Honors Collegium 87W – The Art of Neil Gaiman

Honors Collegium 87W

The Art of Neil Gaiman

Enrollment: Open to College Honors/College Scholars

Enforced Requisite: English Composition 3

Requirements fulfilled: This class satisfies the undergraduate Writing II requirement.

Course Description: Seminar, four hours. Examination of eclectic art of Neil Gaiman, exploring his contributions to children’s and young adult literature, novels, graphic novels, video games, film and television, and online writing. Use of multiple lenses to understand his work, including philosophy, cultural studies, and media studies. Satisfies Writing II requirement.

Tara Prescott-Johnson

Dr. Prescott-Johnson just loves a good story – she loves telling them, reading them, writing them, writing about them, and most of all, sharing them with students! She’s partial to comics, science fiction, and fantasy, but will check out anything that someone recommends. She spent 9 years living with students on the Hill as a Faculty in Residence and still enjoys debating the relative merits of Bruin Plate and the Study.

As a Continuing Lecturer in Writing Programs, Dr. Prescott-Johnson teaches courses on writing and literature at UCLA. She is the editor of Streaming the Sandman: Critical Essays on the Netflix Series, Neil Gaiman in the 21^st Century, Poetic Salvage: Reading Mina Loy, and co-editor of Gender and the Superhero Narrative and Feminism in the Worlds of Neil Gaiman. Her TEDxUCLA talk, “Hike Your Own Hike,” is available on YouTube.

Q & A

What is your home department at UCLA? Writing Programs

How long have you been teaching your HC seminar? Since Winter 2016 (as Worlds of Neil Gaiman) and Winter 2025 (as Exploring Hugo Winners).

What is your favorite part about teaching this HC seminar? Geeking out over books! It is so fun to get into deep conversations where everyone is jumping to speak and sharing ideas that I never considered before. I learn so much from the students in this class!

What do you find to be the most compelling about the subject matter of this seminar? Science fiction and fantasy seem to be about unfamiliar worlds and people and creatures, but in fact, are very much rooted in our experience today. It helps us to understand what our world is and to dream about what it could be.

What are the learning objectives for this course?

For readers new to Gaiman and fans alike, this class focuses on developing advanced writing skills while examining the works of a prolific, evolving writer as he makes art in the developing landscape of twenty-first century literature.

Student Feedback

Honors Collegium 87W: The Art of Neil Gaiman

“I cannot go on enough about how much I loved this class and Professor Prescott-Johnson. I had heard of Neil Gaiman, but never read any of his work. I was absolutely blown away with the quality of the class. It is not often that I become friends with my classmates, but Professor PJ set an environment that allowed for those relationships to prosper. She has the energy of a high school English teacher. She encouraged every student to utilize their creative muscles, even though many of us were not humanities students. The readings were all entertaining, from the short stories to the articles, and gave fuel for engaging and fascinating discussions. Discussions gave us all an opportunity to get to know each other personally. The professor also made a concerted effort to get to know us, popping in on conversations before and after class and engaging with us during office hours. She has a spunky, optimistic personality that uplifts the classroom.”

“Professor Prescott-Johnson is extremely kind, accommodating, and knowledgeable about Gaiman. She is also extremely generous, allowing us to borrow from her vast Gaiman collection and making us chili for the last lecture. She incorporated fun activities like writing short stories in the faculty lounge, reading children’s books on the lawn, and sticker-making in the MakerSpace, which was a nice change of pace and gave the seniors one last chance to explore some interesting parts of campus. This class gave me the strongest relationship I’ve had with my classmates in a long time, for which I am very grateful. The subject material itself was extremely interesting. I have definitely come away from this class with a greater appreciation for Gaiman and “Make Good Art” ringing in my ears. This was definitely the best experience with an Honors Collegium class I could have had.”