Wabash Tutorial Featured in Indianapolis Star

History professor Stephen Morillo

At Wabash College, Freshman Tutorials are designed to get eager minds thinking critically. Small classes of 10-15 new students study a range of topics with the idea that the Tutorial will introduce them to the way Wabash does its business—analysis of primary texts and stimulating class discussions.

Freshman Tutorials are often on subjects most people wouldn't expect, like professor Stephen Morillo's "Sword and Sorcery" Tutorial, which focuses on fantasy literature, including the timely text The Two Towers by J.R.R. Tolkien.

Last week, Morillo hosted Indianpolis Star columnist and writer Will Higgens for a session of his tutorial. Higgens' story on the class itself—and Wabash's tutorial program in general—appeared in the January 25 edition of the Star. (See link to the full article below.)

"The whole point of a liberal arts education is to turn students into critical, thoughtful, culturally aware members of society," says Morillo about the Freshman Tutorial program at Wabash.

Morillo, who is an expert on medieval history, has been quoted in recent editions of The Washington Post and The Boston Globe. The Globe article, titled "The Ring and the Cross," dealt with how Tolkien became a Christian writer.

"Will Higgens probably saw the article on Tolkien and Christianity in which I was quoted because he called me out of the blue and started asking me about the course," says Morillo. "So we arranged for him to sit in on the class."

The entire Wabash campus can enjoy a lecture on Tolkien on Thursday, January 30. Dave Bischoff, a professional science fiction and fantasy writer will talk on "J.R.R. Tolkien and Fantasy Literature" in Baxter Hall, Room 202 at 8 p.m. Given the wild success of the first two Lord of the Rings films, this lecture is sure to be a hit.

For more information see:

The Indianapolis Star's Story on Steve Morillo's Tutorial