Looking over the schedule of Tolkien Studies sessions at the Popular Culture Association conference, held annually in the US, certainly makes me wish I could be there this year. The conference will be held in Seattle, Washington, March 22 – 25, with all of the Tolkien sessions on the 24th and 25th. Robin Reid has once again put together a healthy program of eight Tolkien panels.

Of course, everyone will have different interests that attract them, but for me, one of the highlights of the conference would be presentations by Martin Barker and others about the World Hobbit Project. There’s also the Editors’ Roundtable discussing the “nuts ‘n bolts of Tolkien studies” which will include well-known book and journal editors Leslie Donovan, Janice Bogstad, Brad Eden, Janet Croft, and Martin Barker — a great opportunity for researchers to hear about the state of Tolkien scholarship and any new publishing developments. As usual, the PCA sessions will offer a broad range of papers, from historical and interdisciplinary approaches to pedagogy to reception studies — including a fascinating paper topic on fans’ participation in Chinese translations of books and films.

I list the session titles below. If you want to know more, you can read presenters’ names and their abstracts here.

March 24. Session 3038.  Tolkien Studies I.  Reception: The World Hobbit Project

March 24. Session 3138. Tolkien Studies II.  Pedagogy: Teaching Tolkien’s Middle-earth in the 21st Century. (Roundtable)

March 24. Session 3238. Tolkien Studies III. Reception: Fans, Translations, and Connections

March 24. Session 3338. Tolkien Studies IV.  Adaptation: Film Studies

March 24. Session 3438. Tolkien Studies V. Historical Approaches

March 25. Session 4138. Tolkien Studies VI. Scholarship: Editors’ Roundtable

March 25. Session 4238. Tolkien Studies VII. The Silmarillion

March 25. Session 4338. Tolkien Studies VIII. Interdisciplinary Approaches

I understand that a Meet ‘n Greet will be held on one of the evenings as well. To connect with people going to the conference or for more news about the PCA Tolkien Studies group, you can join the Facebook group: search for “Tolkien Studies at Popular Culture / American Culture Association.”