• Blog: A Single Leaf
  • Welcome
  • Teaching
  • Research
  • Service
  • Contact

Anna Smol

~ Department of English, Mount Saint Vincent University

Anna Smol

Tag Archives: astronomy and Middle-earth

Talks on Tolkien II: Kristine Larsen on the Inklings & Science

24 Sunday Jul 2016

Posted by Anna Smol in Medievalisms, Talks on Tolkien, Tolkien

≈ 2 Comments

Tags

astronomy and Middle-earth, Kristine Larsen, New York Tolkien Conference

In this summer series of Talks on Tolkien I’d like to highlight new/forthcoming books or different disciplinary approaches to the study of Tolkien — Interdisciplinary Tolkien, as I like to think of it.

Dr. Kristine Larsen

Dr. Kristine Larsen

Who better to exemplify the interdisciplinary study of Tolkien than Kristine Larsen, known to many as “The Tolkien Astronomer.”  Dr. Larsen is Professor of Physics and Astronomy at Central Connecticut State University and someone who is a prolific Tolkien scholar. In addition, she’s written about Stephen Hawking, Neil Gaiman, Dr. Who — and astronomy, of course.She’s also the person who runs the very popular astrolabe workshops every year at the International Congress on Medieval Studies in Kalamazoo.

The following video is from the second New York Tolkien Conference, which took place a couple of weeks ago. Kristine Larsen was one of the keynote speakers, and as is evident from the title of this talk, she likes to make them long*: “Lewis, Tolkien, and Popular Level Science: What the Well-Educated Inklings Actually Knew about the Universe (As Reflected in the Details of Narnia, Middle-earth, and Other Secondary Worlds).”  The talk concludes with a plea for “STEAM” rather than just “STEM” education.**

The video has a few buffering glitches, but with patience you can hear or understand almost the whole talk. Anyone who would like to know more about astronomy and Middle-earth can check out Dr. Larsen’s website, The Astronomy of Middle-earth.

 

 

* Dr. Larsen’s longest record-breaking title so far appeared in the Vermont Tolkien Conference program here.

**STEM = science, technology, engineering, math
STEAM= science, technology, engineering, art, math

Share this:

  • Click to share on Twitter (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Tumblr (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Pinterest (Opens in new window)
  • Click to print (Opens in new window)
  • Click to email a link to a friend (Opens in new window)

Like this:

Like Loading...

Dr. Anna Smol

This site includes my blog, "A Single Leaf," and webpages about my research and teaching in Tolkien studies, medievalism, Old English, and higher education pedagogy. Creative Commons License: <a rel="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/3.0/"><img alt="Creative Commons License" style="border-width:0" src="http://i.creativecommons.org/l/by-nc-sa/3.0/88x31.png" /></a><br />This work is licensed under a <a rel="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/3.0/">Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License</a>.

Twitter Updates

  • RT @MarquetteU: The exhibition of manuscripts from J.R.R. Tolkien, best known for his classics “The Hobbit” and “The Lord of the Rings,” op… 8 hours ago
  • RT @UofGFantasy: The deadline for the @UofGFantasy sponsored roundtable "Tolkien and Medieval Constructions of Race" at @KzooICMS 2023 is f… 9 hours ago
  • RT @TolkienSociety: Every year, the #Tolkien Society holds an annual event called Oxonmoot. Taking place this year on 1-4 September both on… 14 hours ago
  • Handy list of some toxic, white supremacist accounts abusing fans. Thanks, Tim, for this thread. twitter.com/timboltonuk/st… 16 hours ago
  • RT @asthiggins: Eglerio! Been getting some great abstracts for the @IMC_Leeds 2023 #Tolkien Sessions sponsored by @UofGFantasy but need mor… 1 day ago
Follow @AnnaMSmol

Recent posts

  • Leeds is the place to be next week for Tolkien talks
  • Tolkien talks in May 2022 & reminders for July
  • April 2022 conference sessions on Tolkien
  • Tolkien Reading Day 2022: Love & Friendship
  • What did he really mean? Carpenter on Tolkien on Drama

Blog at WordPress.com.

  • Follow Following
    • Anna Smol
    • Join 927 other followers
    • Already have a WordPress.com account? Log in now.
    • Anna Smol
    • Customize
    • Follow Following
    • Sign up
    • Log in
    • Report this content
    • View site in Reader
    • Manage subscriptions
    • Collapse this bar
 

Loading Comments...
 

    %d bloggers like this: