What can we learn about our own teaching practices and identities from fictional depictions of higher education? Join us in “Fictional Classrooms” as we explore and reflect on narratives of education in films and novels, whether they speak to us as learners, educators, researchers, artists, or simply as humans. For Summer 2024, we will focus our attention on one novel: Babel (2022) by R.F. Kuang. We will meet monthly via Zoom in May, June, July, and August. While this offering may appeal most to those who teach in humanities disciplines (and facilitators Matthew Dunleavy and Robin Sutherland-Harris both come from humanities backgrounds), all York educators and staff are welcome and encouraged to register. We are approaching the Fictional Classrooms program with a "read-what-you-can" mentality. We understand that we can get busy and may not finish readings each month, but we hope most will be able to attend each session regardless of how much they have been able to engage with the text so we can still have fruitful conversations and build community. Synchronous, virtual meetings will be held on Zoom on the following days: May 28th, 2024, 1:00-2:00 p.m. ET – Book I (p. 1-90) June 25th, 2024, 1:00-2:00 p.m. ET – Book II (p. 91-219 July 23rd, 2024, 1:00-2:00 p.m. ET – Book III (p. 221-323) August 27th, 2024, 1:00-2:00 p.m. ET – Book IV-V (p.325-542)