I’m very honored to have received the Distinguished Scholarship and Creative Work Award today from my colleagues at North Central College!
Upcoming conference talk: “Faust in the Anthropocene”
At the end of August, I will be taking part in this online conference. I will be presenting a keynote address entitled “Faust in the Anthropocene,” which builds on some research connected to a course on Faust that I have been offering frequently over the last several years.
Two updates
Journalist Beth McMurtrie has published a piece in the Chronicle of Higher Ed on college students’ struggles with reading, for which she interviewed me, one of my students, and my department chair (among many others). It is the first article in a series on this important issue.
Unrelatedly, later this summer, I will be giving a keynote address at an online conference on James Hogg’s Private Memoirs and Confessions of a Justified Sinner and other literature with demonic themes. My talk, entitled “Faust in the Anthropocene,” will be my first attempt to consolidate some thoughts that have arisen from my “Deals With the Devil” course and that I hope will form the basis of my next major book project.
It’s official!
I have signed the contract and submitted the final manuscript for my next book, Late Star Trek: The Final Frontier in the Franchise Era, to be published by University of Minnesota Press as part of the Mass Markets series edited by Gerry Canavan and Benjamin Robertson. A description of the project follows “below the fold.”
New article in Slate
I wrote an article for Slate about the sharp and sudden decline in reading skill among college students.
New translation of my work into Farsi
The introduction to my book What is Theology? has been translated into Farsi and published in Iran. Thank you to Hossein Motaghi for his generous work of translation!
Spring Semester Syllabi
I have posted my syllabi for the spring semester on my teaching history page. This is the first semester in a long time when I do not have a new prep, though I am offering one course in a new format.
- Ethics (syllabus): This is a large lecture course offered through the Philosophy Department, though I try to incorporate as much text-centered discussion as possible. Compared to previous years, this time around I have tried to streamline the course to focus on a few key books, with fewer side articles.
- What is Matter? (syllabus): This is a Shimer discussion seminar on the history of chemistry. It is a sentimental favorite for me because it was my first foray into Shimer’s natural sciences curriculum, and sadly my initial outing was disrupted by the pandemic. At the risk of jinxing it, I’m looking forward to finally offering this course — which I audited as part of my training at the independent Shimer and absolutely loved — in its intended format.
- Deals With the Devil (syllabus): I taught a version of this course several times as an interdisciplinary first-year seminar, but this will be my first opportunity to offer it as an upper-level course in the context of the Shimer program. I am particularly excited to follow up on my experience teaching comic books in my honors seminar on Watchmen last semester by incorporating the sections of Neil Gaiman’s Sandman that deal with Lucifer and his unexpected retirement.
Two upcoming speaking events
Tomorrow, I will be participating in a faculty symposium at North Central College on the topic of empathy, where I will be representing the College of Arts and Sciences alongside presenters from the School of Business and Entrepreneurship and the School of Education and Health Sciences. My presentation will draw on my research into awkwardness, reconceiving the awkward cringe as a form of radical empathy.
Then this weekend, I will be presenting at “Transfinite Life: A Symposium in Honor of Bruce Rosenstock,” sponsored by the Department of Religion and the Program in Jewish Culture and Society at University of Illinois (Urbana-Champaign). My paper in honor of my late mentor and friend will be entitled “Bruce Rosenstock’s Secular Paulinism.” You can read my paper here.
Upcoming conference session on science fiction and socialism
In a couple weeks, I will be speaking at the Socialism 2023 conference in Chicago as part of a session on “Popular Science Fiction and Left Political Imaginations.” The session will be on Monday, September 4, at 10:00am. For updates on the specific room number, you can search my name on the schedule.
Courses for Fall Semester
I have posted the syllabi for my fall courses on my teaching history page. This time I am teaching two courses on logic — one in a conventional format using the Copi/Cohen textbook and the other in a Shimer seminar format using a range of primary sources. I also have the unique opportunity to teach a half-semester honors seminar on Watchmen.
