About every four years, the director of the University Honors Program teaches a seminar on the works of J.R.R. Tolkien. In the Spring of 2008, he decided to combine this material with the works of J.K. Rowling. What became of this was an in-depth exploration of the mythical elements of the Lord of the Rings and Harry Potter series.

This course met every Tuesday evening at Dr. Lanier's home. At the beginning of class, the group in charge of presenting for the night would provide a meal for DL and the other students, Dr. Lanier would give a short lecture on the components of fantasy literature, and then the group would present on the book of the week.

For each meal, menus were provided. Here are a few examples:

Some fond memories...

Students were also granted the opportunity to give a presentation downtown for Dr. Patrick Moore's "SPLASH" series. Presentations were to contain information learned from or inspired by Dr. Lanier's LOTR/HP Seminar. Christine Thomas spoke about the similarities and disparities between the mythical aspects of both Tolkien's and Rowling's books, while Dr. Lanier gave a lecture on Campbell's adventure cycle.