Lectures
Literature
“A Possibly Unpalatable Truth: A.J. Scott and the Inception of English Literature as a Discipline.” – McGill University, Montreal.
“Branches on the Tree of Tales: Understanding Mythopoesis” – Plenary, Tolkien Conference. Here and Back Again: Tolkien on Fairy Stories (with Trevor Hart, David L. Jeffrey, Loren Wilkinson, & Colin Duriez) University of St. Andrews, Scotland.
“Childlikeness: MacDonald’s Audacious Challenge to the Academic,” – Invited Lecture, C.S. Lewis Symposium, University of IaÅŸi, Romania. 2018.
“Cultivating Apprehension: Beauty in Children’s Literature.” Keynote, St. Timothy’s Classical School Gala, Ottawa. 2014.
“George MacDonald & the World of Faerie” – Templeton Honors College at Eastern University, St. Davids, Pennsylvania
“Hobbited: A Mythopoeic Journey.” – Geneva Lecture, Queen’s University, Kingston, Canada.
“If You don’t know George, You don’t Know Jack.” – C.S. Lewis Society of Oxford University, England.
“Images of MacDonald.” – a slide-show and talk with images from MacDonald’s world, and illustrators of MacDonald’s work, St. Andrews and Aberdeen, Scotland. Also Regent College, Vancouver.
“Literary Legacies, Contextual Art: Phantastes’s Key of Cultural Challenge and Arthurian Reform.” Verge Conference “Arts & the Inklings,” – Trinity Western University, British Colombia. 2016.
“Locating the Numinous: the centrality of Liminal Landscape in the writings of George MacDonald,” C.S. Lewis Symposium, University of Iasi, Romania (November 2020; Covid-postponed)
“MacDonald the Maurician Medievalist.” Keynote Lecture, MacDonald Conference “MacDonald & the Cambridge Apostles,” – Cambridge University, England. 2016.
“Mythopoesis & the Inklings” — Guest Lecturer in Literature of the Imagination, Stony Brook School, Long Island, New York.
“Necessarily Storied: Lord of the Rings & the Shema.” – University of Ottawa, Ottawa, Canada.
“‘Out of the Shadows of Legend’: The Shema & J.R.R. Tolkien.” – Queen’s University, Kingston, Canada.
“Relationality of Reading: MacDonald, Scott, & Maurice.” Linlathen Lecture, How Shall We Then Read? Beckwith, Ontario.
“Rooted Deep: Relational Inkings of A Mythopoeic Maker.” Keynote Lecture, MacDonald Conference “MacDonald & the Victorian Roots of Modern Fantasy,” – Oxford University, England.
“Speaking Matrilineally: MacDonald’s Celtic Heritage.” – MacDonald Conference “George MacDonald Among His Contemporaries,” University of St Andrews, Scotland.
Theology
“Comfort Ye: George MacDonald on Joy & Sorrow.” – Guest Lecturer, Regent College, Vancouver, Canada.
“Concluding with a Beginning: the Storied Grace of Ruth.” – Lenten Talks, Herefordshire.
“Emmaus & Shema.” — Holy Trinity, IaÅŸi, Romania
“‘For Men and Women’: the Nineteenth Century Christian Feminism of George MacDonald,” keynote. C.S. Lewis and the Inklings Colloquium, Taylor University. (June 2020; Covid-postponed)
“George MacDonald & the Divine Imagination.” – Stony Brook School Lecture, Long Island, New York.
“Lewis, Tolkien, and the Storied Gospel.” — Plenary Lecture, C.S. Lewis Symposium, Bucharest Baptist Theological Seminary, Romania.
“MacDonald’s Intertextual Hermeneutic.” – Academic symposium of MacDonald scholars in Aberdeen and St Andrews, Scotland.
“MacDonald’s Response to Biblical and Literary Criticism in Curdie.” – MacDonald Centenary Conference, Baylor University, Texas.
“MacDonald’s Use of Isaiah.” – Centenary Symposium, George MacDonald Society, London.
“‘Out of the Shadows of Legend’: Tolkien, Hobbits, & the Gospel.”– Grace Church of the Roaring Fork Valley, Basalt, Colorado.
“Publish or Parish? Turning Academia Upside Down” – Plenary, Postgraduate Conference Transforming the Mind: Turning the World Upside Down (with Alan Storkey and Bob White), Derbyshire, England.
“Sacred Story: The Mythopoesis of George MacDonald.” – Plenary, for Regent College’s Centenary George MacDonald Conference (with Kerry Dearborn), Vancouver, Canada.
“Shema In the Act: Moab to Emmaus.” — Franktown, Ontario.
“The Influence of a Biblical Hermeneutic on MacDonald’s Curdie.” – for Institute of Theology, Imagination and the Arts, University of St. Andrew’s, Scotland.
Ecology
“Living with Physical Disabilities.” – St Leonard’s School, St Andrews, Scotland.
“The Company We Keep: Do You know Your Native Land?” — A Rocha, Hamilton, Ontario; also A Rocha, Ottawa, Ontario.
“The Heartbeat of Earth - A Theological Knowing of Land” (Host & Facilitator)
The Arts
“Storied Communion: The Novel Educational Methods of Robert Coles, and their Implications.” – ‘Image Journal’ Conference – A Narratable World: The Theological Implications of Story, Seattle Pacific University.
“Upside Down & Inside Out: Questioning the Pursuit of Academic Excellence.” — University of Ottawa