Fresh off a recent speaking tour at Harvard University, author and professor David Townsend visited assistant professor Lorin Schwarz’s Teaching English in the Intermediate/Senior Division courses to speak with students about his book “The Ram in the Thicket".
Townsend led an interactive seminar exploring the responsibility, philosophy and ethics of teaching historical fiction in literature classes, providing students with a perspective on how art and historical research can work together to provide humane and sensitive perspectives. "Imagination is not the opposite of History," argued Townsend, suggesting that reading creative work provides a kind of depth and understanding textbooks often lack.
Discussing his novel, which imagines a meeting between Medieval mystics Margery Kempe and Julian of Norwich, Townsend shared his own journey from academic researcher to internationally-acclaimed author and offered a unique perspective on how teaching and the writing can feed one another in ways that enrich both creativity and pedagogy.