This free online lecture is part of the Mythgard Academy Guest Lecture Series.

[caption id="attachment_1225" align="alignleft" width="180"] Dr. Amy H. Sturgis[/caption]

What images come to mind when you think of Star Wars? Luke Skywalker watching the twin suns set on Tatooine? Princess Leia with a blaster in her hand and buns on her head? The glow of a lightsaber in the darkness? These visuals convey volumes, and they spring in part from a common origin.

One of the keys to the worldwide success of Star Wars is that the saga draws from a variety of global sources, both classical and contemporary. Join Dr. Amy H. Sturgis as she discusses one particular tradition that has left its indelible imprint on the Star Wars franchise. How did pulp science fiction evolve? What is the relationship between this genre and the Western? And how can tracing the pulp ancestry of Star Wars give us new insights on key moments and messages across the Star Wars canon — and quite possibly shed light on the forthcoming film The Force Awakens? Star Wars fans and newbies alike are welcome!

 

Recordings from Saturday, Aug. 15, 2015

Watch: Video

Listen: Audio

Suggested Reading: Star Wars movies (episodes I – VI)

The Force of Star Wars

Be sure to check out Dr. Sturgis' fall class for the Mythgard Institute, The Force of Star Wars: Examining the Epic. This 12-week class will look at the traditions out of which George Lucas built his epic story, while also examining the cultural impact of Star Wars through today.

Biography

Amy H. Sturgis earned her Ph.D. in Intellectual History from Vanderbilt University and specializes in Science Fiction/Fantasy and Native American Studies. She is the author of four books and the editor of six others, and she has published over forty scholarly and mainstream essays. Some of her honors include the Imperishable Flame Award for Tolkien/Inklings Scholarship, the Scholar Guest of Honor distinction at Mythcon XXXVII, and the L.A. Press Club's Best Magazine Review/Criticism/Column Award. Since 2008, Sturgis has contributed regular "Looking Back at Genre History" segments and dramatic readings to StarShipSofa, which in 2010 became the first podcast in history to win the Hugo Award. With over 200 presentations to her credit, Sturgis is a regular speaker at universities and genre conventions across North America and Europe. A faculty member at Signum University's Mythgard Institute since 2012, she also teaches Liberal Studies at Lenoir-Rhyne University. Sturgis lives with her husband and their Boston terrier in the foothills of the Blue Ridge Mountains in North Carolina. Her official website is amyhsturgis.com.

David Brin

Can Science Fiction Change the World?

David Brin is a scientist, speaker, technical consultant, and world-known author. His novels have been New York Times Bestsellers, winning multiple Hugo, Nebula, and other awards. At least a dozen have been translated into more than twenty languages. Some of his best-known novels include Earth, The Postman (filmed in 1997), and Hugo Award winners Startide Rising and The Uplift War. A leading commentator and speaker on modern trends, his nonfiction book The Transparent Society won the Freedom of Speech Award of the American Library Association. Brin serves on advisory committees dealing with subjects as diverse as national defense and homeland security, astronomy and space exploration, SETI and nanotechnology, future/prediction and philanthropy. He has served since 2010 on the council of external advisers for NASA's Innovative and Advanced Concepts group (NIAC), which supports the most inventive and potentially ground-breaking new endeavors. In 2013, David Brin helped to establish the Arthur C. Clarke Center for Human Imagination at UCSD, where he was honored as a "distinguished alumnus" and where he was thereafter a Visiting Scholar in Residence.

Brin's newest novel Existence explores the ultimate question: billions of planets are ripe for life. So where is Everybody? David's main thread: how will we shape the days and years ahead – and how will tomorrow shape us? David Brin's guest lecture is titled "Can Science Fiction Change the World?"

Recordings from Saturday, July 25, 2015:

Watch: Guest Lecture Video

Listen: Guest Lecture Audio

Review: Additional Resources

Will we diversify into many types of humanity? (Video at Smithsonian Magazine; slides)

Indignation, addiction and hope — does it help to be "mad as hell?" (TEDx talk; slides)

Closer to Truth (Video series)

Existence official trailer (YouTube Video)

Matthew Dickerson

Tolkien as Early Environmentalist

Matthew Dickerson is a Professor at Middlebury College in Vermont, associated with the Department of Computer Science, the Program of Environmental Studies, and the New England Young Writers’ Conference at Bread Loaf (which he directs). He has written or co-written several important books on Tolkien and other fantasy literature, including Ents, Elves, and Eriador: The Environmental Vision of J.R.R. Tolkien; From Homer to Harry Potter: A Handbook on Myth and Fantasy; Following Gandalf: Epic Battles and Moral Victory in The Lord of the Rings; Narnia and the Fields of Arbol: The Environmental Vision of C. S. Lewis; and A Hobbit Journey: Discovering the Enchantment of J. R. R. Tolkien's Middle-earth. He also writes novels, including a novelization of the "Finn and Hengest" story. In addition to his teaching and writing, he is a musicians, songwriter, and avid fly-fisherman. He lives on a 62-acre wooded hillside parcel of land, where he taps trees, makes his own maple syrup, raises honeybees, keeps a garden without pesticides, and heats his house using wood from his own property.

Matthew Dickerson's guest lecture for the Mythgard Academy is titled "Tolkien as Early Environmentalist."

Recordings from June 17, 2015:

Watch: Guest Lecture Video

Listen: Guest Lecture Audio

Michael D. C. Drout

Lexomic Analysis of Beowulf and J.R.R. Tolkien’s Scholarship on the Poem: A Confluence

Michael Drout is Professor of English and Chair of the English Department at Wheaton College in Massachusetts. He has published several books of scholarship on Tolkien, Anglo-Saxon literature in general, and Beowulf in particular, including J.R.R. Tolkien Encyclopedia: Scholarship and Critical Assessment, Of Sorcerers and Men: Tolkien and the Roots of Modern Fantasy Literature, and Beowulf and the Critics. He is active in the promotion and dissemination of spoken Old English texts, and has himself made many recordings of Old English poetry and prose. His important work at Wheaton College’s Lexomics Research Group has led to the development of new, computer-assisted methods of textual analysis.

Michael Drout's guest lecture for the Mythgard Academy is titled "Lexomic Analysis of Beowulf and J.R.R. Tolkien’s Scholarship on the Poem: A Confluence."

 

Recordings from March 23, 2015:

Watch: Guest Lecture Video

Listen: Guest Lecture Audio

C. S. Lewis used the German term sehnsucht to describe an inconsolable yearning, "an unsatisfied desire which is itself more desirable than any other satisfaction." Mythgard faculty member Sørina Higgins offered observations about Lewis and sehnsucht in a bonus lecture entitled "The Heraldry of Heaven: The Development of Sehnsucht in the Writings of C. S. Lewis" for the Tolkien-Lewis Mythgard Institute course. And in the true Mythgard tradition of continuously breaking new ground, this lecture is available free for viewing and/or listening.

Audio version

Video version