Coats teaches English at Illinois State University. The author of Looking Glasses and Neverlands: Lacan, Desire, and Subjectivity in Children’s Literature, Children’s Literature and the Developing Reader, and the forthcoming Bloomsbury Introduction to Children’s and Young Adult Literature, Karen is an internationally recognized scholar and all around sage with a beautiful voice.  Karen will read the passages from the book and add commentary.

Director, Ithaka Fellowship

Technology, Goodness, and Beauty in Tolkien’s Middle-earth

Duane is an ordained minister, farmer, and the founding president of Ithaka Fellowship – The Agrarian Center for Christian Growth and Study. Duane received a BS in agricultural economics from the University of Illinois, Master of Divinity and Masters in Counseling from Covenant Theological Seminary, St. Louis, MO, and is presently working towards a doctorate in creation care and spiritual formation. Duane and his wife, Julie, live on a farm with their six children near Bloomington, Illinois. Presentation topic: What are the subtle rhythms and virtues expressed in Tolkien’s Middle-earth that create beauty, goodness, and rest in the mind of the reader? Can and should locality, roads, homes, and technology contribute to our wellbeing as a people today? And if so, how is the tension with technology and technique harmonized with the Christian virtues of gratitude and humility in Tolkien’s sapiential imagination? In this talk, Duane contends for technologically advanced medievalism of sorts, a way of life that can be lived either in the city or country, with all the fruits of modernity coexisting with robust Christian values, that is able to keep one’s soul close to God, others, and the land.

Memories, Mugs and Movies: How Iconic Tolkien Moments Transcend Their Initial Context

“Deb works as a copy writer for Trend Setters, Ltd. a woman- owned- and- operated manufacturer located in Tremont, IL. Trend Setters works with major motion picture studios, comic and book publishers to build exciting products for discerning collectors. Deb now gets paid to research and write about (among other things) Tolkien, and is still a bit giddy over it.

Keynote Speaker

Tolkien’s Theory of Myth

Charlie W. Starr teaches English, Humanities, and Film at Kentucky Christian University in Eastern Kentucky. He teaches, writes and lectures on C. S. Lewis and J.R.R. Tolkien, and has published five books: two biblical studies, a children’s fantasy, a work on C. S. Lewis entitled Light: C. S. Lewis’s First and Final Short Story, which has released a never before published C. S. Lewis manuscript, and most recently a science fiction novel called The Heart of Light. Charlie enjoys caving, writing, reading, watching lousy television, and movies of every kind. His areas of expertise as a teacher include literature, film, and all things C. S. Lewis. Charlie and his wife Becky, have two mostly grown-up children, Bryan and Alathia, and a five pound family dog named Phydeaux.

Baptist Student Foundation at the University of Illinois

Good Dog: Tolkien’s Voice in Roverrandom

Rick D. Williams has been working with Christian students in educational settings for nearly 20 years. Following a 15-year career in teaching and administration at Judah Christian High School in Champaign, Illinois, Mr. Williams moved in 2011 to a new position as Housing Minister for the Baptist Student Foundation at the University of Illinois. There he oversees residential life and operations for three Christian cooperative residences which serve over 80 undergraduate and graduate students. He also serves as campus advisor for Veritas Forum at the University of Illinois.

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Dean, Urbana Theological Seminary

The Riddle of Strider, the Riddle of Us

Dr. Melody Green is the Dean of Urbana Theological Seminary, where she teaches classes on Tolkien, C. S. Lewis, G. K. Chesterton, and topics such as Christianity and Doctor Who. Prior to this, she taught at multiple institutions of higher education, all over the state of Illinois. Dr. Green publishes articles, essays and book reviews on Tolkien, C. S. Lewis, George MacDonald, and the TV series Doctor Who. A few examples of her publications include “Scapegoating and Collective Violence in The Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe” in New Casebooks: C. S. Lewis and the Chronicles of Narnia published by Palgrave Macmillian in 2012 and “Story: The Doctor’s Daughter” in Bigger on the Inside: Christianity and Doctor Who published by Square Halo Press in March of 2015. Dr. Green earned her Ph.D. in English Studies with a specialization in literature for children and adolescents from Illinois State University.

Tolkien’s First and Last Tales: Farmer Giles of Ham and Smith of Wooton Major

Professor Mike Foster has served as the North American representative of the Tolkien Society (Great Britain) since 1995. He has been a member of the Mythopoeic Society scholarship awards committee for Inklings scholarship and fantasy scholarship since 2000.
He has presented and subsequently published papers at a wide variety of conferences in the United States, Canada, and England, and has been featured in interviews on Tolkien on ABC-TV World News Tonight and in magazine and newspaper articles published around the world, including the Chicago Tribune, Manchester Guardian, Los Angeles Times, Der Stern, The Prairie Sun, the Peoria Journal Star, and others syndicated and published throughout the United States and abroad.

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Lecturer at Lincoln Christian University

Tolkien’s Artistic Souls: The Hobbit’s Intertwining of Aesthetics and Spirituality

Dr. Billie Jarvis-Freeman is a lecturer of Literature and Humanities at Lincoln Christian University, in Lincoln Illinois, where she teaches a wide variety of literature courses. Her scholarly interests include contemporary adolescent literature, the Inklings, the Victorian fairytale, and religious and spirituality intertextuality found within all literature.

Illustrator

Fanning the Secret Fire: Sub-Creation as a Spiritual Voyage

Jef Murray (www.JefMurray.com) is an internationally known artist, author, and illustrator. His paintings, sketches, and writings appear in fantasy publications and cultural journals  (Amon Hen, Mallorn, Beyond Bree, Silver Leaves, Mythprints, The St. Austin Review, Gilbert Magazine, The Georgia Bulletin) worldwide. His artwork has been featured in calendars, on websites (e.g. The Middle-earth Network, NarniaFans.com) in video courses and television specials on J.R.R. Tolkien, and in logo and book cover designs for corporate, nonprofit, educational, and entertainment clients. He is artist-in-residence for the St. Ausin Review (StAR), a founding member of The Middle-earth Network (legendarium.mymiddleearth.com), and is a regular speaker and presenter at fantasy and sci-fi themed events on the topics of fantasy art, storytelling, and the spiritual dimensions of art and illustration.

Jef’s book illustrations have appeared in The Magic Ring: Deluxe Illustrated Edition by Friedrich de la Motte Fouque, Black & White Ogre Country: The Lost Tales of Hilary Tolkien by Hilary A. R. Tolkien, and most recently in Seer: A Wizard’s Journal, a collection of stories, poems, and essays written by the artist and offered by Oloris Publishing.

Jef resides in Decatur, Georgia, USA, with his wife, author and columnist Lorraine V. Murray (www.LorraineVMurray.com) and Hamster-in-Residence Ignatius. He is also employed by the Candler School of Theology of Emory University, Atlanta, GA.

St John's Catholic Newman Center

Steward of All Worthy Things: Leadership Lessons from Gandalf

Undergrad at Franciscan University of Steubenville (Ohio) — BA Philosophy; Seminary: Kenrick-Glennon, St Louis.  Ordained 1999. Served at St Philomena’s (Peoria); Peoria Notre Dame High School (chaplain and theology teacher); St Mark’s (Peoria); and St John’s Catholic Newman Center (2011-present). I started a class on Tolkien at Notre Dame High School and taught it for eight years. In 2004 I participated in Tolkien Conference at Marquette University, celebrating 50 years of publication of the Lord of the Rings.  I was a panelist for a session on teaching Tolkien to secondary education students.

Urbana Theological Seminary

Carrying on the Story: J. R. R. Tolkien as a Fictional Character

Dr. Green earned her Ph.D. in English Studies from Illinois State University. She has taught a course on Tolkien at Urbana Theological Seminary, and has presented on Tolkien at various conferences, including Mythcon, the annual conference of the Mythopoeic Society, and The Ring Goes Ever On, the International Tolkien Society’s conference celebrating the 50^th anniversary of the publication of the Lord of the Rings which was held in Birmingham, England.  She has also published articles on Tolkien, Lewis and the other Inklings.

Baptist Student Foundation at the University of Illinois

Hwaet! Considerations on Tolkien as a Teacher

Rick D. Williams has been working with Christian students in educational settings for nearly 20 years.  Following a 15-year career in teaching and administration at Judah Christian High School in Champaign, Illinois, Mr. Williams moved in 2011 to a new position as Housing Minister for the Baptist Student Foundation at the University of Illinois.  There he oversees residential life and operations for three Christian cooperative residences which serve over 80 undergraduate and graduate students.

Mr. Williams holds Master’s and Bachelor’s degrees from Illinois State University and has done additional graduate studies at Lincoln Christian Seminary and Urbana Theological Seminary.  His teaching experience includes college and high school courses in History, Civics, and Classics, and he continues to teach a highly-regarded Worldviews class for high school seniors.  In addition to teaching, administration, and campus ministry, Mr. Williams has been a presenter at many professional conferences and workshops, and he has authored numerous published articles and book chapters on topics ranging from education and international student ministry to state and local history.

Judah Christian School

Transferring Tolkien – Enchanted Page, Enchanted Screen

Bryan Mead holds a BA in Film and Video from Columbia College and a MA in Film Studies from National University.  He has taught introductory film studies at Judah Christian School in Champaign the past 4 years.  Bryan is also finishing his MA in Religion at Urbana Theological Seminary.  He plans to pursue a PhD in Cinema Studies with his main focus of study being the intersection of Theology and Film.