Teaching and Learning from Fantasy
Signum University, the Mythgard Institute, and The Carolina Tolkien Fellowship invite you to join us on November 9 for Carolina Moot 2024. This hybrid event will occur at High Point University in High Point, NC. This year, we invite you to contemplate the theme of “Teaching and Learning from Fantasy.”
Register Here for Carolina Moot
Price: $50.00 for in-person attendance, $25.00 for remote attendance
Unlike science fiction, fantasy is rarely taught in high school English classes, and even less so at the college level. Literary critics often dismiss fantasy as juvenile or escapist, and few fantasy novels have won the most prestigious literary awards or made the lists of all-time greatest novels. Fantasy still seems to get a bad rap.
Yet, despite its absence in upper-level classrooms and dismissal among critics, fantasy remains popular among readers. Millions of copies of fantasy novels are sold every year, and new fantasy authors continually emerge. In 2023, new fantasy series by American author Sarah J. Mass and by British author Samantha Shannon combined with ongoing sales of the Harry Potter novels to bring book publisher Bloomsbury record profits. At a time when many fear the death of reading, fantasy remains one of the surest lifelines we have.
Perhaps, then, fantasy warrants more attention in high school and college classrooms.
For Carolina Moot 2024, we are seeking academic papers, creative presentations, workshops, and panel discussions that explore the challenges, possibilities, and methods of teaching fantasy literature and film at the high school and college levels. In addition, we are seeking presentations from students who have had rewarding experiences with fantasy in the classroom or in other educational contexts. Some of the questions we are considering are as follows:
- What are the institutional, cultural, philosophical, or historical challenges to teaching fantasy, and how can faculty and administrators overcome those challenges?
- How can studying fantasy complement or enhance students’ broader studies in literature, film, or other subjects?
- Does teaching fantasy require methods or approaches different from teaching “realistic” literature and film? Are there benefits to teaching fantasy and realism together, or should they be taught separately?
- What experiences have you had either teaching or learning from fantasy in formal or informal settings, and what lessons have you taken away from those experiences?
Join us at High Point University, in the Piedmont Triad area of North Carolina, to explore these questions and more during Carolina Moot 2024!
Schedule of Events – All Times Local to High Point, NC (Eastern Time)
*Note* – after each session, there will be a twenty-minute Reflection and Application Time where attendees will discuss and be led on how to apply what they have learn from the session into their own teaching skills. If you have attended our other Regional Moots, this is an expansion of our normal Question and Answer time after our sessions.
9:15 – 9:45am: Studying Genre Through Ursula K. Le Guin w/Samuel Lewis
10:05 – 10:35am: Other Minds and Hands – Engaging Students in Creative Responses to Tolkien w/Bradley Bethel
11:10 – 11:40am: The Loves of Samwise Gamgee and the Fiction of The Red Book w/Matt DeForest
12:00 – 1:30pm: Carolina Moot Lunch Break
1:30 – 2:00pm: Teaching Tolkien in High School Science Classrooms w/Marie Prosser
2:20 – 2:50pm: Part of a Legacy – Master and Apprentice Relationships in Ahsoka and Trauma Responsive Education w/Elise Trudel Cedeño
3:25 – 3:55pm: AMA about Teaching Fantasy w/Corey Olsen
4:15 – 4:45pm: High Seas, not High “C”s – A Lit Teacher’s Testimony w/Vasilios Asimakos
