Professor Kozlowski Lectures

Professor Kozlowski attempts a new feat: talking coherently about nine different Bradbury short stories with different themes, settings, and tones.  Fortunately this includes some old favorites, like "The Veldt", "The Long Rain", and "The Fire Balloons." If you have questions or topic suggestions for Professor Kozlowski, e-mail him at profbkozlowski2@gmail.com To see what else Professor Kozlo...

Professor Kozlowski turns his attention to the second half of Bradbury's Fahrenheit 451 to discuss the value of literature, the dire consequences of Bradbury's dystopia, and the grim fatalism of the book's conclusion and message. If you have questions or topic suggestions for Professor Kozlowski, e-mail him at profbkozlowski2@gmail.com To see what else Professor Kozlowski is up to, visit his webpa...

The legacy of Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood and Assassin's Creed: Revelations is that of cash-grab sequels capitalizing on Assassin's Creed 2's success.  In this largely aimless diatribe, Professor Kozlowski re-evaluates that legacy, examining the conflicting priorities between Ubisoft's corporate agenda and the artistic aspirations of the series. If you have questions or topic suggestions fo...

Professor Kozlowski explores the characters and world of Ray Bradbury's Fahrenheit 451 as it appears in the first half of the book - and discusses at some length the fears and characteristics we share with that world today. If you have questions or topic suggestions for Professor Kozlowski, e-mail him at profbkozlowski2@gmail.com To see what else Professor Kozlowski is up to, visit his webpage: ht...

The second half of Ray Bradbury's The Martian Chronicles is messy, uneven, and occasionally changed from edition to edition.  In this lecture, Professor Kozlowski examines each of the stories in the collection individually in an attempt to appreciate the value of each one, both in isolation, and in the context of the collection. If you have questions or topic suggestions for Professor Kozlows...

Professor Kozlowski discusses the first half of Ray Bradbury's The Martian Chronicles , examining how Bradbury deconstructs the typical adventure-to-another-planet story, how he presents the dying Martian civilization as a mirror to our own, and how Bradbury navigates the complicated issues of colonization, imperialism, and human ambition. If you have questions or topic suggestions for Professor K...

Assassins' Creed II was widely hailed as a dramatic improvement over the first game, fixing many of its faults and delivering an overall better gameplay experience.  But Professor Kozlowski's take is not quite so optimistic. If you have questions or topic suggestions for Professor Kozlowski, e-mail him at profbkozlowski2@gmail.com To see what else Professor Kozlowski is up to, visit his webpa...

Professor Kozlowski introduces his Fall 2022 reading project: working through the books of Ray Bradbury!  But why this writer, these books, this genre?  Bradbury is largely overlooked by academic criticism and scholarship, and his reputation is a mixed one.  But you will rarely find a writer more passionate and enthusiastic. If you have questions or topic suggestions for Professor K...

Relationship status: It's Complicated. If you have questions or topic suggestions for Professor Kozlowski, e-mail him at profbkozlowski2@gmail.com To see what else Professor Kozlowski is up to, visit his webpage: https://professorkozlowski.wordpress.com/

Professor Kozlowski examines the reception of Homer through the Middle Ages: in the Byzantine Empire, in the Islamicate World, and in Medieval Europe.  Along the way he'll discuss Christianity's difficult relationship with pagan philosophy and literature, Eurocentrism, badass Muslim achievements like rhyming poetry, and tricks for establishing your noble heritage for fun and profit.  Com...

Professor Kozlowski reluctantly addresses the epic poem regarded by the Medievals and Renaissance writers as the greatest ever written - Virgil's Aeneid .  Does Virgil deserve this legacy, or is the poem merely a work of Roman self-justifying propaganda? CW: Discussions of suicide, relationship abuse, misogyny, and fascist Roman bullsh*t If you have questions or topic suggestions for Professo...

Professor Kozlowski examines the complicated relationship between Rome and Homer, from Rome's origins as a melting pot of cultures defined and informed by Homeric epic, to insatiable need to distance itself from Greek culture, to the transforming ascendancy of Christianity in Rome's last days. If you have questions or topic suggestions for Professor Kozlowski, e-mail him at profbkozlowski2@gmail.c...

Enough of this history nonsense.  Professor Kozlowski returns to form with a deep-dive examination of Euripides' The Trojan Women, looking especially at the way Euripides uses (and abuses) Homeric form, theme, and content to make a compelling political argument preventing the greatest political and military catastrophe in the history of Athens.  Spoiler alert: it doesn't work. CW: Discus...

Professor Kozlowski finally reaches the Classical Age of Greece, lightly sketching the role of Homer's epics in the development of Greek culture, including the self-identity of city-states like Athens and Sparta, the literary indebtedness of the Tragedy to the Epic, the reactions of Greek philosophers to Homeric teaching, and the development of myth into history. If you have questions or topic sug...

Professor Kozlowski contextualizes the writings of Homer according to the archaeological and historical evidence of the Greek culture from its earliest origins in the Cycladic, Minoan, and Mycenaean cultures, through the Bronze Age Collapse and subsequent Dark Age, to the very beginning of the Classical era.  Along the way we'll examine what Homer got right about the Bronze Age, what he impor...

Professor Kozlowski lightly examines the archaeological excavations in Hisarlik, considered by the academic community to be the most likely site of Ancient Troy, in order to discuss how much of Homer's Iliad is based in reality, and how much of it is purely myth. CORRECTION: The Mask of Agamemnon was found at Schliemann's excavation of MYCENAE - NOT HISARLIK If you have questions or topic suggesti...

Professor Kozlowski continues his examination of the Odyssey as Odysseus' crew (and the gods) betray him into destroying his ship, as he finally reaches his homeland of Ithaca, and as he tests (and is tested by) his wife, Penelope. If you have questions or topic suggestions for Professor Kozlowski, e-mail him at profbkozlowski2@gmail.com To see what else Professor Kozlowski is up to, visit his web...

Professor Kozlowski follows the narrated adventures of Odysseus through the first three books of his four-book narration.  Highlights include cannibal cyclopes, bad crew behavior, drugs, good and bad hosts, good and bad guests, more drugs, dead people, spousal murder, and yet more drugs. If you have questions or topic suggestions for Professor Kozlowski, e-mail him at profbkozlowski2@gmail.co...

Professor Kozlowski embarks on a grand (if heavily abridged) journey through the Odyssey.  Now including exclusive footage of Helen of Troy restored to Sparta and acting especially...strangely. If you have questions or topic suggestions for Professor Kozlowski, e-mail him at profbkozlowski2@gmail.com To see what else Professor Kozlowski is up to, visit his webpage: https://professorkozlowski....

Professor Kozlowski concludes his discussion of the Iliad with some aimless ruminating, a recap of the Patroclus Memorial Olympics, some more shade on Achilles, and the restoration of Hector's body to his family.  Next week - Odyssey! If you have questions or topic suggestions for Professor Kozlowski, e-mail him at profbkozlowski2@gmail.com To see what else Professor Kozlowski is up to, visit...

Professor Kozlowski follows the genocidal Achilles as he cuts his way through the entire Trojan army, at least one god, and his own personal shortcomings...or not. If you have questions or topic suggestions for Professor Kozlowski, e-mail him at profbkozlowski2@gmail.com To see what else Professor Kozlowski is up to, visit his webpage: https://professorkozlowski.wordpress.com/

Professor Kozlowski explores one of the most thematically-rich portions of the Iliad, examining the hubris of Hector, the transformation of Achilles' rage, and the famous (and ambiguous) Shield of Achilles. If you have questions or topic suggestions for Professor Kozlowski, e-mail him at profbkozlowski2@gmail.com To see what else Professor Kozlowski is up to, visit his webpage: https://professorko...

Professor Kozlowski finally gets back to Achilles and Patroclus as Patroclus marches off to war in Achilles' armor.  What could possibly go wrong? If you have questions or topic suggestions for Professor Kozlowski, e-mail him at profbkozlowski2@gmail.com To see what else Professor Kozlowski is up to, visit his webpage: https://professorkozlowski.wordpress.com/

Professor Kozlowski continues his slog through the battle scenes of the Iliad - with a rapid-fire breakdown of twice the usual number of chapters (so he can discuss the research paper with his students in class proper).  Highlights include Diomedes and Odysseus committing tag-team murder, every Greek hero getting wounded, Sarpedon waxing poetic about Greek social structures, and Hera seducing...

Professor Kozlowski slogs through the most boring part of the Iliad, and argues that the boring-ness is intentional and deliberate.  Still no less boring though.  OR IS IT? If you have questions or topic suggestions for Professor Kozlowski, e-mail him at profbkozlowski2@gmail.com To see what else Professor Kozlowski is up to, visit his webpage: https://professorkozlowski.wordpress.com/