Author Archive

As many of my students are aware, I have a rather strange (for a medievalist) side interest in quantum mechanics. I dig me some Schrodinger’s Cat:

(If you want a shorter and more amusing version, check out this scene from Big Bang Theory.)

Anyhow, I bring this up to illustrate why I think it’s so awesome that I just read the news that scientists have confirmed the Dynamic Casimir Effect, which was first predicted by G. Moore in 1970.

Among the many oddities of our working models of quantum mechanics is the postulation that a vacuum is not really a vacuum: that “empty space” is actually filled with quantum particles that are popping into and out of existence so fast that they cannot be directly observed. They are thus called virtual particles. Anyway, back in 1970 Moore theorized a way to directly observe these particles, though the experiment was not one that could be performed.

Until now. 40 years later, building on Moore’s theory, scientists have experimentally proven this quantum oddity to be reality (just like that alive-and-dead cat). In the nothingness of a vacuum they watched the somethingness of a photon appear.

Extraordinary.

Looks like I wrote about a lecture break too early! As of today I’m lined up to give four more public lectures next semester:

February 21: Every year our History Department hooks up with a visiting professor, and this year it’s Kelly DeVries of Loyola Marymount. Kelly is a medievalist, specializing in military history (which is all kinds of cool), and he’s also a bit of a star in our little academic world: he’s a regular expert on History, Discovery, National Geographic, and other such educational programming. Anyway, he and I will be giving a joint lecture on the topic of Robin Hood. We’re still working out the details, but we’ll either be talking about the depictions of Robin or the historical origins of him. Or both. We’ll see.

March 14: My recent Phi Kappa Phi lecture on Tolkien and Beowulf was enough of a hit — apparently it was one of the biggest crowds they’d had in recent memory, which is fun — that I’ve been asked to do a bigger, more formal encore. This time it’ll be in the evening, complete with refreshments, and sponsored by the Friends of the Daniel Library. I also hope that this time I won’t be losing my voice.

April 20-22: I’ll be at JordanCon IV in Atlanta, where at some point I’ll be giving a major lecture about Robert Jordan and mythology. There’s a decent chance I’ll do some additional speaking, sitting on panel discussions and the like, but that’s yet to be determined.

May 10-13: I’ll be at the International Congress on Medieval Studies in Kalamazoo, where at some point I’ll be giving a run-of-the-mill conference paper (no big lecture this time!) on the poet John Gower and his quiet resentment of the Lancastrian crown.

There’s also a decent chance I’ll be going to another academic conference at the end of March (this one on the Honors Program side of things), but my attendance is not certain right now. If I do go, however, I will not be giving a lecture!

November 7, starting at noon, I’ll be talking at The Citadel library on the topic of Tolkien and Beowulf. It should be a low-key affair, but it should also be a fun one: I’ll mainly be presenting my current work on this subject, including my discoveries in the Tolkien Archive this summer.

In the past few weeks I’ve been at conferences in Decatur, GA and Phoenix, AZ, and I’m getting pretty tired. Thankfully, after this upcoming lecture I think I’ll be taking a speaking break until JordanCon in Roswell, GA next April. Not long after that, in May, I’ll be speaking about John Gower at the International Congress on Medieval Studies in Kalamazoo, MI.

And then … I don’t know. Thoughts?

As announced here, I will be a featured guest speaker at the next JordanCon, a convention devoted to the works of Robert Jordan. I’ll be speaking about the impact of mythology on Jordan’s Wheel of Time series.

Adding to my excitement, the author Guest of Honor will be good friend Mary Robinette Kowal.

So if you’re a fan of Jordan or Kowal, come on down to Roswell, Georgia this April!

My article “Teaching the Medieval Orpheus: Bridging Mythology and Medieval Literature” has been accepted for publication in the peer-reviewed journal Studies in Medieval and Renaissance Teaching.

The article probably won’t appear for another year or so, but it’s good to know that it’s in the queue somewhere and off my desk. It’s honestly more stressful for me to keep track of submissions of such things than it is for me to write them in the first place (the writing is just pure fun for the most part).

I’m also pleased with this particular piece in that it fits well with my Quixotic aim to publish studies of as many centuries as possible. In that sense, this piece was like striking a goldmine, since it discusses classical works (Ovid, Pseudo-Apollodorus, etc.) and a range of medieval works (Sir Orfeo, Henryson’s Orpheus, etc.) that deal with the character Orpheus. That allows me to “check off” quite a few centuries all at once. Score.

I note, though, that I’m still missing those darn 1700s. Can’t even imagine what I could contribute there!