Dean's Update - June 15, 2026
Dear Colleagues:
Who doesn’t like a good campus novel? I’m an especially easy target for dark academia. Add in a little Dante and a dab of Plato, and I’ll get in line early for whatever is being sold.
In this case, it’s fantasy writer R.F. Kuang’s sixth novel, Katabasis. Her story of academic misadventure takes its title from a Greek word meaning “going down,” a “descent,” a plunge. Think of an epic hero’s perilous descent into Hades, whether Odysseus, Aeneas, or Dante. The verb form of katabasis famously appears as the first word of Plato’s Republic, in which Socrates says, “I went down”—this too, on Eva Brann’s reading, is a plunge into Hades. In Kuang’s book, Cambridge Ph.D. students Alice and Peter, scholars of “analytic magick,” also descend into hell.
Their advisor, Professor Grimes, is an arrogant tyrant. He’s also a top scholar, a golden ticket for grad students who survive him. When an experiment goes awry, Grimes literally explodes, sending his spirit to the underworld. If you’re dissertating, losing your professor is a crisis. So Alice and Peter work some nifty magick and descend to hell to bring Grimes back from the dead.
To hell and back stories often involve loved ones worthy of the descent. Not here. Dark intimations swirl. Serial harasser, predator, sexual offender? Or merely difficult mentor, harsh taskmaster, self-absorbed genius? Grimes’ character is indeterminate for much of the book. What’s clear is that he’s damaged Alice and Peter. Their ivory tower is tarnished.
Kuang riffs on cruelties of graduate education that, given Baylor’s Christian mission, I forget are common elsewhere. In my doctoral student days at Vanderbilt, I in fact saw arrogance and self-doubt, envy and rivalry, pretention and false humility, and morally dubious relationships. Yet along the way, I was apprenticed to luminaries who taught and mentored me, and who gave me entry into the high reaches of an academic guild such as only elite gatekeepers can offer. Some of Kuang’s story is my story—minus the magick, victimization, and despair.
Katabasis delightfully abounds in allusions to underworldly stories. The imaginative worlds of Homer, Plato, Virgil, Ovid, Dante, T.S. Eliot—and Chinese and Norse mythology—appear in a riotous amalgamation. Kuang pulls perennial conundrums into Alice and Peter’s adventure. Zeno’s paradoxes, Theseus’ ship, the Liar’s Paradox, Aristotle’s logic, Gödel’s theorems, Wittgenstein on language—they debate and deploy them in their magickal spells. For all that, the book is spoiled by dubious literary criticism, amateurish philosophy, misinterpretations, and misattributions. Freewheeling imagination is great, but better with richly textured knowledge.
Still, Alice and Peter’s quest yields self-knowledge and self-disclosure. They are ultimately sympathetic characters. You want to know them and for them be okay.
I’m glad I read the book, survived hell, and made it back. Even more, I’m grateful to serve a university whose Christian mission and community enable us to do more and better things for students who deserve not a “going down,” but a lifting up to behold the wonders of the Lord.
On that note, take stock below of news in the life of the Honors College:
- A year ago, we began recruiting students for our new Bachelor of Philosophy (BPhil) degree. With Great Texts the sole major available in year 1, we received 87 applications and anticipate hitting our target of 10 high-ability BPhil students this fall. We enter year 2 with an interdisciplinary major in Ethics now available. Jointly offered by the HC and the College of Arts & Sciences, it explores “questions of justice, responsibility and the common good while considering how moral reasoning informs every area of human endeavor.” Thanks to colleagues across departments – and especially to Paul Martens, associate professor of ethics and associate dean in A&S, Scott Moore, associate professor of philosophy and associate dean in the HC, and Wes Null, professor of curriculum in the school of education and HC, and (former) vice provost for undergraduate education – for the vision and collaboration making this major possible.
- Congratulations to Sarah Walden, associate professor of rhetorical theory and criticism, on appointment as the fifth director of the Baylor Interdisciplinary Core (BIC). As I noted in connection with her previous post as director of the University Scholars program, Sarah unites a spirit of inquiry, palpable enthusiasm for learning, and tireless advocacy for students. An alumna and faculty member of the BIC, she’ll now utilize her longstanding experience with the BIC to help us toward new heights in years to come. Thank you, Sarah!
- We are searching for a new director of the University Scholars program. A key leader of the HC, the UNSC director sets a vision for and shapes the character of an academic major pursued by some of Baylor’s most capable and aspiring undergraduates. Nominations and applications for this administrative appointment are welcome. The role is open to regular, full-time faculty at Baylor who hold a promoted rank (at least associate professor, senior lecturer, or associate clinical professor). Position details and an application link are available here. Applications will be received through July 15.
- Welcome to Kasey Ashenfelter, newly named director of development for the HC. Kasey holds two Baylor degrees: a BA in English (’08) as a BIC student, and an MSW (’11). He also completed numerous courses toward an MDiv. With 15 years of experience behind him – including stints as communications director for the Baylor Collaborative on Hunger & Poverty and as senior director of corporate & foundation relations in University Advancement – Kasey is a great advocate for the HC and will help sustain our fund-raising successes.
- Welcome also to Alexis Gutierrez, who graduated in May with her BA in English and joins us as admissions coordinator. A campus tour guide for Undergraduate Admissions over the last two years, Alexis routinely showcased Baylor for prospective students and families and brought knowledge of the university and cheerful hospitality to bear on guests’ 90-minute exploration of our campus. Alexis is well positioned to represent the HC in exemplary fashion and support our efforts to land students of real academic promise at Baylor.
All the best,
Douglas V. Henry, Ph.D. | Dean
Honors College | Baylor University
baylor.edu/honorscollege | 254.710.7689