I was pretty surprised when I checked this page and saw that I had not posted anything for almost an entire year! The 2022-2023 academic year was a real challenge, I took on way too much work and really suffered for it. One upside though is that I really learned that I need to expand my work to go beyond the teaching that I am doing at universities, and reach out to engage with the general public. In that vein, there are two big projects that I am developing:

(1) online courses on religion and science fiction - whenever I posted to social media about the advanced undergraduate seminar I offer about religion and science fiction, so many of my friends asked me if they could somehow take the course, would I ever teach this for the public, etc…so I decided to tackle for the coming year. I’m planning on recording my lectures and putting together additional materials. You can check out this link to the page on my website where I will post more information as things come together.

(2) podcast on non-Eurocentric SFF: Something that I have truly enjoyed the last few years is gearing my reading towards SFF stories that are not set in some version of medieval Western Europe. There is so much more speculative fiction coming out these days that is set in Africa, Central America, South Asia, East Asia; my plan is to interview authors writing these types of stories. I will also put together episodes where we (myself and guest hosts) will do a deep dive into SFF tv and film. I think I could do ten episodes just on The Mandalorian, so there is no shortage of material!

I’m very excited about both of these projects, but I know that producing quality takes time, so I’m focused at moment on taking those first steps to build things up slowly. I look forward to posting more information as things develop!