Afternoons of Saturday, July 26; Monday, July 28; and Tuesday, July 29
*It will replace the choice of afternoon seminar session for the roundtable participants.
NOTE: Faculty whose paper proposals are accepted will be expected to attend the entirety of the Summer Institute and participate in all scheduled sessions of the Academic Roundtable. *We do have an exception to this policy for local scholars who can only attend the Roundtable.
The morning program, each weekday, opens with a brief service of worship, followed by two plenary lectures, each offered by distinguished scholars, and accompanied by a mid-morning coffee break and an artistic “whimsy,” featuring various guest artists. Three afternoons will feature a variety of small-group seminars and workshop electives on a variety of subjects, ranging from Lewis and the Inklings, to social and intellectual history, theology, apologetics, creative writing, film-making, science, politics, and business, in addition to an Academic Roundtable for faculty and scholars.
Every evening offers an feast of the arts, running the gamut from a hymn-sing at C.S. Lewis’s grandfather’s church, a céilí, a choir concert, another by a singer-songwriter, to our after-hours “Bag End Café,” an open microphone gathering for our registrants.
Returning Home: C.S. Lewis, Roots, and Transformation
Individually and societally, we are defined by the stories we tell ourselves—about our identities, the events and struggles of our lives, and the social structures that guide, shape, and ease those lives. C.S. Lewis, J.R.R. Tolkien, and the Inklings understood the power and need for storytelling—to communicate ideas, to stimulate the imagination, and to imitate the creative act of God. We tell stories because it is in our nature.
One of the most central, archetypal stories that we tell is the story of the Journey. In it, a protagonist ventures out into the unknown, faces hardships and growth, finds companions along the way, and returns with a boon to society. The questions posed by Journey narratives are are many and diverse: What is the “Good Life”? How do we deal with pain and suffering? How does someone grow in wisdom and strength? What does good friendship look like? What is our purpose? Which version(s) of our stories are real, true, meaningful? The 2025 C.S. Lewis Summer Institute will address these questions while examining the concept of the Journey as a whole as well as its constitutive elements.
Our contemporary world is full of competing versions about what the Journey of life should look like. Media, science, industry, faith, and politics all offer their own narratives. Groups form around stories and thrive by retelling those stories. Religions and philosophies give meaning and purpose by shaping their adherents’ individual life experiences into a powerful form of story – the testimony. Modern technologies accelerate the sharing of stories and counter-stories to dizzying speeds. With the dawn of AI comes the new possibility of stories generated without direct human composition.
The CSL Summer Institute Academic Roundtable will explore these and related topics. Scholars from all disciplines are invited to submit papers that will explore the idea of the Journey as an active and potent narrative in which we can find shared meaning, purpose, and unity in an increasingly fractured world.
1 Some scholarship funding is available to participants of the Academic Roundtable. Please visit our Registration Page for more information on how to apply for a scholarship.
2 We will have Regional Rates for residents of the Republic of Ireland, Northern Ireland, and the U.K. There will be a special Regional Full Conference Rate as well as an Academic Roundtable Only Rate for regional residents.
Deadline for Proposal Submission: February 15, 2025
Paper presentations must not exceed 20 minutes.
Please submit by email, as attached Microsoft Word documents or PDFs the following: [a] a 300 word abstract that clearly describes the paper’s relationship to the Summer Institute theme, and [b] a 2-page CV, including complete contact information. Acknowledgement will be made by email.
Chris Howell, Ph.D.
Academic Director, C.S. Lewis Foundation
chowell@cslewis.org
The C.S. Lewis Foundation is a 501(c)(3) non-profit charitable organization supported primarily through the generosity of individual donors.
The CSLF is not affiliated with the C.S. Lewis estate and does not own or receive support from the licensing of C.S. Lewis’s works.
