The program for the 14th annual Tolkien in Vermont conference has been posted. This year’s theme is Romance in Middle-earth, and the keynote speaker is Corey Olsen. There’s a modest registration fee, except for University of Vermont students and high-school students, who get in free. This is a small and friendly conference where everyone — whether professor, student, fan, or independent scholar — gets a chance to talk to each other and listen to each other’s presentations.Registration fee: $25; $15 for students. UVM students and high-school students are free.
☼ Friday, April 7th, 2017
Lafayette Hall L207: 7:00 – 9:00 p.m.
Friday evening Tolkien fireside readings 2017
Organized and hosted by The Tolkien Club of UVM
8:00 – 8:30: Continental breakfast with coffee & tea
8:30 – 9:00: Session #1
• Freawaru and Tolkien’s Beowulf
Dr. Christoper T. Vaccaro • Senior Lecturer • University of Vermont
• The broken sword, a meme: Beowulf, Arthur, and Elendil
Zachary Dilbeck • Columbus State Community College
9:30 – 10:45: Session #2
• The tale of Turin, a hapless helpless boy with a doom for failed romance
Gerry Blair • independent scholar
• Ill-met by moonlight: Aredhel and Eöl as the upside down of Beren and Lúthien
Katherine Neville • Signum University
• “Thus wrote Pengolodh”: Historical bias, its evidence, and its implications in The Silmarillion
Dawn M. Walls-Thumma • Coventry Village School
10:45 – 12:00: Session #3
• Realistic or fantastic narratives in J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings
Peter Kao • National Chung Cheng University
• “I have loved you, and that love shall not fail”: Tolkien’s philological explorations of friendship, love, and romance in The Lord of the Rings
Dr. Marc Zender • Assistant Professor • Tulane University
• “And with him was Elrond Half-Elven”: The high king and his herald (still a better love story than Twilight)
Dr. Kristine Larsen • Professor of Physics and Astronomy • Central Connecticut State University
12:00 – 12:45: Keynote
• The turning point in Tolkien’s career
Dr. Corey Olsen • Signum University
12:45 – 1:45: Lunch
1:45 – 3:00: Session #4
• Dispelling misogyny in Tolkien’s women — through reflection of Medieval lyric and personal relationships
Annie Brust • Kent State University
• Sounds in the dark: Assimilation and continuity in The Hobbit: An unexpected journey
Jeffrey Bullins • SUNY Plattsburgh
• Weberian “vocation” in The Lord of the Rings
Paul Fortunato • University of Houston-Downtown
3:00: Coffee and tea
3:00 – 4:30: Session #5
• “Warm as sunlight, cold as frost in the stars” — Tolkien’s exploration of courtly relationships through the Lady Galadriel
Andrew Peterson • Harvard University
• Romance and romance
James Williamson • Senior Lecturer • University of Vermont
• The evolution of the animal to magical beast in Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings
Heather Dail • Instructor • University of South Alabama
Anna Smol 
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