When: Friday, April 21st at 5pm

Where: University of Pennsylvania

Join Collegium Institute and undergraduates across Philadelphia for this final session of Enchantment and Disenchantment in the Modern Era. For our closing seminar, we will examine Poetry as Enchantment, under the esteemed direction of poets Prof. James M. Wilson and Chaplain Chaz Howard. Through a poetry reading and discussion of literary criticisms, Dr. Wilson and Dr. Howard will guide us in an exploration of poetry, religion, and philosophy.

Please direct questions and RSVPs for this dinner to Elizabeth Feeney at elife@sas.upenn.edu.

Information about past sessions in this Paideia series may be found here.

As poets and scholars, this month’s guest speakers explore ideas of inspiration through the medium of poetry. Dr. James Wilson (Villanova) blends his poetic work with his scholarship in religion, literature, and philosophy, while Dr. Chaz Howard (UPenn) enlists his various chaplaincy experiences from hospitals to universities to examine the human experience.

Professor James M. Wilson

James Matthew Wilson is Associate Professor of Religion and Literature in the Department of Humanities and Augustinian Traditions at Villanova University. An award-winning scholar of philosophical-theology and literature, he has authored dozens of essays, articles, and reviews on subjects ranging from art, ethics, and politics, to meter and poetic form, from the importance of local culture to the nature of truth, goodness, and beauty. Wilson is also a poet and critic of contemporary poetry, whose work appears regularly in such magazines and journals The New Criterion, Dappled Things, Measure, The Weekly Standard, Front Porch Republic, The Raintown Review, and The American Conservative, as well as in his six published books of poetry and scholarship.

Chaplain Chaz Howard

Dr. Chaz Howard is the University Chaplain at the University of Pennsylvania. Prior to his service at Penn, he served as a chaplain in hospice and hospital and as a street outreach worker to individuals experiencing homelessness in Philadelphia. His writing has been featured in such publications as Black Arts Quarterly, Black Theology: An International Journal, Daily Good, Christianity Today’s Leadership Journal, and Slate. He is the editor of The Souls of Poor Folk, which explored new ways of considering homelessness and poverty and The Awe and The Awful, a poetry collection, among others. He shares life with his beloved wife, Dr. Lia C. Howard and their three daughters. He sees his vocational calling to be to work for a communal increase in joy, peace, justice and love.