SIGNUM - Key Persons
Job Titles:
- Outreach Director of Outreach, Regional Moot Coordinator
Adam Beaton, a lifelong fan of great literature and fun adventure stories, came to Signum University through listening to the Mythgard Academy broadcasts. He worked in the foreign service in his young adulthood, stationed primarily in South America. He became a fan of anime at that time, even taking advantage of the opportunity to apprentice with the landscape research artists for Michiko & Hatchin. Since then, his love of the medium led him to become the convention chair of Zenkaikon near his alma mater of Millersville University of Pennsylvania, where he received his BA and MA in Classics.
Adam's enthusiasm and experience have now extended to Signum's Regional Moots and our Outreach Division where we are so grateful that he's our fearless leader! Adam lives in Florida with his cats, Reuben and Rachel.
Job Titles:
- Member of the Board
- the Board
Alexander "Alex" Petrov joined Signum's Board of Visitors in Fall 2024 as an at-large Board Member. He has a strong interest in innovative approaches to higher education which improve the sustainability of the university sector while making it more accessible to a broader range of students.
Alex has a BSc from the University of London Worldwide (the world's oldest distance and flexible learning institution) and MSc from London School of Economics. Based in London, UK, he has worked in a range of roles in the finance industry, focusing on macroeconomic policy research, sovereign credit risk, and the intersections of economic and political analysis, and currently serves on an investment committee of a family office.
Alex has been a Tolkien fan since the reading The Hobbit at the age of nine but his particular interest is the Silmarillion. Aside from fantasy literature, he enjoys reading British history and the occasional Le Carré novel.
Job Titles:
- Guest Lecturer / Visiting Lecturer
Amy H. Sturgis earned her Ph.D. in Intellectual History from Vanderbilt University and specializes in Science Fiction/Fantasy/Gothic and Indigenous American Studies. She contributes the "Looking Back on Genre History" segment to the Hugo Award-winning StarShipSofa podcast. Dr. Sturgis is also the author of four books and over sixty essays; her published works have earned honors for her scholarship (from The Northeast Tolkien Society) and journalism (from the Los Angeles Press Club). She is the editor/co-editor of nine books and one magazine issue; the latter, Apex Magazine's "A Celebration of Indigenous American Fantasists," produced the winner of the 2018 Hugo Award and Nebula Award for Best Short Story. Her most recent works are the co-edited anthologies Star Trek: Essays Exploring the Final Frontier and Star Wars: Essays Exploring a Galaxy Far, Far Away (both 2023 from Vernon Press). Dr. Sturgis lives with her husband in the Appalachian Highlands of Virginia. Her official website is amyhsturgis.com.
Amy Troolin is a writer, reader, historian, theologian, musician, genealogist, and teacher and a lover of all things Tolkien and Old English. She holds an M.A. in Language & Literature from Signum University, an M.A. in Theology and Christian Ministry from Franciscan University of Steubenville and a double M.A. in History and English from St.
Brenton Dickieson (PhD, University of Chester) is a teacher, writer, and researcher from Prince Edward Island. Brenton teaches in the Faculty of Arts at the University of Prince Edward Island and is a founding member of the Curiosity and Inquiry Research and Collaboration Lab (CIRCL). He is also a faculty coach, lecturer, and preceptor in the MA program at Signum University, and teaches occasionally in SPACE.
Brenton is the curator of the literature and culture blog, www.aPilgrimInNarnia.com, which has recently passed 1,300 articles and 2,000,000 views. His forthcoming book with Oxford University Press is called The Shape of the Cross in C.S. Lewis's Spiritual Imaginatio n. Brenton once wrote, co-produced, and acted in a 12-episode children's television show only available on VHS, but after a decades-long hiatus, he returns to the microphone as the host and founding producer of the MaudCast: The Official Podcast of the Lucy Maud Montgomery Institute.
Brenton lives in the almost-fantastical land of Prince Edward Island. He shares his home with his wife Kerry, a superstar kindergarten teacher, and Nicolas, a singer-songwriter and critic who uses the Spare Oom for his recording studio, while Brenton's office is in a damp corner in the basement.
Bronwyn Rivera is a SPACE participant, preceptor, and Signum MA student. Her interests include East Asian cultures and languages, gaming, and fantasy literature.
Bronwyn earned a Bachelor of Science in Liberal Studies with a concentration in Library Science in 2018. After graduating and spending a few years working in the public library environment, she chose to pursue her passion for literature at the graduate level. Her journey at Signum University began in 2020.
During this time, Bronwyn discovered the healing nature of fairy stories, the joys of Germanic philology, and her love for East Asian languages, cultures, and popular media. Now, she is only one class away from beginning her thesis research. Bronwyn works as a Research and Teaching Assistant. She also serves on Signum's Digital Media Team, writes articles for the institution's website, and assists in the Signum Library.
Bronwyn and her husband live in Pennsylvania with their cat Pangur Ban. They currently house-share with their family and a host of livestock in an old farmhouse. In her spare time, she enjoys reading, watching anime and Kdramas, and playing video games. However, if you can't find her doing any of those things, there's a chance she's out there searching for Howl's moving castle.
Carl Edlund Anderson holds an A.B. in Folklore & Mythology from Harvard College and a Ph.D. from the Faculty of English (Department of Anglo-Saxon, Norse, & Celtic) at the University of Cambridge, with studies focused on Medieval and Pre-Medieval Scandinavia, as well as a CELTA (Certificate in English Language Teaching to Adults) from the British Council in Bogotá, Colombia. His academic publications have treated Germanic philology, Colombian minority languages and cultures, and content and language integrated learning (CLIL).
Outside of academia, Carl worked for many years as a technical writer/editor in the high technology industry and founded/ran the Cambridge Writers of Imaginative Literature (CWIL) creative writing group in Cambridge, England from 2001 to 2007.
Job Titles:
- Guest Lecturer / Visiting Lecturer
- Researcher With a
Chad Andrews is a teacher and researcher with a Ph.D. in Cultural Studies. He is interested in conjunctures of popular culture, technology, and hegemony that emerged in postwar America, with particular attention paid to the interplay between popular fantasies and structures of power. To explore these links, his writing and teaching engage with history, focusing on the Cold War, emerging technocultures, and the various "culture wars" of the final quarter of the century; with popular culture, primarily speculative literature and science fiction in various media; and with political and technological theory, particularly Antonio Gramsci and the Italian autonomists, as well as philosophers of technology such as Andrew Feenberg, N. Katherine Hayles, Donna Haraway, and others. His work can be found in journals such as Extrapolation and Science Fiction Studies, and he is currently preparing a manuscript on American science fiction and cultural crisis in the 1980s.
Christopher Vaccaro joined Signum University over the Summer 0f 2016. He is a Senior Lecturer of English at the University of Vermont, where he teaches courses on Beowulf, Old English language and literature, surveys of early British Literature, and Tolkien. He has been teaching online courses since 2002.
Christopher has published essays on early medieval English poetry and a book on physicality and embodiment in Tolkien's legendarium (2013). He is very excited to find himself working alongside the great scholars in his fields of research here at Signum University.
Courtney Petrucci is a high school English teacher in Hartford, CT. She earned her BAS in Secondary Education and English from Salve Regina University, and received her MA in Language and Literature from Signum University in 2017 with a concentration in Imaginative Literature. When she's not teaching or raising her family, she loves to read Fantasy literature and dabble in creative writing. Courtney is a Signum Academy Clubs preceptor.
Job Titles:
- Guest Lecturer / Visiting Lecturer
Douglas A. Anderson's first book was The Annotated Hobbit (1988; revised and enlarged 2002), and he co-founded Tolkien Studies: An Annual Scholarly Review, co-editing it for eight volumes from 2004 through 2011. He has edited many books, often resurrecting notable but neglected works of fantasy by authors such as E.A. Wyke-Smith, Kenneth Morris, Leonard Cline, and Evangeline Walton.
With Verlyn Flieger, he co-edited Tolkien On Fairy-Stories (2008), a critical edition of Tolkien's famous essay, which includes much previously unpublished draft material by Tolkien. He has contributed a regular column reviewing older fantasy and supernatural literature to the journal Wormwood, published by Tartarus Press, since its founding in 2003, and has written similarly for All Hallows: The Journal of The Ghost Story Society, Fastitocalon, and The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction. His anthologies include Tales Before Tolkien (2003), H. P. Lovecraft's Favorite Weird Tales (2005), and Tales Before Narnia (2008).
Job Titles:
- Guest Lecturer / Visiting Lecturer
Dr. Andrew Higgins received a PhD in 2015 from Cardiff Metropolitan University. His PhD thesis ‘The Genesis of Tolkien's Mythology' explored the first major expression of Tolkien's mythology The Book of Lost Tales materials, with a specific emphasis on the interrelated nature of myth and language in Tolkien's earliest world-building. He has currently just completed co-editing a new edition of Tolkien's 1930's talk on language invention ‘A Secret Vice' with Dr. Dimitra Fimi. This new variorum edition with commentary is due out from HarperCollins in April 2016. Andrew has given Tolkien related papers at The International Medieval Congresses at Kalamazoo and Leeds, The Enchanted Edwardians Conference in Bristol and at the UK Tolkien Society. He has contributed several book reviews to Mythlore and The Online Journal of Tolkien Research. He is a proud inaugural member of The Mythgard Institute having taken (to date) 15 courses, serving as a Board Member and about to teach his first course ‘Language Invention through Tolkien' in Spring 2016. His specific focus of research is on all aspects of Tolkien's (and others) language invention and how it relates to story and world-building. Andrew is also the Director of Development for Glyndebourne Opera in East Sussex where he is responsible for leading a team to raise funding for all opera productions and related activity.
Job Titles:
- Member of the Board
- Member of the Strategy Council
- President
- Tolkien Professor
Dr. Corey Olsen is the President of Signum University and Mythgard Institute. In addition to teaching classes on J.R.R. Tolkien, Chaucer, and modern fantasy literature for Signum, Dr. Olsen has extended the concept of the digital classroom to include non-traditional outlets. Through the Mythgard Academy, he offers free weekly lectures on works of speculative fiction chosen by Signum University supporters, and he has embraced the "new literature" of cinema and video game adaptations through interactive programs such as The Silmarillion Film Project and in-game discussions of Lord of the Rings Online.
On his teaching website, The Tolkien Professor, Dr. Olsen brings his scholarship on Tolkien to the public, seeking to engage a wide and diverse audience in serious intellectual and literary conversation. His website features a series of detailed lectures on The Hobbit and recordings of the weekly meetings of the Silmarillion Seminar, which worked its way through the Silmarillion chapter by chapter, as well as more informal Q&A sessions with listeners. His book Exploring J.R.R. Tolkien's The Hobbit, was published by Houghton Mifflin in September 2012.
Dr. Olsen obtained his B.A in English and Astrophysics from Williams College in 1996, going on to Columbia University where he obtained his M.A. in 1997, M.Phil in 2000, and his Ph.D in medieval literature in 2003. Upon graduation from Columbia University, Dr. Olsen obtained teaching positions at Temple University, Columbia University, Nyack College, and Washington College. In 2011, Dr. Olsen started Signum University and the Mythgard Institute. His undergraduate and graduate teaching subjects include J.R.R.Tolkien, Arthurian literature, Chaucer, and Sir Thomas Malory.
Job Titles:
- Member of the Board
- Interim Director of the Edward E. Crutchfield Center for Integrated Studies
Dr. Matthew M. DeForrest is Interim Director of the Edward E. Crutchfield Center for Integrated Studies and Professor of English at Johnson C. Smith University (JCSU). His recent published works have appeared in The Yeats Journal of Korea, The Yeats Annual, W. B. Yeats's A Vision: Explications and Contexts, and Tolkien Studies. His recent presentations…
Erin Aust received her BA in English and Sociology from Washington College and her MA in Interdisciplinary Studies in Humanities and Social Thought from New York University, where she completed her thesis entitled Methods of Evaluation: The Academic Struggle Over J.R.R. Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings.
She teaches English Composition at Montgomery College and has worked with Johns Hopkins University's Center for Talented Youth in a variety of capacities, including as an instructor for writing workshops in Modern Fantasy. She generally studies the influence of cultural and social norms on the consumption and study of literature and is pursuing a PhD in Cultural Studies at George Mason University.
Faith Acker first joined Signum in 2011, serving as a preceptor for the inaugural course "The Great Tales: Tolkien and the Epic." She has precepted for several additional Tolkien courses as well as Latin I and II, and is co-lecturer for "Shakespeare and the Middle Ages" and sole designer of "The Life and Times of the English Epic." Acker designed and implemented Foundations in Critical Reading and Research, the collaboratively taught foundational required course for the M.A. degree. She has been a member of Signum's Strategy Council since 2021, served as Signum's Curriculum Coordinator from 2021-2023, and is currently Director of the Graduate School.
Acker received her PhD in Renaissance Literature from the University of St Andrews in 2012 and has subsequently taught at the University of Sheffield, Pellissippi State Community College, Northern Virginia Community College, Montgomery College, Southeastern Louisiana University, and (of course) Signum University. Her monograph First Readers of Shakespeare's Sonnets 1590-1790 (2020) is available from Routledge; her more recent research explores portrayals of servants and tradesmen in seventeenth-century poetical miscellanies. Faith also enjoys reading, hiking, photography, and cataloging books.
Gabriel teaches literature at Signum University, specializing in cultural histories, Arthuriana, and the works of the Inklings. He also teaches at Signum Path.
Gabriel completed his D.Phil. at Pembroke College, Oxford, in 2014. His thesis analyses depictions of King Arthur, focusing on a period spanning the mid-nineteenth to mid-twentieth centuries when the figure of Arthur became increasingly protean and multifaceted.
He has taught in Uganda, Poland, Turkey, and across the UK. Outside academia, he has worked in the publishing industry and charity sector.
He is one of the founders and organizers of the Pembroke Tolkien Lecture on Fantasy Literature, and works for the Owen Barfield and the P.H. Newby literary estates.
Hamish Williams holds a PhD in Classical Literature from the University of Cape Town (2017) and is currently a guest researcher at the University of Groningen, the Netherlands. He has previously held a Junior Fellowship at the Polish Institute of Advanced Studies in Warsaw (2021-2022) and a Humboldt Postdoctoral Fellowship at the Institute of English and American Studies, Friedrich Schiller University Jena (2019-2021). He has also taught International Studies at Leiden University and European Literature at the University of Groningen, where he has covered a wide array of courses, from classical mythology to early-modern philosophy to postcolonial literature.
Hamish's main research area is Classical Reception Studies, particularly the legacy of Grece and Rome in modern literature and popular genres such as fantasy; however, he is broadly interested in modern literary studies, and his research covers themes such as utopianism, hospitality, decline, and the sublime. His current project focuses on modern receptions of Minoan Crete; specifically, he is interested in the usage of Minoan symbols such as the Minotaur and Labyrinth to act as metaphors for mental experiences. His book publications include Tolkien and the Classical World(ed.) (Walking Tree Publishers, 2021); The Ancient Sea: The Utopian and Catastrophic in Classical Narratives and their Reception (ed.) (Liverpool University Press, 2022); and J.R.R. Tolkien's Utopianism and the Classics (Bloomsbury Academic, 2023). His articles can be found in various peer-reviewed journals, including Tolkien Studies, Journal of the Fantastic in the Arts, and Journal of Inklings Studies. Outside of academic writing, Hamish tries keeping up with his polyglot family and is working on his own series of fantasy novels, the first of which, The Southern Tide(2021), has been published.
Isaac S. Schendel is a Signum Academy Preceptor for Old English Translation Club and for German Conversation Club. He is also a preceptor for Old English, Middle High German, Old Saxon, and Conversational German at Signum University's SPACE Program.
Dr. Isaac received his PhD in Germanic Studies from the University of Minnesota in 2018.
His upcoming book, Pennsylvania Dutch Storytelling Traditions, is complete and scheduled to be published with the Pennsylvania German Cultural Heritage Center at the Kutztown University of Pennsylvania in 2025.
His scholarly publications include:
"The Adaption and Manipulation of Hagiographic Structure in Ulenspiegel." Daphnis 43.2 (2015)
Jean ‘Druidsfire' Prior is our Digital Moot Facilitator and Twitch & Discord manager for Signum University. She was graduated from the Pennsylvania State University with a Bachelor of Arts in History. Jean served as the Staff Representative on the Board of Directors. She founded a quiet listserv about a Canadian vampire cop show in the 90s that is still lurking on the Penn State servers. Jean produced a charity CD called Laughter is a Powerful Weapon: Vol 2, edited and published a fanzine for nerdy Celtic band the Brobdingnagian Bards, makes nerdy kilts, DJed a comedy music show called Radio Free Gallifrey for 10 years, has served as gaming press by freelancing for MMORPG.com and co-founded and edited at MMO-Central.com. She has raised money for gaming charities Extra Life and St. Jude, is a senior moderator and member of the official LotRO & DDO stream team, has played an has played a High Elf champion in LotRO since it launched in 2007, has presented a papers on Tolkien in video games at three separate Moots (so far). She once flew in a B-17 Flying Fortress. She has four kitties: two voids named Skittish and Noodle, and their black-and-white sister Scamper and the trio's black and white Mommacat.
Jennifer Rogers is a literature teacher and lover of all things medieval, philological, and Inklings. She earned her M.A. at Signum University and enjoys precepting SPACE modules and wordsmithing at Writer's Forge. Jenn resides at the northern edge of the Blue Ridge Mountains with her family and 40-odd head of cattle.
Job Titles:
- Member of the SPACE Team, Assis
- SPACE
Jenny Gosselin is a member of the SPACE Team, assisting in Blackberry and student communications.
Jenny Gosselin received her Bachelors of Nursing degree from Brandon University and has over 10 years of nursing experience in the general, geriatric, and emergency departments. She lives in Saskatchewan, Canada, with her husband Rob and their four children. Aside from Nursing and caring for her young children, Jenny can often be found with her nose in a book, a cup of coffee at her side, or a new home renovation on the go. She also is a pianist, artist, and avid K-drama consumer.
Jeremy Larson studied creative writing and English at Bob Jones University, later earning his Ph.D. in English from Baylor University. He has taught English for more than a decade at various secondary schools, colleges, and universities-including Regent University where he is an assistant professor. His favorite literary work is John Milton's Paradise Lost, and he enjoys the contemporary work (mostly YA fantasy) of N. D. Wilson. He lives in Virginia Beach and is a proud girl dad. He played trumpet and soccer for many years (though not at the same time), and continues to play when possible with enthusiastic mediocrity.
Job Titles:
- Graduate Advising Coordinator, Student Record Coordinator
In 1998, Jessi Robinson decided that she was never leaving college. And despite not being an academic, she's mostly stuck to that decision; only one year since 1998 was spent outside of higher ed - it was one of the worst years of her life. Jessi earned a B.A. in English from Salem State University in 2003 and an M.S. in College Student Development & Counseling from Northeastern University in 2011. Jessi has explored many administrative areas of higher education admissions human resources, enrollment and registration, curriculum management, scheduling, advising, university policy, student records, and degree progress and certification.
Jessi came to Signum through the Tolkien Professor podcast & Mythgard Institute classes on her long commutes. When she found an opportunity to combine her love for mythology and fantasy literature with her commitment to student support, she knew the Fates were smiling on her. She's currently involved with maintaining Goldberry, advising graduate students, and trying to ensure Signum students can reach their educational goals.
Jessica O'Brien received her MA in Library and Information Science in 2005 from the University of North Carolina at Greensboro, an MA in Liberal Studies (2014), and an MS in Online Teaching and Instructional Design (2016) both from Lenoir-Rhyne University. She is an Associate Librarian and Coordinator of Instructional Technology at Lenoir-Rhyne University where she also serves as an adjunct professor of Education. She has also worked with the North Carolina State Library to design and deliver training and is a North Carolina Master Trainer.
She is an active member of the American Library Association and the Association of College and Research Libraries where she serves on several committees.
Jessica is interested in digital literacy, educational technology, and a host of topics including Harry Potter and Star Wars.
Job Titles:
- Associate
- Guest Lecturer / Visiting Lecturer
Joel Merriner is an Associate Lecturer at the University of Plymouth, where he teaches modules on art historical methodologies, visual culture, and the history of book illustration. His master's degree focused on the work of the Ukrainian Tolkien illustrator Sergei Iukhimov and his Ph.D. explored visual alterity within late Soviet-era Central and Eastern European illustrated translations of The Lord of the Rings. Joel is currently writing a monograph on Tolkien illustration in the Soviet Bloc. His latest research focuses on the global imaginary and the interconnected nature of Tolkien book illustration, fanart and film. When not peering intently at images, Joel can often be found hill-walking, playing D&D, listening to folk music, or annoying people with his concertina.
Job Titles:
- Guest Lecturer / Visiting Lecturer
- Writer, Editor and Researcher
Writer, editor and researcher John Garth is well known for his ongoing work on J.R.R. Tolkien's life and creativity. In 2017 he became only the fourth winner of the Tolkien Society's Outstanding Contribution Award for his ‘important and exceptional' contribution to Tolkien scholarship.
His books are published in 18 languages. His first, Tolkien and the Great War (2003), won the Mythopoeic Scholarship Award. His second and third, Tolkien at Exeter College and The Worlds of JRR Tolkien: The Places that Inspired Middle-earth (Princeton University Press, 2020) have both been finalists.
Garth is working on a major study of Tolkien's creative life as a response to the crises of his times, begun while he was a Fellow of the Black Mountain Institute, Nevada.
Larry Swain used to work in IT and libraries after receiving his B.A. in Religion-Greek and Linguistics. After 15 years, he earned an M.A. in Medieval Studies at the Medieval Institute at Western Michigan University and then a Ph.D. at the University of Illinois at Chicago. His academic work focuses on early medieval preservation and…
Liza H. Gold, MD is a Clinical Professor of Psychiatry at the Georgetown University School of Medicine. Dr. Gold has a private practice in general and forensic psychiatry in Arlington, Virginia and is an award winning author and editor. Most recently, Dr. Gold edited and contributed to Gun Violence and Mental Illness (American Psychiatric Publishing,…
Lynn earned a Ph.D. in Sociology from Brandeis University and taught for 20+ years at SUNY Plattsburgh in upstate New York. She started taking Signum courses in 2013. With a research focus on material culture of Middle-earth, Lynn has completed two graduate diplomas at Signum. She currently serves on the Board of Visitors as Elected…
Job Titles:
- Member of the Strategy Council
Peter is a lifelong Tolkien fan who has spent more than twenty years in the U.S. Navy as a Surface Warfare Officer and Nuclear Engineer. Peter is a graduate of the U.S. Navy's Nuclear Power Program and has a BS in Economics from the United States Naval Academy, a Masters in Engineering Management from Old…
Job Titles:
- Member of the Strategy Council
Sparrow graduated from Bowdoin College in 1986 with a BA in English Literature and Psychology and from Signum University in 2015 with an MA in Language and Literature. She is co-owner/builder of a straw bale cabin in the New Hampshire woods with her wife Grace; they are grateful for the technology which keeps them in touch…