Category Archives: Conferences

Online and hybrid Tolkien conferences 2023

22 Tuesday Nov 2022

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Thanks to my friend Robin A. Reid for compiling some of this information on hybrid and online Tolkien conferences in 2023. The hybrid conferences will allow in-person or virtual attendance and presentations. There is still time to submit proposals if you’re interested in giving a presentation! The list below is ordered according to deadlines for papers.

Tolkien Society

The Tolkien Society Seminar 2023: The Mighty and Frail Númenor

July 2, 2023 (Hybrid), The Hilton, Leeds, UK. Free

Proposals, max. 300 words, for 20-minute presentations are due Friday 13 January 2023.

According to the organizers, “The seminar aims to examine the role that Númenor plays in Tolkien’s legendarium.” You can find more information on the Seminar, suggested topics, and a link for submissions on the event page at https://www.tolkiensociety.org/events/seminar-2023/

Tolkien @ UVM

April 1, 2023 (Hybrid), University of Vermont, Burlington, US

Keynote speaker: Gergely Nagy

The general topic is the Second Age of Middle-earth, though other topics might be accepted. According to the organizers, “Priority will be given to enquiries into history, historiography, and the historicity of race, gender, sexuality.” The submission deadline is January 15; abstracts should be around 200 words, sent to Dr. Chris Vaccaro at cvaccaro@uvm.edu. The announcement states “presenters can attend in person (preferred) or virtually.”

Mythopoeic Society – Online Midsummer Seminar.

Fantasy Goes to Hell: Depictions of Hell in Modern Fantasy Texts

August 5-6, 2023 (Online). $20.00 US

The conference will feature one track of papers on the theme “Fantasy Goes to Hell,” but other papers on mythopoeic fantasy will also be presented in a concurrent track. Proposals of around 200 words are due May 15, 2023. Suggested topics can be found on the Seminar page at https://www.mythsoc.org/oms/oms-2023.htm, which also includes the email addresses of the organizers.

Tolkien Society

Oxonmoot 2023

August 31 – September 3 (Hybrid), St. Anne’s College, Oxford UK

This will be the 50th anniversary of Oxonmoot, which offers a varied program of events and presentations. The Call for Papers has not appeared yet nor have registration fees been announced. Keep an eye on the event page at https://www.tolkiensociety.org/events/oxonmoot-2023/ for these details and more.

Calls for Papers on Tolkien for 2023

23 Tuesday Aug 2022

Posted by in Calls for Papers, Conferences, Medieval, Medievalisms, Tolkien

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If you’re working on Tolkien, you might want to consider submitting a proposal for a talk at one of next year’s international medieval conferences. The deadlines are coming closer!

Call for Papers, due August 31, for the IMC (International Medieval Congress) at the University of Leeds. Papers can be delivered in person or online. The conference will run from July 3-6, 2023. You can find the descriptions of proposed sessions and contact information here. The proposed sessions are:

  • Tolkien: Medieval Roots and Modern Branches
  • Tolkien’s Medieval Entanglements
  • Tolkien’s Work and Academic Networks at Leeds
  • New Work and Methods in Tolkien Research – Making the Links
  • Dis-entangling the Second Age of Middle-earth
  • The Lord of the Rings: Rings of Power and Questions of Adaptation and Authenticity (a roundtable)

Call for Papers, due September 15, for the ICMS (International Congress on Medieval Studies) at Western Michigan University, Kalamazoo, MI. The conference will take place May 11-13, 2023. The following are approved sessions:

  • Medieval Elements in Amazon’s The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power (Roundtable): In-Person Session

The upcoming Amazon Prime series The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power, due to premiere in September 2022, explores the Second Age of Middle-earth. The announcement of the series, followed by the release of images and a trailer, has suggested that the world constructed by the show contains a number of elements that appear to draw on the Middle Ages. This roundtable invites contributions that consider the medieval elements in the series, both elements of design and narrative, and including structures of society, government, and relations among societies.

  • Christopher Tolkien: Medievalist Editor of J. R. R. Tolkien’s Legendarium (Paper Session): In-Person Session

The publication of The Great Tales Never End: Essays in Memory of Christopher Tolkien in September 2022 affords us an opportunity to investigate the work of Christopher Tolkien as editor. Edited by the Bodleian’s librarian Richard Ovenden and Tolkien Archivist Catherine McIlwaine and published by the Bodleian Library at the University of Oxford, this volume is well concerned with the work of reading and editing manuscripts. A medievalist by training, working in Old Norse texts, Christopher is best known as the editor of his father’s legendarium. This paper session invites contributions that consider the role of his background in medieval texts as editor of J. R. R. Tolkien’s manuscripts and that engage with the memorial volume The Great Tales Never End.

  • “Climate Change” II: Social, Ecological, Political, and Spiritual Shifts in J.R.R. Tolkien and Medieval Poets: Blended Session (co-sponsored with the Pearl-Poet Society; organized by Jane Beal)

J. R. R. Tolkien was a reader, translator, and teacher of medieval poetry in Old and Middle English as well as Old Norse, showing particular devotion to Beowulf and the works of the Pearl-Poet. Tolkien’s interpretations of medieval poetry deserve further investigation in terms of the theme of “climate change,” which can be explored in social, ecological, political, and spiritual terms by interested scholars submitting papers for our session. This session is the second in a two-part series, “Climate Change” I sponsored exclusively by the Pearl-Poet Society and this session sponsored jointly by the PPS and Tolkien at Kalamazoo.

Additional Tolkien Sessions:

Tolkien and Medieval Constructions of Race (A Roundtable): Virtual Session (sponsored by the Centre for Fantasy and the Fantastic, Univ. of Glasgow; Contact: Mariana Rios Maldonado). Description is here.

Tolkien and the Middle Ages: Tolkien and the Scholastics: In Person Session (sponsored by the D. B. Reinhart Institute for Ethics in Leadership, Viterbo Univ.; Contact: Michael A. Wodzak)


All proposals must be made through the Congress’s Confex system. Please follow the instructions on the Congress’s Call for Papers carefully (https://wmich.edu/medievalcongress/call).

It’s too late to propose an academic paper for Oxonmoot, the annual event of the Tolkien Society, but you can register as an online delegate and listen to presentations and other events. Oxonmoot is only days away, taking place September 1 – 4. Your registration will also give you access to the presentation recordings for a certain amount of time. Of course, if you can get to Oxford, you can also register as an in-person attendee. More details, including a list of speakers, are available here.

Leeds is the place to be next week for Tolkien talks

01 Friday Jul 2022

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Although I wish I could be in Leeds this coming week to see friends and attend Tolkien sessions in person, I will be settling for the next best thing, zooming in from home. Two events occur annually in Leeds, and this year they are both in hybrid formats: the Tolkien Society Seminar on Sunday, July 3, and then a series of papers at the International Medieval Congress from July 4 – 7.

Tolkien Society

Tolkien Society Seminar: Tolkien and the Gothic

The Tolkien Society Seminar is free — more information is here. If you miss registering for the event, you will eventually be able to see the papers on the Society’s YouTube channel. This year’s theme is Tolkien and the Gothic. A keynote will be given by Nick Groom speaking about “Eldritch Tolkien: The Impossible Complexities of a Gothic Middle-earth.” The other presenters are as follows (times are listed on the Tolkien Society Seminar 2022 page).

  • Victoria Holtz, Encountering the Undead: They will Not Leave You Unscathed
  • Mahdî Brecq, Tolkien’s Gothic: a poetic resurgence?
  • Steven Brehe, Speculations: The Influence of Bram Stoker’s Dracula upon Tolkien
  • Sofia Skeva, (Re-)Writing The (Monstrous) Body in 20th Century Fantasy Literature: The Construction of the Stranger in J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings
  • Andrew Higgins, ‘Mommie Dearist’ An Exploration of an Intriguing Tolkienian Gothic Crux
  • Duane Watson, “The forest is queer” – The Fantastic and the Gothic in The Lord of the Rings
  • Journee Cotton, The Gothic and Environmental Bioethics: The ‘Creepy’ Bodies of Middle-earth
  • Giovanni Carmine Costabile, “Where now Bucephalus and the proud Eormanric?” – The interplay of Gothic and Classical references as a tacit background behind “The Wanderer”, Tolkien’s Anglo-Saxon source
  • Michael Dunn, Tolkien’s Triptych: Ecological Uncanny, Double Dualism Personified, and the Language of the Literary Gothic
  • Kristine Larsen, Beware Melkors Bearing Gifts: The “Tale of Adanel” as Gothic Fiction

International Medieval Congress

Registration for the IMC closed some time ago, but if you’re interested in seeing what Tolkien scholars are talking about, I’ve included the schedule of papers below. Of course, if you’ve registered, you can take in these sessions online or in person. The full IMC schedule, from July 4 – 7, can be found on the Congress webpage. The following Tolkien sessions were organized by Andrew Higgins and the Centre for Fantasy & the Fantastic, School of Critical Studies, University of Glasgow.

MONDAY JULY 4

J.R.R. Tolkien: Medieval Roots & Modern Branches

  • Andrzej Wicher, An Attempt to Re-Examine the Dialectic of the East and the West in Tolkien’s Selected Works
  • Victoria-Holtz Wodzak, Of Dust Motes, Trees, and Golden Flowers: Tolkien and Duns Scotus’ Haeccitas.
  • Andrew Higgins,, Glossopoeia through Letter Writing: The Role of Early Reader and Author Responses in the Development of the Elvish Languages

Tolkien and Medieval Poets: A Session in Memory of Richard West

  • Andoni Cossio, The Revivalist Critic and the Alliterative Poet: An Unexpected Collaboration
  • James Tauber, Computing the Interlace Structure of The Lord of the Rings
  • Kristine Larsen, ‘Pearls’ of Pearl: Medieval Appropriations in Tolkien’s Mythology

Tolkien as a Gateway to Interdisciplinary Teaching: A Roundtable Discussion
This roundtable discussion will feature talks by teachers on how they have used the works of Tolkien to introduce and engage students with new fields of study and disciplines. Participants include Andrew Higgins, Deidre Dawson, Dimitra Fimi.

WEDNESDAY JULY 6

Borders between Life and Death in Tolkien’s Legendarium

  • Cami Agan, Memories of Borders: On the Borders of Memory – Beleriand as Elegiac Landscape
  • Amy Amendt-Raduege, Beyond the Circles of the World
  • Gaëlle Abaléa, Undead or Undying: Limits of Immortality in Tolkien’s Work

Family, Orientation, Transgression, and Crossing Borders of Middle-earth

  • Deidre Dawson, Tolkien’s Orphaned Heroes
  • Yvette Kisor, Chrononormativity and Queer Time: Crossing Temporal Borders in Tolkien’s Middle-earth
  • Alke Haarsma-Wisselink, ‘Finding out what lies beyond the borders of the Shire’: Applying Tolkien’s Fantastic Texts in and to Madness – The Transgressive Experience of Psychotic Thinking
  • Olivia-Kate Burgham, ‘Lay your head in my lap’: Homoerotic Tension and Possibility on Mordor’s Border in The Lord of the Rings

THURSDAY, JULY 7

Crossing Borders in Middle-earth

  • Aslı Bülbül, Light: The Key to Cross the Spatiotemporal Borders in J. R. R. Tolkien’s Secondary World
  • Sara Brown, Interrogating the Liminal Space: Vampires and Werewolves in Middle-Earth
  • Aurelie Bremont, Time Travel, Astronomy, and Magic Mirrors: How the Borders between Reality and the Otherworld in Middle- Earth Are Influenced by Celtic Mythology and Science (Fiction)

Tolkien talks in May 2022 & reminders for July

02 Monday May 2022

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Two events for this month will feature online presentations on Tolkien. The first is a free event to be held on Saturday May 7th, the Tolkien at Kalamazoo Symposium. A program and link have not yet been published, but I will post it here as soon as the information is available. [May 4 edit: the pdf program is posted here. If you’re interested in attending, contact Yvette Kisor at ykisor@ramapo.edu]

Next week, the International Congress on Medieval Studies will take place online once again this year. There is a registration fee for this one, which gives you access to papers and various kinds of sessions and book sales as well as recordings of most sessions for two weeks after the conference. You can find more information here. The Congress takes place May 9-14.

And please scroll down for reminders about July’s conference events. You’ll have to register this week for the Leeds medieval conference if you intend to take part!

Below are the sessions on Tolkien taking place at the International Congress on Medieval Studies from the University of Western Michigan in Kalamazoo. An asterisk by the session number indicates that the session will be recorded.

121* Tuesday, May 10, 5:00 p.m. EDT
Medieval Understandings of the Nature of Evil as Depicted by J. R. R. Tolkien

Sponsor: D. B. Reinhart Institute for Ethics in Leadership, Viterbo Univ. Organizer & Presider: Michael A. Wodzak, Viterbo Univ.

  • Cosmic Catastrophe of History: Augustinian Theology of History and Patristic Angelology in Tolkien’s “Long Defeat” — Edmund Michael Lazzari, Marquette Univ.
  • Dante’s Paradiso and the Fall of Melkor: Tolkien’s Preoccupations with Culpability and Purgation — Michael David Elam, Regent Univ.
  • A Clamorous Unison: Musical Evil in the Middle Ages and the Ainulindalë –Joshua T. Parks, Princeton Theological Seminary

226* Thursday, May 12, 9:00 a.m. EDT
Tolkien and the Medieval Animal

Sponsor: Centre for Fantasy and the Fantastic, Univ. of Glasgow
Organizer & Presider: Kristine A. Swank, Univ. of Glasgow

  • Mammoth, Mûmak, and “ The old fireside rhyme of Oliphaunt”: Tolkien’s Contributions to the Medieval Bestiary Tradition — Marc U. Zender, Tulane Univ.
  • From Classical to Medieval: A Reflection on Bats in Tolkien’s Works — Fiammetta Comelli, Univ. degli Studi di Milano
  • Of Foxes and Dancing Bears — John Rosegrant, New Orleans-Birmingham Psychoanalytic Center
  • Tolkien’s Dragons: Sources, Symbols, and Significance — Camilo G. Peralta, Fort Hays State Univ.

275* Thursday, May 12, 7:00 p.m. EDT
J. R. R. Tolkien and Medieval Poets: A Session in Memory of Richard C. West

Sponsors: Tolkien at Kalamazoo; Pearl-Poet Society. Organizer: Christopher Vaccaro, Univ. of Vermont. Presider: Jane Beal, Univ. of La Verne

  • Tolkien and Dante on the Musical Nature of “Sub-creation” — Paul L. Fortunato, Univ. of Houston–Downtown
  • The Lost Roads of Old English Poetry: Dramas of Time Travel in Tolkien’s Works — Anna Smol, Mount St. Vincent Univ.
  • Strange Sounds, Strange Scenes: Alliterative Metre and Personification in J. R. R. Tolkien’s “ The Lay of the Children of Húrin” — Gavin Foster, Dalhousie Univ.
  • Tolkien, Beowulf, and Gawain: The Myth of Alliteration — John R. Holmes, Franciscan Univ. of Steubenville

360 Friday, May 13, 7:00 p.m. EDT
Medieval Tolkien and the Nature of Middle-earth (A Roundtable)

Sponsor: Tolkien at Kalamazoo. Organizer: Yvette Kisor, Ramapo College. Presider: Deidre Dawson, Michigan State Univ.

A roundtable discussion with Edward L. Risden, St. Norbert College; Sutirtho Roy, Univ. of Calcutta; Christopher Vaccaro, Univ. of Vermont; Yvette Kisor; John D. Rateliff, Independent Scholar

421* Saturday, May 14, 5:00 p.m. EDT
New Readings of the Lord of the Rings
Presider: Luke J. Chambers, Indiana Univ.–Bloomington

  • The Fisherman’s Ring of Power: Masculinity, Castration, and the Great Quest in The Hobbit and The Lord of The Rings — Consuelo M. Concepcion, Independent Scholar
  • The Dragon is Not an Allegory: Reading Tolkien’s Monsters in Medieval Contexts — Ruthann E. Mowry, Univ. of Illinois–Urbana-Champaign; Cait Coker, Univ. of Illinois–Urbana-Champaign
  • Samwise: J. R. R. Tolkien’s Practical Boethian — Brian McFadden, Texas Tech Univ.
  • Tolkien, Augustinian Theodicy, and Lovecraftian Evil — Perry Neil Harrison, Fort Hays State Univ.

A couple of Tolkien papers will appear in more general sessions:

394* Saturday, May 14, 3:00 p.m. EDT
C. S. Lewis and the Middle Ages I: Dante and the Lewis Circle (In Honor of Marsha Daigle Williamson)

  • Heavenly Models of Desire in Dante, Lewis, and Tolkien — Curtis Gruenler, Hope College [paper withdrawn – May 4 edit]

418* Saturday, May 14, 5:00 p.m. EDT
Medievalism in Twentieth- and Twenty-First-Century Literary and Cinematic Adaptations of Beowulf

  • The Existential Dragon: Adapting Beowulf in J. R. R. Tolkien’s The Hobbit and John Gardner’s Grendel — Andrew Phillip de Carion, Univ. of Houston

Of course, if you have an interest in medieval or medievalism studies, there are hundreds of other sessions to choose from.

Kalamazoo campus swan pond

And looking ahead…..

The Tolkien Society will be holding its Seminar on July 3 with the theme of Tolkien and the Gothic. This is a hybrid event. Registration is now open for free online or in-person attendance (limited to 60 people in person).

The International Medieval Congress at Leeds University will host 7 Tolkien sessions in the program. The conference takes place July 4-7, 2022. This is a hybrid event, enabling online or in-person attendance. Deadline for registration is Friday May 6. As with the other large medieval conference from the University of Western Michigan, there is a fee for registration.

I’ll post the July programs closer to the time of these events.

April 2022 conference sessions on Tolkien

29 Tuesday Mar 2022

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A couple of conferences are coming up in the next few weeks with lots of discussion about a wide range of topics in Tolkien studies. Check out what people will be talking about in the Tolkien@UVM conference and the PCA Tolkien Studies area — or register and listen to the full sessions!

The 18th Annual Tolkien at University of Vermont conference

April 2, 2022 [hybrid conference]

You can register and download a full program here.

Keynote: The theme of this conference is The Idea of History in Tolkien’s Middle-earth and features Dr. Kristine Larsen as the keynote speaker. She will be talking about “Arda Remade: History and Twentieth-Century Cosmology.”

Other sessions:

Session I Tolkien and Narrativity [In-person]
“Narrative Voice and Differing Concepts of Evil in the Published Silmarillion.” Chris Craun
“The Forbidden Pool as a Garden of Eden Story in Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings.” Yvette Kisor

Session II Tolkien and the Literary Tradition [Virtual]
“The Good Pagan in J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Hobbit and Lord of the Rings Trilogy.” Linsay Ragle Miller
“The Horrors of Intimate Evil in Tolkien’s Abandoned ’Novel’ The New Shadow.” Bo Kampmann Walther
“Tolkien, Cline, and the Quest for a Silmaril.” Tom Ue

Session III Theorizing Tolkien [Virtual]
“Lived Legendary War in Tolkien’s Fall of Arthur.” Brendan Anderson
“Tolkien and Nietsche’s Ubermensch.” Ali Mirzabayati

Session IV Undergraduate Voices [In-person]
Harry Driscoll. Bady Kaye. Mary McLellan. Kathryn Wyckoff

For more details about the schedule and registration, check out the website.

Popular Culture Association

April 13-16, 2022 [Virtual]

The late registration deadline is April 1 for anyone not presenting a paper at the conference. More information here. The following is a draft program – always check the final version on the PCA website for days and times. “Get-togethers” are more informal than the regular paper sessions.

Wednesday April 13: Tolkien Fanfiction Live Reading. Get-together. Chair: Maria Alberto

Thursday April 14: Literary and Cultural Studies Approaches to Tolkien
“Tolkien, Old English, and Identity.” Anna Smol
“Point of View and In-Universe Authorship of the ‘Silmarillion.'” Dawn Walls-Thumma
“The Deep Roots Untouchable by Frost: Romanticism in J.R.R. Tolkien.” Lily Tun
“From Mushrooms to Man-flesh: The Cultural Signficance of Food in J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings.” Sara Brown

Thursday April 14: Queer and Critical Race Approaches to Tolkien
“Hardly a word…unconsidered”: Un-Closeting Queer Desire in The Lord of the Rings through (Socio)linguistic Analysis: ‘Mate,’ ‘My/me Dear,’ and ‘Treasure.'” Olivia K. Burgham
“Wondered at this change”: Queer potential and telling silence in the relationship of Legolas and Gimli.” Hannah Mendro
“More Cannot Be Said: Using a Critical, Semi-Systematic Literature Review to Understand Academic Silence on the Queer Potential of Legolas and Gimli.” V. Elizabeth King
“Playing Back: LOTRO and Its Role in Deconstructing Tolkien.” Cordeliah G. Logson and Gideon Cooper.

Thursday April 14: Where to publish in Tolkien and Inklings Study. Get-together. Chair: Perry Neil Harrison

Friday April 15: Multidisciplinary Approaches
“Tolkien, Lovecraft, and Unknowable Evil.” Perry Neil Harrison
“Teamwork in Middle-earth.” Michael Joseph Urick
“Fantasy and Foucault: Teaching Tolkien in the Age of Jordan Peterson.” Christopher James Lockett
“A Tolkienian Pharmakon for Our Times.” Sonali Arvind Chunodkar.

Friday April 15: Roundtable on Teaching Tolkien
Chair: Robin Reid. Presenters: Maria Alberto, Leslie Donovan, Tom Emanuel, Christopher James Lockett, Anna Smol

Friday April 15: Business Meeting

Friday April 15: Race, Nationalism, Totalitarianism, Activism, and Tolkien
“Yellow, Black and White in Chinese Translations of Tolkien.” Eric Reinders
“Tolkien the Racialist and the Monstrous Races Tradition: Tartars, Muslims, and Jews.” Anna Czarnowus
“‘Of lesser and alien race’: Layers and influences of intertwined tyranny and racism in Middle-earth.” Alastair Whyte
“Whiskered Men with Bombs: Mythology, Middle-earth, and Modern Environmental Activism.” Amber Lehning

Friday April 15: Tolkien Live Reading. Get-together. Chair: Robin A. Reid

Saturday April 16: Roundtable on the Future of Tolkien Studies
Chair: Robin Reid. Presenters: Sara Brown, Leslie Donovan, Sonali Arvind Chunodkar, Andrew T Draper

As you might have noticed in the above program, I’m involved in two of the PCA sessions — so, back to work!

Save the dates!

31 Monday Jan 2022

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Listening to sounds of the Bodleian in a howling snowstorm.

I sometimes like to listen to the Sounds of the Bodleian Library while working. The soundscapes transport me back to happy days researching in the library, where I hope to spend time again one day. In the meantime, a howling snowstorm is keeping us indoors here in Nova Scotia, but that doesn’t mean we can’t look forward to connecting with people online, dreaming of spring and summer, and listening to some great ideas on Tolkien in upcoming seminars.

Mythopoeic Society logo

First up is the Online Midwinter Seminar on The Inklings and Horror: Fantasy’s Dark Corners, sponsored by a Mythopoeic Society group, taking place this coming weekend on February 4th and 5th. You can see a list of speakers and topics on the Mythopoeic Society blog, including a number of papers on Tolkien. Friday night is reserved mainly for social activities, and the presentations are tentatively scheduled for Saturday. You can register for the seminar here. This is the first of midwinter seminars that the Mythopoeic Society is hoping to hold in the future.

Tolkien in Vermont conference

18th Annual Tolkien in Vermont Conference, April 2, 2022. The theme is the idea of history and the keynote speaker will be Dr. Gergely Nagy. This event is planned as a hybrid conference, with in-person attendance at the University of Vermont as well as online participation. The schedule of speakers has not yet been announced, but I assume that more information will be forthcoming on the Tolkien in Vermont Facebook page.

The Popular Culture Association online conference will take place April 13-16, 2022. The final schedule has not yet been posted, but we do know that the Tolkien Studies area will have the following sessions: 1. Literary and Cultural Approaches to Tolkien; 2. Queer and Critical Race Approaches to Tolkien; 3. Multi-Disciplinary Approaches to Tolkien; 4. Roundtable on Teaching Tolkien; 5. Race, Racisms, and Tolkien; 6. Religion, Spirituality, and Tolkien; 7. A Roundtable on the Future of Tolkien Studies. Each session will have 4 or 5 speakers. I’ll have more details when the final program is out. The deadline for early registration is February 11.

Kalamazoo campus swan pond

International Congress on Medieval Studies, University of Western Michigan, May 9-14, 2022. This conference is online once again this year, with plans to move to a hybrid model in 2023. A Sneak Preview of the program has now been posted on the conference homepage. Sessions on Tolkien include: 1. Medieval Understandings of the Nature of Evil as Depicted by Tolkien; 2. Tolkien and the Medieval Animal; 3. Tolkien and Medieval Poets: A Session in Memory of Richard West; 4. Medieval Tolkien and the Nature of Middle-earth (a Roundtable); 5. New Readings of The Lord of the Rings. Each of these sessions includes 3 or 4 presenters. Other sessions on medievalisms also include single presentations on Tolkien. I’ll post more details after the final program is published. You can find registration and other information on the Congress website.

Just before the International Congress on Medieval Studies, the Tolkien at Kalamazoo group sponsors a one-day symposium, to be held this year on May 7. This year’s theme is “Missing Mothers.” I expect more details to become available soon about this event. One place to find out more information as it becomes available is at the Tolkien at Kalamazoo Symposium 2022 link on the Tolkienists.org site, which includes emails for the organizers.

Of course, once summer arrives there will be more: in July, the Tolkien Society Seminar, the International Medieval Congress at the University of Leeds, and the Once and Future Fantasies conference at the University of Glasgow; in August, the Mythopoeic Society, and, in September, Oxonmoot. But for now, I’ll work on the papers I’m scheduled to give this spring (at PCA and ICMS) and I’ll look forward to connecting with Tolkien scholars in our virtual world.

Fall term and summer reviews

18 Monday Oct 2021

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I am halfway into the fall term — always a busy time with meetings, grading, and class preparations. It’s hard to find time for research — or blogging. But one thing that I like to do whenever I have a half hour or so is to review videos of past conference presentations or listen to chats with other Tolkien scholars and fans.

One benefit of the move to online or hybrid conferences has been that we have in many cases a recording of the talks that were given. If you missed one, or if you just want to refresh your memory, there is plenty to listen to.

Tolkien Society logo

The Tolkien Society summer seminar, held July 3-4, offers 15 talks by Tolkien scholars here: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLoyx2jXs6Le_MelDj_rJsmiYSYQBeVYxQ

Mythcon 51 logo

Mythcon 51, held July 31-August 1, has posted 15 talks about Tolkien and more on other fantasy writers. https://dc.swosu.edu/mythcon/mc51/

Tolkien at Kalamazoo Symposium, May 8. I have previously linked to my talk and 6 other recorded presentations that were given on that day here: https://annasmol.net/2021/05/24/tolkien-symposium-2021-tolkien-the-playwright/

Other recorded talks for registered attendees. Those who registered for certain conferences that included Tolkien sessions, such as the International Congress on Medieval Studies (Western Michigan University) in May, the Popular Culture Association conference in June, the International Medieval Congress (Leeds) in July, or Oxonmoot Online in September, will have had access to recorded talks for a certain time after each conference. Only the Oxonmoot talks are still available to registered delegates.

Tolkien Experience Podcast logo

And if you’re not feeling up to listening to scholarly presentations, you can always tune in to the Tolkien Experience Podcast, which features a mix of scholars and fans chatting about their experiences with reading Tolkien’s works and what they mean to them today. I was interviewed by my friend, Dr. Sara Brown, in September. You can listen to my interview, TEP #38, here. Or select from a list of recent interviews here: https://luke-shelton.com/tolkienexperiencepodcast/

And more talks are coming up!

The Tolkien Society Autumn Seminar will be held online on November 6. The theme is Translating and Illustrating Tolkien. Registration is free and still open: https://www.tolkiensociety.org/events/tolkien-society-autumn-seminar/

And something new to add to the roster: the Mythopoeic Society is sponsoring an online winter seminar on The Inklings and Horror: Fantasy’s Dark Corners on February 4-5. The Call for Papers is open until November 15 if you’re interested in presenting. You can find more information here: https://www.mythsoc.org/mythcon/ows-2022.htm

Upcoming Tolkien conference sessions (Tolkien Society Seminar and IMC Leeds)

27 Sunday Jun 2021

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These sessions are not for those who rush to join bandwagons based on meaningless politicized terms such as “woke” or who advance the anti-intellectualism prevalent in groups where any academic is suspect, and expertise (whether of academics or fans) is ridiculed.  These sessions, as always, are for open discussions and debates by faculty, students, independent scholars, and fans who are interested in the complexities of Tolkien’s works and how they are received, enjoyed, and critiqued around the world.

I make these prefatory comments because of a recent backlash against the Tolkien Society’s free online Summer Seminar theme, Tolkien and Diversity. Of the various incoherent negative comments made on social media, some of which just mock paper titles without knowing what will be said in the presentations, I can discern a couple of repeated objections: a few critics immediately assume the intent is to “tear down” Tolkien or to disavow his Catholic beliefs. Because I have participated in Tolkien studies conferences for years, I feel confident in saying that these are not the intentions of the organizers.

This doesn’t mean that Tolkien will be treated as a saint (some people literally believe he should be sainted!). It also doesn’t mean that Tolkien “the man” will be the last word on his works. Yes, scholars are certainly interested in what he had to say, and that includes how he developed his ideas or changed his mind or contradicted himself; but he does not represent a static set of rigid ideas, as some of the objectors seem to believe.* In any case, what Tolkien has written has gone out into the world and, like any influential literature, it is being read, interpreted, used — for good and for ill — in various ways by readers around the globe. Trying to understand this about Tolkien’s work, as with any other works of literature, is a standard part of literary research, which leads to a better understanding of our contemporary culture.

The Seminar is free, so anyone can actually listen to the ideas being presented, decide if they agree or not, ask questions and discuss — or if they want to express their views in more detail, they can propose a paper for the next meeting in order to present a coherent and informed discussion.  Of course, no one is being forced to listen to any new ideas or learn any new facts; we are all free to read Tolkien as we wish.

Tolkien Society Summer Seminar, July 3-4

The Tolkien Society Summer Seminar will take place online on July 3-4.  For more information and a list of presentations, see here.

International Medieval Congress, University of Leeds, July 5-9

The Tolkien Society Seminar usually takes place a day or two before the International Medieval Congress, normally held at the University of Leeds, but conducted online this year. The IMC typically features a number of Tolkien sessions. This conference requires registration and a fee; unfortunately, it may be too late to register at this point.

Check out the list of Tolkien-related presentations, including paper abstracts, at Tolkienists.org.

I’m looking forward to speaking about Tolkien’s alliterative poetry in “The Homecoming” on Thursday, 8 July, in the “Medieval Roots and Modern Branches” session. 

*This isn’t the first time, or the last, I am sure, in which I cite and recommend Verlyn Flieger’s paper, “The Arch and the Keystone” for anyone interested in considering Tolkien’s complex views. The essay is available for download from Mythlore here: https://dc.swosu.edu/mythlore/vol38/iss1/3/.

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Tolkien Symposium 2021: Tolkien the Playwright

24 Monday May 2021

Posted by in Conferences, Tolkien

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The Tolkien Symposium usually takes place in Kalamazoo, Michigan a day or two before the International Congress on Medieval Studies begins at the University of Western Michigan. This year, both events were held online, with the Symposium taking place on May 8. This year’s Symposium began with a memorial session dedicated to Tolkien scholar Richard West, who passed away earlier this year, and then continued with a day-long slate of presentations, including mine on “Tolkien the Playwright,” in which I discussed his verse drama, “The Homecoming of Beorhtnoth Beorhthelm’s Son.”

You can watch the video recording of my talk here:

In the Q & A after my presentation, I mentioned that I would post my references here on my blog; I also mentioned that my co-authored article with Rebecca Foster would be available soon in the Journal of Tolkien Research. The best way to get a full list of our references (and to learn more about “The Homecoming”) would be to read our article, “J.R.R. Tolkien’s ‘Homecoming’ and Modern Alliterative Metre” which has now been published in the free and open-access JTR.

You can also watch most of the other Symposium presentations on the Tolkien Experience YouTube channel. The other available presentations are:

John Holmes, “The Imagined World and the Frame in Tolkien’s Art”

Kris Larsen, “Seeing Double: Tolkien and the Indo-European Divine Twins“

Annie Brust, “The Warrior Women of Beastly Exterior”

Kris Swank, “The Poetry of Geoffrey Bache Smith with special note of Tolkienian Contexts“

Luke Shelton, “The Lord of the Rings, Young Readers, and Heroism”

Eileen Moore, “Maidens of Middle-earth XI: Valier and Maiar“

I’ll post more about our “Homecoming” article soon.

Tolkien Conference Season, May-July 2021

26 Monday Apr 2021

Posted by in Conferences, Fan studies, Medieval, Medievalisms, Research, Tolkien

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Conference season is upon us again, and just like last year’s sessions, the meetings I’m interested in are being held online.  While nothing can replace sitting on a university patio in the summer sun drinking mead with new and old conference friends, we’ll have to make do with virtual reality.  As I’ve said before, the one advantage is that we can listen to many more papers and “attend” many more conferences than we typically would have done, especially for those who do not have travel funding to go far afield to specialist meetings.

I think that in a fit of overcompensating for last year’s pandemic lockdown and research slowdown, I have offered to give three conference papers and one roundtable discussion this spring and summer.  In order to make sure I remember where I want to be and when, I’ve compiled a list of conference sessions on Tolkien that I’m either involved in or just interested in attending from May to July. 

Kalamazoo campus swan pond

Tolkien Symposium, Kalamazoo, Michigan

Coming up are the sessions which are usually held in Kalamazoo, Michigan, which begin with the one-day Tolkien Symposium, sponsored by the Tolkien at Kalamazoo group. These sessions will be held on May 8 from 10:30 a.m. EDT to 5:00 p.m. EDT, with 9 papers, rounding up the day with a musical performance.  To see the full schedule, go to Tolkienists.org. The Symposium is free; email Dr. Christopher Vaccaro for the link [Christopher.Vaccaro@uvm.edu].

My paper is scheduled on May 8. Did you know that Tolkien published a play? And that it is his only piece of historical fiction? My talk is on “Tolkien the Playwright” and deals with his verse drama, “The Homecoming of Beorhtnoth Beorhthelm’s Son.”

International Congress on Medieval Studies, University of Western Michigan

There are a number of sessions on Tolkien and medievalism at this conference, to be held May 10 – 15. Registration is required and so is the payment of a fee, scaled to your income. Each session includes two or more papers; below are the session topics and dates and times.  For details about the presenters and their paper titles, go to the Tolkienists.org site  or search the program and register at the ICMS site.

Monday, May 10, 1:00 p.m. EDT
Tolkien and Manuscript Studies

Monday, May 10, 5:00 p.m. EDT
Deadscapes: Wastelands, Necropoli, and Other Tolkien-Inspired Places of Death, Decay, and Corruption (A Panel Discussion)

Tuesday, May 11, 9:00 a.m EDT
Christopher Tolkien, Medievalist (a roundtable)

Tuesday, May 11, 3 p.m. EDT
Tolkien’s Chaucer

Thursday, May 13, 11:00 a.m. EDT
Tolkien and Se Wyrm

Thursday, May 13, 3 p.m. EDT
Tolkien’s Medicinal Medieval World: Illness and Healing in Middle-earth

Friday, May 14, 1 p.m. EDT
Medieval World-Building: Tolkien, His Precursors and Legacies

Saturday, May 15, 11:00 a.m. EDT
Tolkien’s Paratexts, Appendices, Annals, and Marginalia (a roundtable)

Popular Culture Association

From June 2 – 4, we have the PCA (Popular Culture Association) conference.  Conference registration for non-presenters will open on May 1st here.  The Tolkien Studies Area is organized by Robin Reid.

Tolkien Studies I:  Environmental Ethics and Leadership Theory in Tolkien’s Legendarium
Wednesday, June 2, 11:00 a.m. – 12:20  EDT

  • Amber Lehning. Elf-Songs and Orc-Talk: Environmental Ethics in J.R.R. Tolkien’s Middle-earth, from Beowulf to Peter Jackson
  • Michael Joseph Urick. Theories of Leadership in Middle-earth
  • James Eric Siburt.  Rendering Visible an Understanding of Power in Leadership in Tolkien’s Creation Mythology: Ainulindalë and Akallabêth

Tolkien Studies II:  Multi-Disciplinary Approaches to Tolkien’s Legendarium
Wednesday, June 2, 12:30-1:50 p.m. EDT

  • Meaghan Scott.  The Nimrodel and Silverlode: Lothlórien as a Secondary World
  • Rebecca Power, Tolkien’s Penchant for Alliteration: Using XML to Analyze The Lay of Leithian
  • Anna Smol,  Tolkien’s New Old English Genre: “The Homecoming of Beorhtnoth”
  • Kristine Larsen, “I am no man”: Game of Thrones’ Lyanne Mormont as Borrowed Tolkienian Canonicity

On June 2, I’ll be talking about what critic Chris Jones calls “New Old English” poetry and how Tolkien’s “Homecoming” and other poems can be viewed as part of an alliterative verse history of the twentieth century.

Tolkien Studies III:  A Roundtable on Tolkien Reception Studies
Wednesday, June 2, 2:00 – 3:20 p.m. EDT
Presenters: Maria Alberto, Cordeliah G. Logsdon, Dawn Walls-Thumma, Cait Coker, Robin Anne Reid

Tolkien Studies IV:  Race and Racisms in Tolkien’s Secondary and Our Primary Worlds
Thursday, June 3, 3:30-4:50 p.m. EDT

  • Robert Tally.  More Dangerous and Less Wise: Racial Hierarchies and Cultural Difference in Tolkien’s World
  • Alastair Whyte.  Scales of malice: The banal evil of Middle-earth’s tyrant-history
  • Craig N. Franson. Where Shadows Lie”: Middle-earth and Neo-fascist Metapolitics
  • Robin Anne Reid.  Race in J. R. R. Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings And in Katherine Addison’s The Goblin Emperor

Tolkien Studies V:  Tolkien’s Fandoms
Thursday, June 3, 5:00-6:20 p.m. EDT

  • M. Lee Alexander. “Heroes of the North”: Tolkien and Finnish Fandom
  • Dawn Walls-Thumma. The Pillar and the Vastness: A Longitudinal View of the Tolkien Fanfiction Fandom
  • Cordeliah G. Logsdon. “What care I for the hands of a king?“: Tolkien, Fanfiction, and Narratives of the Self
  • Maria Alberto.  Mathom Economies? Fan Gift Culture and A Tolkien Fic Exchange Event 

Tolkien Studies VI:  A Roundtable on the Future of Tolkien Studies
Friday, June 4, 11:00-12:20 EDT
Presenters:  Craig N Franson, Rebecca Power, James Eric Siburt, Amber Lehning, Anna Smol, Kristine Larsen

On June 4, I’ll be taking part in this roundtable to discuss the study of Tolkien and 20th and 21st century poetry.

Tolkien Studies VII:  The Council of Tolkien Studies
Friday, June 4, 12:30-1:50 p.m. EDT
Presenter: Robin Reid.

Tolkien Society

Tolkien Society Summer Seminar

Looking ahead to July, we have the weekend Tolkien Seminar sponsored by the Tolkien Society, which always takes place just before the International Medieval Congress at the University of Leeds. This year, the Tolkien Society has expanded its Seminar series to include three seminars; one has already taken place last February, and the Summer Seminar is scheduled for July 3-4. The theme of the Summer Seminar is Tolkien and Diversity. The call for papers has just passed, so we still have to wait to see the schedule, but the place to keep up to date is on the Summer Seminar page. These talks will be free for all.

International Medieval Congress, University of Leeds

The IMC at Leeds will be online this year again. Registration is required, with a deadline of May 10, and the full program is available here. The organizer of the Tolkien sessions, to be held July 8-9, is Dr. Andrew Higgins, and you can find details and updates about the Tolkien papers on his blog, Dr. Wotan’s Musings.

J.R.R. Tolkien: Medieval Roots and Modern Branches
Thursday, July 8. 14:15-15:45 BST

  • Jan A. Kozak. Borders on the Otherworld: Warrior Maidens, Mounds, and Ancestral Swords in The Lord of the Rings and in the Old Norse Hervar Saga
  • Brian Egede-Pedersen. Flocking to the Serpent Banner – Decolonising The Lord of the Ring‘s Workshop’s Table-Top War Game
  • Joel Merriner. The Raven and the Map: Decoding Gyözö Vida’s A Gyürük Ura
  • Anna Smol. Tolkien’s Alliterative Styles in “The Homecoming of Beorhtnoth Beorhthelm’s Son”

My talk on July 8 will analyze Tolkien’s expert composition of alliterative verse in various styles, from colloquial and informal to highly stylized verse, following the Sievers scheme of alliterative patterns.

Tolkien and Diversity: A Round Table Discussion
Thursday, July 8. 19:00-20:30 BST
Participants: Deidre Dawson, Sultana Raza, Christopher Vaccaro    

Medieval Climates, Cosmologies and EcoSystems in the works of J.R.R. Tolkien (I)
Friday, July 9. 14:15-15:45 BST

  • Andrzej Wicher. The Importance of Geographical Directions in the construction of Tolkien’s Middle-earth
  • Aurelie Bremont. King Elessar in Middle-earth: Strawberry Fields Forever?
  • Kristine Larsen. “Carry on My Wayward Sonne (and Moon)”: Common Cosmological Quirks in the Norse Fimbul-Winter and Tolkien’s Early Legendarium
  • Gaëlle Abalea. Political Climate in the “The Fall of Numenor”

Medieval Climates, Cosmologies and EcoSystems in the works of J.R.R. Tolkien (II)
Friday, July 9. 16:30-18:00 BST

  • Helen Lawson. The Myth of the Mother – Retracing the Roots of Motherhood in Tolkien’s Decaying Middle-earth
  • Sara Brown. Situating Middle-earth: Reconsidering Tolkien’s Relationship with the Landscape
  • Andrew Higgins. Language Invention, Climate and Landscapes in Tolkien’s Gnomish Lexicon
  • Sultana Raza. How Alan Lee’s Landscapes Outline the Climate of Plot and Tolkien’s Mind-scapes

There will also be a Tolkien Sessions business meeting at some point during the conference week.

Kalamazoo spring 2014

Trying to work out time zones in your area? This has become an important question with these online sessions around the world. I have found this Time Zone Converter to be very handy when trying to figure out what time of day a virtual paper in another country will be given, and you can find lots of other guides and converters online.

Tolkien conference sessions don’t end with the IMC at Leeds in early July. There is more to come later this summer and fall — such as Mythcon and Oxonmoot. Stay tuned for more details later this summer, and feel free to point out in the comments other conferences this May – July season that you’re interested in.