Keynote speakers

James Como (Ph.D. Columbia U. 1979) is professor emeritus of rhetoric and public communication at the City University of New York, where he taught for fifty years and was recognized variously, including with the York College Alumni Association Award for Lifetime achievement and Service and the Chancellor's Prize for Outstanding Scholarship.  He has written on a variety of literary figures, from Chaucer to Mario Vargas Llosa, but is best known for his work on C. S. Lewis, about whom he has lectured widely, published five books, and appeared in four television documentaries.  He is a founding member of the New York C. S. Lewis Society (1969).  He lives in Manhattan with Alexandra, his wife of fifty-eight years and, with her, enjoys travel, their two children and their two grandchildren. His most recent books are C. S. Lewis A Very Short Introduction, Mystical Perelandra and Truly: Selected Essays and Stories.

Simon Horobin is Professor of English Language and Literature and Fellow and Tutor in English at Magdalen College, Oxford. He has written extensively on medieval linguistic and literary topics; recent books include A History of English Spelling (EUP, 2025), Bagels, Bumf, and Buses: A Day in the Life of the English Language (OUP, 2019), The English Language: A Very Short Introduction (OUP, 2018), How English Became English (OUP, 2016), and Does Spelling Matter? (OUP, 2013). He has lectured widely on C.S. Lewis and was curator of the exhibition C.S. Lewis Words and Worlds (Magdalen College, 2024) and is the author of C.S. Lewis’s Oxford (Bodleian, 2024).

Announcement: It is with great sadness that we announce the passing of Professor James Como on 24 November 2025. During the conference, we will take a special moment to pay tribute to him. Dr Jim Beitler has kindly agreed to deliver a keynote speech at our conference instead. 

Dr. Jim Beitler is Director of the Marion E. Wade Center, a major research collection of materials by and about seven British authors (C.S Lewis, J.R.R. Tolkien, Dorothy L. Sayers, George MacDonald, G.K. Chesterton, Owen Barfield and Charles Williams), and Professor of English at Wheaton College. He is the author of three books—Charitable Writing (with Richard Hughes Gibson, 2020), Seasoned Speech (2019), and Remaking Transitional Justice in the United States (2013)—and he teaches undergraduate courses on fantasy literature, C.S. Lewis and J.R.R. Tolkien, and the other Wade Center authors. He co-edited Sites of Writing: Essays in Honor of Anne Ruggles Gere (with Sarah Ruffing Robbins, 2025) and co-hosts the Wade Center Podcast. He lives in Wheaton, IL with his wife, Brita, and his two boys, James and Arne.