Pilar has the widest, sparkling smile! Her shoulder length hair sweeps a beautiful patterned sweater and she is standing in front of an incredible blue bay! Pilar is a native Columbian woman with just the tiniest dignified touch of grey in her shoulder length dark hair. That laughter in her eyes, though! I'll bet her sweet little dog is at her feet as the photo is taken.

Pilar Barerra

Pilar loves languages and literature. She is interested in fairy tales, especially Andersen’s, Wilde’s, and Japanese traditional tales. She also enjoys Japanese children’s literature, Old English elegies, and Shakespeare. Pilar has a Certificate of Higher Education in English literature from … Read More

Carl Edlund Anderson has a full beard and sparkly blue eyes and European ancestry. He is outdoors, probably plotting the next treasure hunt or LARP for his child!

Carl Edlund Anderson, PhD

Carl Edlund Anderson holds an A.B. in Folklore & Mythology from Harvard College and a Ph.D. from the Faculty of English (Department of Anglo-Saxon, Norse, & Celtic) at the University of Cambridge, with studies focused on Medieval and Pre-Medieval Scandinavia, … Read More

Paul Peterson invites us to join him on a walk through an evergreen woods. He's dressed for professoring in jacket and button down with trim blond beard and hair, but he's leading us away from the comforts of civilization into the mysteries of the languages of the past!

Paul Peterson, PhD

Paul Peterson, a proud native of Minnesota, holds a Ph.D. in Germanic Medieval Studies from the University of Minnesota, where he studied Germanic philology and learned to read every Old Germanic language. He also holds an M.A. in Medieval Icelandic … Read More

Nelson Goering is probably hiking as this photo is being shot. He's got an excited, clear-eyed expression, he's wearing a warm hat and a blue parka, and we see scrub and rocks on a slope behind him. He looks like he's having the best time ever!

Nelson Goering, PhD

Dr. Nelson Goering hails from the Ocooch Mountains in Wisconsin, and holds a DPhil in Comparative Philology and General Linguistics from the University of Oxford. His research interests centre on the linguistics of the older Germanic and Indo-European languages, and … Read More

Shawn Gaffney, a scholar with salt-and-pepper hair and long beard sits outdoors wearing horn-rimmed glasses, a puffy dark jacket, and a faraway gaze.

Shawn Gaffney

Shawn Gaffney holds Masters degrees in Linguistics (Boston College) and in Egyptology (New York University) and in Language and Literature (Signum University). With considerable coursework in these three areas of academia, Shawn has explored many topics specific to the ancient … Read More

Galen looks happier than a clam in mud at high tide, though he is in fact hiking near a carven rock with a backpace.

Galen Miller-Atkins

Galen Miller-Atkins is an archaeologist and philologist based in Washington State. He has received an MA in Anthropology from Washington State University. He also completed a Graduate Diploma in Germanic Philology from Signum University where he translated Völsungs rímur. He is … Read More

Dr. Larry Swain has clearly got Hobbit ancestry. His round cheeks, curly dark grey hair, and wire rimmed spectacles speak of jovial nights sitting up with philosophy flowing.

Larry Swain, PhD

Larry Swain used to work in IT and libraries after receiving his B.A. in Religion-Greek and Linguistics. After 15 years, he earned an M.A. in Medieval Studies at the Medieval Institute at Western Michigan University and then a Ph.D. at … Read More

Gabriel Schenk's endearing asymmetrical smile belies the razor sharp mind behind the man raised in the airs of Oxford.

Gabriel Schenk, DPhil

Gabriel teaches literature at Signum University, specializing in cultural histories, Arthuriana, and the works of the Inklings. Gabriel completed his D.Phil. at Pembroke College, Oxford, in 2014. His thesis analyses depictions of King Arthur, focusing on a period spanning the mid-nineteenth … Read More

Patrick Lyon cuts a very dapper Hobbitty vibe in patterned waistcoat, green and blue kilt pleated to sett, kilt belt and brown leather sporran. His brown beard and horn rimmed glasses furthers the impression, perhaps as the head of school in Hobbiton or the first Hobbit professor of poetry at the University of Minas Tirith. He's surrounded by a lovely lush garden and wooden fences, and he's got a very kind smile.

Patrick Lyon

Patrick Lyon is a graduate of the Program of Liberal Studies at the University of Notre Dame and earned a Master’s in Language and Literature from Signum University. Patrick is a high school teacher who currently teaches Latin in addition … Read More

a pile of books in front of a red fabric background

Brad Patty

Meet Brad in his Signum Scene interview, Summer ’25. Works in the Collaboratory:

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