The Signum Scene

Now Corey Olsen delivers the 2025 State of the University Address, to discuss the exciting future of Signum University!

This episode contains my conversation with Stacy Aannestad about her novel: Flight: the Den-Aronel Chronicles in the Signum University Collaboratory. I also report on two new works that have entered the fiction sector since the last episode.

This recording from September 1, 2025.

Signum University presents Thesis Theater with Bronwyn Rivera on Monday, September 1, 2025 at 11 am ET.

From psychology to film theory, ecocriticism to posthumanism, anime studies have flourished as scholars investigate the medium through a variety of interdisciplinary lenses. In particular, academics are examining relationships between pilgrimage and tourism to anime/anime-adjacent sites, how anime plotlines reflect or reject narrative archetypes, or how specific anime subgenres lend themselves to telling stories of recovery and change. However, texts related to the study of pilgrimage within anime are limited in scope. As such, pilgrimage structures are typically paired with anime-related tourism rather than investigating how anime reflects the motives, processes, and outcomes of pilgrimage. Using Kyoto Animation’s 2018 series Violet Evergarden (ヴァイオレット・エヴァーガーデン) as a case study, this thesis aims to bridge the gap and demonstrate how an anime can function as a pilgrimage narrative. Based on Laing and Frost’s three-stage model, the thesis is divided into three main categories: Departure, Transformation, and Return. Within these categories are smaller sections that examine the literal, emotional, and spiritual facets of pilgrimage found throughout Violet Evergarden. Additionally, this thesis provides insight into components of Japanese culture and literary devices, specifically ningyō (“doll”) culture and iyashikei (lit. “healing type”), both of which contribute to a deeper understanding of who Violet is as a protagonist and the journey she takes from ex-child soldier to Auto Memories Doll.

About the Presenter:

Bronwyn Rivera lives with her family, a cat, a dog, and a host of livestock on their small homestead in Pennsylvania. She received her BSc in Liberal Studies with a concentration in Library Science, but chose to pursue her love for writing and literature at the Master’s level through Signum University. Along the way, she discovered a passion for East Asian languages, media, and popular culture, which ultimately influenced her thesis topic. Bronwyn works as a Research/Teaching Assistant, volunteers as Signum’s Library Research Student Aide, and enjoys multiple hobbies, including reading, baking, and getting lost in (J)RPGs.

About Signum Thesis Theaters:

Each of our master’s students writes a thesis at the end of their degree program, exploring a topic of their choice. The Thesis Theater is their opportunity to present their research to a general audience, and answer questions. All are welcome to attend!

This recording from August 6, 2025

Signum University presents Thesis Theater with Sarah Shahan Polo on Wednesday, August 6, 2025 at 1pm ET.

This thesis explores the complex relationship between J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings and the literary and cultural movements of modernism and postmodern counterculture. Though Tolkien personally distanced himself from modernist and postmodern ideologies, his work nevertheless reflects and resonates with themes central to both movements. By analyzing scholarly perspectives and cultural responses, this study argues that The Lord of the Rings bridges ancient literary traditions with modern sensibilities—addressing war trauma, the nature of evil, identity, environmentalism, and evolving concepts of heroism. Special attention is given to the novel’s adoption by the American counterculture of the 1960s and 70s, which found in Tolkien’s world a mythic yet morally complex narrative emblematic of their own anti-war, environmentalist, and anti-establishment values. While Tolkien intended to write a myth that might nourish the soil and roots of England, his work’s reception by modern and postmodern audiences reveals its enduring relevance. Ultimately, The Lord of the Rings transcends its time to become not merely a myth for England, but a myth for mankind.

About the Presenter:

Sarah Polo has a deep fascination with the humanities, from fine art to dance to literature. She enjoys nitpicking at language, studying history, reading everything, and writing, which ultimately prompted her to pursue an education in English, finding particular solace in mythology and medievalism. She holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in English with an emphasis in teaching and linguistics, Master of Arts degree in English Language and Literature, and a minor degree in Old Testament Biblical Studies from Azusa Pacific University. In 2020, she joined Signum University to expand her knowledge of language and literature particularly in Tolkien Studies. She also has articles published in journals including Mallorn, The Cambridge Tolkien Society Journal, and The West Wind, as well as a children’s book called The Purple Ballet Tree. Additionally, she has been an educator for ten years, both as a ballet instructor and English teacher. She is an adjunct professor at Azusa Pacific University and owns a literature and language school called Page Turners Academy for young students. Working with students brings her great joy, and she hopes to cultivate a deep love for stories and language in them as they grow. She is married with one child, loves to cook, paint, garden, and cannot wait to read The Hobbit to her daughter one day.

About Signum Thesis Theaters:

Each of our master’s students writes a thesis at the end of their degree program, exploring a topic of their choice. The Thesis Theater is their opportunity to present their research to a general audience, and answer questions. All are welcome to attend!

This recording from August 13, 2025.

Signum University presents Thesis Theater with Grace Bennett on Wednesday, August 13, 2025 at 3pm ET.

This thesis challenges the reductionistic narrative that C.S. Lewis and J.R.R. Tolkien were anti-technology and anti-science. It examines technological examples from the works of Lewis and Tolkien that show their varying degrees of comfort and caution surrounding different types of technology. The first category this thesis assesses is technology created for knowledge, which Lewis and Tolkien saw as inherently neutral and able to be used for good or evil. The second category, technology for travel between worlds, highlights Lewis’s fears about lasting negative consequences of space travel, and the third category examines inherently evil technology created for control and domination.

About the Presenter:

Grace Bennett has been working towards an MA in Language and Literature from Signum University with a concentration in Medieval and Renaissance Literature. She is originally from North Carolina and got her bachelor’s degree in Literature from Patrick Henry College, located in Virginia. She currently lives in St Andrews, Scotland with her husband while he pursues a master’s degree at the University of St Andrews. Grace works for the Classic Learning Test and spends much of her free time (now that her thesis is finished!) reading, baking, and exploring the magical Scottish seaside. She is head-over-heels for anything to do with Lewis, Tolkien, Middle English, tea, Doctor Who, and puffins. She hopes to pursue further Lewis and Tolkien studies in the future!

About Signum Thesis Theaters:

Each of our master’s students writes a thesis at the end of their degree program, exploring a topic of their choice. The Thesis Theater is their opportunity to present their research to a general audience, and answer questions. All are welcome to attend!