University of St. Thomas-Houston is proud to announce that Dr. Dominic Aquila has been awarded the prized Inklings Project Fellowship and will launch a new course on the Inklings at UST. The Inklings were an informal literary discussion group that included more than a dozen future literary giants such as J.R.R. Tolkien (“Lord of the Rings”) and C.S. Lewis (“The Chronicles of Narnia”) at the University of Oxford in the 1930s and 40s. The Inklings Project began more than a decade ago. It operates under the University of Notre Dame’s McGrath Institute to support higher education faculty in teaching highly creative and innovative Inklings courses.
Dr. Aquila Creates a New UST Course
In service of the fellowship, Dr. Aquila, professor of History, director of the Allbritton Art Institute, and associate division dean of Liberal Studies, Fine & Performing Arts, developed a new UST course called “The Inklings: Fellowship and Literary Creation.” The course will be offered to undergraduate and MLA students in the spring of 2025 and will explore the Inklings' works and intellectual legacy, with a particular focus on how their friendship and fellowship influenced their writings.
Professor Aquila said, “As a scholar with a background in the humanities and the arts, I am eager to teach this course and share in common with students my passion for the Inklings.”
The new course will take an interdisciplinary approach, bridging literature, history, philosophy, and theology. Group projects and peer review sessions will mirror the collaborative creativity of the Inklings themselves. In addition, the class will honor UST’s Catholic intellectual tradition by examining themes of faith, reason, and human creativity in the Inklings’ works.
Seeing Through the Lens of the Inklings
Dr. Aquila explained, “The Inklings' stories invite us to enter imaginatively into other worlds in order to see our own more clearly. By encountering the struggles of hobbits or children in Narnia, we gain new perspective on the challenges and meaning of our own lives. Their tales of good versus evil, sacrifice, and redemption provide a lens through which to view the moral complexities around us. In presenting richly imagined secondary worlds, Tolkien, Lewis and the other Inklings ultimately help us to see our world with fresh eyes and deeper insight.”
Aquila Now Part of this Rich Community of Scholars
Dr. Aquila is a Core Fellow at UST and founding dean of the School of Arts and Sciences. He served as provost, vice president for Academic Affairs, and dean of Graduate Studies from 2008 to 2017. Now joining the 2024-25 cohort of 13 Inklings Project Fellows from around the world, this leader and scholar is set to contribute to a vibrant academic community and inspire a new generation of students to explore the profound Inklings impact on literature and culture.