Anna Smol: A Single Leaf

Category: Fan studies

  • Widsith, D&D, Fanworks, and Films: Another Year in ENGL 4475

    ENGL 4475: the year in review I’ve filed away my course notes and given out the final grades. ENGL 4475: Tolkien & Myth-making is officially over for the 2016-17 academic year. The project proposals, annotated bibliographies, abstracts, research papers, and exams are all done now. What’s left is my delight at the many ways my…

  • Two Calls for Papers in Fan Studies

    These calls for papers in fan studies have recently come my way. The first is for a special issue of the Journal of Tolkien Research, The editors, Kristine Larsen and Robin Reid, have put out a call for proposals “for fan studies scholarship on any aspect of fan production, creation, or activities relating to J.…

  • Tolkien in Vermont 2016 program

    The Tolkien in Vermont conference will take place this coming weekend. This is a small, friendly conference that brings together every year a group of faculty, independent scholars, and students. This year’s theme is Tolkien and Popular Culture. If you look at the program below, you’ll see a couple of pretty long titles! This is…

  • Tolkien Studies at PCA 2016

    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…

  • Call for papers: Tolkien Studies at PCA/ACA, March 2016

    After Robin Reid organized the first successful round of Tolkien Studies sessions two years ago at the Popular Culture Association conference in Chicago, Tolkien Studies has become a regular part of the PCA/ACA annual conference.  In 2016, the conference will be held in Seattle, from March 21-25. Paper proposals can be submitted from July 1st…

  • Talks on Tolkien: Dawn Walls-Thumma on transformative works

    I had originally announced “Talks on Tolkien” as a winter series, and even though the snow is still slowly melting in my corner of the world, we have passed the spring equinox and the Fall of Sauron, which should be bringing us into a new age. So this post will present the last video in…

  • Tolkien Studies at PCA 2015

    The Popular Culture Association national conference is just around the corner. After a successful trial run of Tolkien Studies as a special area last year, the organizers have included Tolkien Studies as a regular topic in the annual program. This year features another packed program, once again organized by Robin Reid. The conference will be…

  • Jackson’s Lost Opportunity: The Death of Sister-Sons

    I enjoy many things about Peter Jackson’s Hobbit films – the material realization of various Middle-earth cultures, the creation of the best movie dragon I’ve ever seen, Martin Freeman’s Bilbo, to name only a few – but of course Jackson is not making the films specifically for me, a medievalist with a love of Tolkien’s…

  • An imagined dystopian LotR film

    Today I have a post that combines my interests in both Tolkien and pedagogy. In one of my English courses, Studies in Medievalism: Tolkien and Myth-making, I ask students to read the works of J.R.R. Tolkien and some of the medieval literature that influenced him. We also consider later adaptations of Tolkien’s fiction in various…

  • Tolkien Studies at Popular Culture Association 2015 meeting

    After a successful trial run last April at the Popular Culture / American Culture Association conference, a regular Tolkien Studies stream has been approved for the annual conference. The organizer of the Tolkien Studies area, Robin Reid, has issued a general call for papers for the 2015 conference to be held in New Orleans, April…