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Tolkien conference sessions this month

03 Wednesday Apr 2019

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April is a good month for Tolkien conferences in the U.S.

Tolkien in Vermont

In a few days, the 16th annual Tolkien in Vermont conference will take place at the University of Vermont in Burlington.  This year’s theme is Tolkien and Horror, and the keynote speaker is Dr. Yvette Kisor from Ramapo College, who will be talking about “The horror of the unnarrated: Implications for Tolkien’s reader.”

This is always a small and friendly conference, and this year there’s an extra treat for participants – a private, advance screening of the Tolkien biopic directed by Dome Karukoski.

In addition to Dr. Kisor’s keynote address and the after-movie discussions, there will be sessions on:

  • Nature, Madness, and Humor
  • The Perils of Faerie
  • UVM Undergraduate Voices
  • Horror of Words
  • Horrors of Modernity
  • On the Borders of Horror

You can find the full schedule of speakers and titles for Friday, April 5 to Saturday, April 6 here.

Popular Culture Association logo

A couple of weeks later, the Popular Culture Association conference will be held in Washington, DC from April 17 to April 20.  In contrast to the Vermont meeting, this is a massive event with many different subject areas. The Tolkien sessions, though, organized by Dr. Robin Reid, take place Thursday, April 18 to Friday, April 19 and focus on the following topics:

  • Adaptations of Tolkien’s Legendarium
  • Enchantment, Healing, and Despair in The Lord of the Rings
  • Multidisciplinary Tolkien Studies
  • Landscapes in Lee, Tolkien, and Hemingway
  • Digital Humanities and Tolkien Praxis Roundtable
  • Digital Humanities and Tolkien Theory Roundtable
  • The Future of Tolkien Studies Roundtable

The full list of speakers and titles can be found on the PCA Tolkien Studies area page.

To keep up with news from the Tolkien group at PCA, you can check out their public Facebook page by searching for “Tolkien Studies at Popular Culture/ American Culture Association.”

CFP: Queer Tolkien Studies at PCA 2018

09 Saturday Sep 2017

Posted by in Calls for Papers, Conferences, Fan studies, Medievalisms, Tolkien

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This call for papers comes from Robin Reid, organizer of the Tolkien Studies area at the PCA/ACA national conference.

CFP: Queer Tolkien Studies
Paper Session(s) and Roundtable

For  PCA/ACA 2018 National Conference
J.W. Marriott Indianapolis Downtown, Indianapolis, IN, US
March 28-31, 2018

http://pcaaca.org/national-conference/

Deadline for Submission: SEPTEMBER 28, 2017

These sessions will be co-sponsored by the Gay, Lesbian, and Queer Studies and the Tolkien Studies areas:

Bruce E. Drushel, Ph.D.
Gay, Lesbian, and Queer Studies
Department of Media, Journalism, & Film
Miami University
Oxford OH  45056
drushebe@miamioh.edu

Robin Anne Reid, Ph.D.
Tolkien Studies
Department of Literature and Languages
A&M University-Commerce
Commerce, TX 75429
Robin.Reid@tamuc.edu

We wish to organize at least one paper session and one roundtable for the conference. PCA allows presenters to participate in one paper session and in one roundtable.

Submit a title and 100-word abstract with a working bibliography, a mailing address, institutional affiliation, and e-mail address to both area chairs by September 28, 2017. Please indicate clearly whether your proposal is for the paper session, or for the roundtable. If you wish to participate in both, you must submit two different proposals.

Presentations may focus on any aspect of textual production, audience reception, or textual coding that challenge established categories of gender and sexuality including but not limited to:

  • Gay, lesbian, bisexual, trans* or queer readings of Tolkien’s or Jackson’s texts;
  • Readings that focus on non-normative but not clearly marked expressions of gender and sexuality in Tolkien’s or Jackson’s texts;
  • Transformative or derivative works that queer Tolkien’s or Jackson’s texts;
  • Intersectional queer readings of Tolkien’s or Jackson’s texts;
  • Queer Theories/Theorists and Tolkien studies (including historical and biographical aspects as well as fiction and scholarship).

Plans for a Queer Tolkien Studies anthology (co-edited by Robin Anne Reid, Christopher Vaccaro, and Stephen Yandell) will be discussed at the PCA sessions.

 

And another call: Tolkien at PCA/ACA 2018

12 Wednesday Jul 2017

Posted by in Calls for Papers, Conferences, Fan studies, Medievalisms, Tolkien

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Organizer Robin Reid has sent out a call for papers for the Tolkien Studies area at the 2018 Popular Culture Association conference, to be held March 28-31 in Indianapolis, IN, US.

Below is a copy of the CFP, also available for download here:  PCA 2018 CFP [pdf]

PCA/ACA 2018 NATIONAL CONFERENCE
TOLKIEN STUDIES AREA CFP
J.W. MARRIOTT INDIANAPOLIS DOWNTOWN, INDIANAPOLIS, IN
MARCH 28-31, 2018

http://pcaaca.org/national-conference/

SUBMISSIONS: JULY 1-OCTOBER 1

Presenting at PCA/ACA:  http://pcaaca.org/national-conference/conference-details/

For information on the Tolkien Studies area, please contact:

Robin Anne Reid
Department of Literature and Languages
A&M University-Commerce
Commerce, TX 75429
Robin.Reid@tamuc.edu

Or check the Tolkien Studies at Popular Culture Public Group on Facebook.

The Tolkien Studies Area welcomes proposals for papers or sessions in any area of Tolkien Studies (the Legendarium, adaptations, reader reception and fan studies, source studies, cultural studies, tourism studies, literary studies, medieval and medievalist studies, media and marketing) from any disciplinary or interdisciplinary perspective. Sessions are scheduled in 1½ hour slots, typically with four papers or speakers per paper session. Roundtables may have five-seven speakers. Currently proposed sessions we are especially interested in filling are:  Queer Tolkien Studies and The Future of Tolkien Studies.

To submit your paper or panel proposal, go to http://ncp.pcaaca.org and follow the instructions for creating an account and making your submission. ALL submissions must be made through the conference submission site.

For individual papers, please submit a title and 100-word abstract with a working bibliography. For roundtables or complete paper sessions, please submit titles and abstracts for all papers, along with a paragraph describing the central theme and the names of chairs, participants, and respondents (if any).  For each participant, please provide a mailing address, institutional affiliation, and e-mail address.

Key Dates:

 Jul 1. Database Opens for Submissions
Oct 1. Registration Opens
Oct 1. Deadline for Paper Proposals
Oct 15. All Sessions Entered into the Database by Area Chairs
Nov 15. Early Bird Registration Rate Ends
Dec 1. Preliminary Program Available
Dec 15. “Drop Dead” Date:  Participants Not Registered Removed from Program
Jan 1, 2018. Final Program to Publisher

 

Tolkien Studies at PCA/ACA 2017

06 Thursday Apr 2017

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Popular Culture Association logo

It’s springtime, and that means that Tolkien conference season is picking up momentum. If you can’t attend the Tolkien in Vermont conference this weekend, then maybe California is closer or more convenient. The annual Popular Culture Association/American Culture Association conference will be held April 12-15 this year in San Diego, with the Tolkien Studies area organized once again by its founder, Robin Reid. The Tolkien sessions are scheduled for April 13-14.

There’s a public Facebook group where you can keep up with announcements or contact others in the Tolkien Studies area. More conference information is available on the PCA/ACA site. I’ve copied the list of Tolkien sessions from the PCA/ACA Tolkien Studies conference schedule page.

I. TOLKIEN STUDIES: 20th CENTURY LITERATURE AND HISTORY
Thursday, April 13, 2017 – 8:00am to 9:30am (Torrey Pines 3)
Session chair: Victoria L Holtz Wodzak

Presenters

  • The Real Business of Bilbo; the Dreams of Conan: Sword and Sorcery, Epic Fantasy, and the Rhetoric of the Ordinary. Jason Ray Carney
  • Strange Bedfellows: Tolkien and Eddison. Peter Grybauskas
  • There Was a Merry Band of Men, A Gardener, an Invalid, and the Lords Who Loved Them So: The Portrayal of Soldier-Servant Relationships and Their Reflections of War. Alicia Fox-Lenz
  • Tolkien Underground: Reimagining World War I Bunkers and Tunnels. Victoria L Holtz Wodzak

 

II. TOLKIEN STUDIES: INFLUENCES AND CONNECTIONS
Thursday, April 13, 2017 – 9:45am to 11:15am (Torrey Pines 3)
Session chair: Brad Eden

Presenters

  • The Dreamflower: Lothlorien in Middle-Earth Space-Time.  Brian Walter
  • Tolkien and Pre-Vatican II Catholicism 101. Michael Wodzak
  • The ‘Third Spring’: a neglected thread of Tolkien scholarship. Brad Eden

 

III. TOLKIEN STUDIES ROUNDTABLE: TOLKIEN AND ALTERITY
Thursday, April 13, 2017 – 11:30am to 1:00pm (Torrey Pines 3)
Session chair: Kristine Larsen

Presenters: Kristine Larsen, Brad Eden, Stephen Yandell, Robin Anne Reid

 

IV. TOLKIEN STUDIES: FAN STUDIES 1
Friday, April 14, 2017 – 8:00am to 9:30am (Torrey Pines 3)
Session chair: Mikhail Skoptsov

Presenters

  • Making or Creating: Fans Transforming Orcs. Robin Anne Reid
  • Deconstructing Durin’s Day: Science in the Service of Fan-Scholars. Kristine Larsen
  • Lord of the Rings and Fans panel. Maggie Parke
  • The Hobbit Variations: Publication, Adaptation, and Fan Revision. Mikhail Skoptsov


V. TOLKIEN STUDIES: CULTURAL AND FILM STUDIES
Friday, April 14, 2017 – 9:45am to 11:15am (Torrey Pines 3)
Session chair: Janice Bogstad

Presenters

  • The Sacred Nature of Enchantment and Loss: Peter Jackson’s The Hobbit as an Ecotheology of Transformation. Kellianne H Matthews
  • Wood and Water, Stock and Stone: Rediscovering English Landscapes through Walking. Christopher Cameron
  • Visually Monstrous: Jackson’s Iconic Revisualizations of Hobbit Heroes and Villains. Janice Bogstad

 

VI: TOLKIEN STUDIES: FAN STUDIES 2
Friday, April 14, 2017 – 11:30am to 1:00pm (Torrey Pines 3)
Session chair: Sarah Coates

Presenters

  • Whispers of a Tenth Walker: Lord of the Rings Fanfiction and Feminine / Feminist Interventions in Middle-Earth. Eva Wijman
  • Bagginshield: An Exploration of Portrayals of Romantic Relationships between Bilbo Baggins and Thorin Oakenshield in Fanfiction. Sarah Coates

 

The PCA conference is a huge event. If you’re interested in popular culture, you’re sure to find sessions of interest, even outside the Tolkien Studies area — browse the conference webpages to find out more.

Tolkien Studies at PCA 2016

20 Sunday Mar 2016

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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.”

Tolkien conference season 2016

31 Sunday Jan 2016

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

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Here are some Tolkien conferences coming up in the spring and summer — prime conference season! I can’t claim to list every event that’s going on, so if you’d like to add something to the list, please let me know in the comments section. If you want to know about Tolkien-related events around the world, not necessarily just conferences, I’d suggest the public Facebook group International Tolkien Fellowship List of Events. Also, Troels Forchammer’s monthly Tolkien Transactions usually catches more items than I’m aware of. But here are the conferences that I do know about:

Popular Culture Association (PCA)

Popular Culture Association logo

Seattle, Washington
March 22 -25, 2016

The preliminary program, organized by Robin Reid, can be viewed here. The speakers include Martin Barker presenting on the World Hobbit Project; an academic editors’ roundtable discussion with Leslie Donovan, Janet Croft, Brad Eden, Janice Bogstad, and Martin Barker; and numerous other papers on adaptation, translation, reception, and more. The nice thing about the online PCA program is that you can dig down into each session and read the abstracts of all the papers. There are eight sessions in the Tolkien Studies area, another successful year for this new subject area at the PCA national conference.

 

13th Annual Tolkien in Vermont conference

Tolkien in Vermont conference

Burlington, Vermont
April 8 – 9, 2016

This year’s theme is “Tolkien and Popular Culture,” with keynote speaker Robin Reid. A program will be available on the Tolkien in Vermont website. This small conference, organized by Chris Vaccaro, is always a friendly mix of faculty, students, and independent scholars.

 

Tolkien’s Philosophy of Language

13th Seminar of the Deutsche Tolkien Gesellschaft (DTF)
The Friedrich Schiller University Jena and Walking Tree Publishers
May 6 – 8, 2016

A link to more conference information can be found here.

 

Tolkien at Kalamazoo

Kalamazoo campus swan pond

International Congress on Medieval Studies
Western Michigan University, Kalamazoo Michigan
May 12 – 15, 2016

I’ve already posted a schedule of sessions on Tolkien and medievalism as they appeared in the preliminary program. There are seven sessions dealing with Tolkien, mostly organized by Brad Eden and a few others. This year, one of the plenary speakers will be Jane Chance talking about “How we read J.R.R. Tolkien reading Grendel’s mother.” The ICMS is a huge conference, usually drawing around 3,000 participants in sessions on all aspects of the Middle Ages and medievalism.

 

Tolkien Among Scholars: 7th Unquendor Lustrum Conference 2016

Leiden University Centre for the Arts in Society and the Dutch Tolkien Society Unquendor.
June 18, 2016

The keynote speakers for this international conference will be Thomas M. Honegger and Paul Smith. The program will be posted on the conference website.

 

Tolkien Society Seminar 2016

Tolkien Society

Leeds, UK
July 3, 2016

The theme of this year’s seminar is “Life, Death, and Immortality,” and if you’re interested in giving a paper, there’s still time: March 25 is the deadline for submissions. You can find the Call for Papers and more information here. The Seminar takes place the day before the International Medieval Congress begins at Leeds University, where you’ll find more Tolkien sessions (see below).

 

International Medieval Congress

medieval

Leeds University
July 4 – 7, 2016

Dimitra Fimi has organized two sessions on Tolkien for this conference. Like Kalamazoo, the Leeds conference draws thousands of medievalists every year. The program will be posted on the conference website.

 

New York Tolkien Conference

cropped-logo-art.jpg

Baruch College, New York City
July 16, 2016

This conference, organized by Jessica Burke and Anthony Burdge, is back again after last year’s successful inaugural event. The special theme for this year’s conference is “The Inklings and Science,” with guests of honour Kristine Larsen and Jared Lobdell. The call for papers has not yet been posted, but keep checking the conference site for information as it becomes available.

 

Mythcon 47

Mythopoeic Society

Mythopoeic Society
San Antonio, Texas
August 5 – 8, 2016

The special theme for this year’s conference is “Faces of Mythology: Ancient, Medieval, and Modern.” The Scholar Guest of Honour is Andrew Lazo and the Author Guest of Honour, Midori Snyder. You can find a call for papers here; the deadline is May 1st to send proposals to Jason Fisher, the papers co-ordinator for this conference.

 

That’s my list for now. Clearly, the field of Tolkien Studies is thriving. I wish I had unlimited funds to travel to every one of these meetings!

 

 

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

30 Tuesday Jun 2015

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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 to October 1st.

More information about the conference and how to submit proposals can be found on the PCA/ACA Tolkien Studies page. You can also keep up with news of the conference and other items of interest by joining the public Tolkien Studies at the Popular Culture/American Culture Association Facebook group. If you join the group, you can download Robin Reid’s notes on all of the 2015 sessions. For another view of the 2015 meeting, see David Bratman’s report on the Tolkien Society blog. Going even further back, you can find my summaries of two of the roundtable discussions from the 2014 conference here and here.

Tolkien Studies at PCA 2015

21 Saturday Mar 2015

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Popular Culture Association logoThe 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 held in New Orleans from April 1 – 4. The Tolkien sessions are all on Friday, April 3, with a business meeting on April 4.  If you’re interested, you can join the Facebook group, “Tolkien Studies at Popular Culture/American Culture Association” and/or read my summary of a couple of roundtables last year here and here. And please note that the list of panels below is subject to change — if you plan to go, always check the official program to make sure you have accurate and updated information.  As you can see, the Tolkien Studies sessions occupy a whole day, but if you’re around for the rest of the conference, there’s a huge range of other sessions on popular culture to take in.

Tolkien Studies I: Literary Studies 1
Friday, April 3, 2015 – 8:00 a.m. – 9:30 a.m.
Room: Studio 7

Kristine Larsen, Central Connecticut State University
“Ore-ganisms”: The Myth and Meaning of ‘Living Rock’ in Middle-earth

Victoria L. Holtz Wodzak, Viterbo University
Tolkien’s Gimpy Heroes: Trench Fever, Missing Limbs, and the Crippling Long-Term Effects of Injury

Margaret Sinex, Western Illinois University
“Nay, not Níniel”: The Wounded Psyche in the Prose Tradition of The Children of Húrin

Tolkien Studies II: Literary Studies 2
Friday, April 3, 2015 – 9:45 a.m. – 11:15 a.m.
Room: Studio 7

Megan Whobrey, University of Central Oklahoma
Middle-earth’s Eddaic Hierarchy of Music

John Rosegrant, private practice
The Man-Maiden and the Spider with Horns: Galadriel, Shelob, and the Dyamics of Loss and Gender

Rich Cooper, Texas A&M
From Folk Tale to Fantasy: J.R.R. Tolkien, Madame D’Aulnoy, and the Evolution of a Literary Form

Janet Croft, Rutgers University
The Name of the Ring: Or, There and Back Again

Tolkien Studies III: Film and Literary Studies
Friday, April 3, 2015 – 11:30 a.m. – 1:00 p.m.
Room: Studio 7

Steven Kelly, Kansas State University
Forget the Gold: Unpacking Conservative Ideology in Peter Jackson’s Film Adaptations of The Hobbit

Peter Grybauskas, University of Maryland
The Devil’s Due: Sporting Enemies in the Legendarium

David Bratman, Mythopoeic Society
“Smith of Wootton Major and Genre Fantasy”

Michael Wodzak, Viterbo University
Utumno Born and Utumno Bred, Strong in t’Arm and Thick in t’Ead:Who are Tom, Bert and Bill Huggins?

Tolkien Studies IV: Film Studies
Friday, April 3, 2015 – 1:15 p.m. – 2:45 p.m.
Room: Studio 7

Alicia Fox-Lenz, Independent Scholar
The Union between The Two Towers and the Twin Towers: Contemporary Audience Reception and the influence of war on The Lord of the Rings

Jennifer Spirko, Blount County Public Library
Extraordinary Orcs: Distorted Bodies in the films of The Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit

Janice Bogstad, University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire
Lineage, Family, and the Absent Mother: Comparing Tolkien’s The Hobbit to the Jackson/Walsh/Boyens Cinematic Renderings

Robin Reid, Texas A&M University-Commerce
Conflicting Audience Receptions of Tauriel in Peter Jackson’s The Hobbit

Tolkien Studies V: Cultural Studies
Friday, April 3, 2015 – 3:00 p.m. – 4:30 p.m.
Room: Studio 7

Phillip Fitzsimmons, Southwestern Oklahoma State University
The palantíri Stones in J. R. R. Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings as Sauron’s Social Media: How to Avoid Getting Poked by the Dark Lord

Devena Holmes, Kent State University
Narration and Description: A Marxist Analysis of J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings

Helen Young, University of Sydney
Playing in the Shadow of Middle-earth

Tolkien Studies VI: New Approaches to Tolkien Studies
Friday, April 3, 2015 – 4:45 p.m. – 6:15 p.m.
Room: Studio 7

Brad Eden, Valparaiso University
Preliminary thoughts on the library of Michael H.R. Tolkien

Quinn Gervel, University of Manchester/Ashbury University
Tolkien in Context

Jerem Painter and Michael Elam, Regent University
Orwell and Tolkien: Language and Survelliance in Middle-earth and Oceana

Michael Elam, Regent University
Storming the Ivory Tower: Tolkien’s Graduate-Program Possibilities

Tolkien Studies VII:  Roundtable
Friday, April 3, 2015 – 6:30 p.m. – 8:00 p.m.
Room: Studio 7
“In a hole in the ground there lived a fangirl”: The Complications of Tolkien, Fandom, and The Hobbit
Cait Coker Texas A&M; Kristine Larsen, Central Connecticut State University; Robin Reid, Texas A&M, Commerce

Tolkien Studies VIII:  Viewing of Desolation of Smaug extended edition
Friday, April 3, 2015.  8:15 p.m.
Room: Studio 7

Tolkien Studies IX: Business meeting
Saturday, April 4, 2015.  9:45 a.m.-11:15 a.m.
Room:  Galerie I

Tolkien conference season 2015

04 Wednesday Feb 2015

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

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It’s time to start organizing my travel to various conferences this spring and summer. I wish I could attend all of these meetings, but I’ll be fortunate enough to go to a couple of them at least. My list focuses on North American conferences because I know those best, but please let me know in the comments if there are others. I hope my list will demonstrate the healthy state of academic Tolkien Studies and maybe entice you to go to one of these events — if you’re not already booking your tickets. And while there will be plenty of professional scholars at these conferences,  most of these events draw a lively mix of academics, independent scholars, writers, artists, fans of all kinds.

The first meeting will be held in a few weeks – not exactly springtime where I live, but still it does kick off the conference season:

There and Back Again: Tolkien in 2015 OSU Tolkien 2015: There and Back Again Conference, Feb 20-21, 2015
The Ohio State University.
February 20-21, 2015

This is the second annual Popular Culture and the Deep Past event sponsored by the Center for Medieval and Renaissance Studies at Ohio State U.  According to the event website: “this will be a full-fledged conference, itself nested in a broader ‘carnival’ of popular and traditional cultural events and activities.”  Sounds like there will be something for everyone.

Popular Culture/American Culture Association National Conference
Popular Culture Association logo
New Orleans Marriott
April 1-4, 2015

This is a massive conference that draws scholars from a huge variety of fields. The newly established Tolkien Studies area, organized by Robin Reid, is sponsoring eight sessions plus a business meeting for a second year in a row.  The final program should be posted soon on the website.

12th annual Tolkien in Vermont conference
Tolkien in Vermont conference
University of Vermont
Burlington, VT
April 10-11, 2015

This year’s theme is medieval narrative verse, with Michael Drout as the keynote speaker. According to the conference organizer, Chris Vaccaro, a program will be posted soon on the website. This is usually a small and friendly conference attended by faculty, students, and the general public, with an open mic night on Friday followed by a day of presentations on Saturday.

International Congress on Medieval Studies 
Kalamazoo campus swan pond
University of Western Michigan
Kalamazoo, MI
May  14-17, 2015

This annual conference draws thousands of medievalists every year, but it also includes anyone interested in the scholarly study of Tolkien (not always the same as a medievalist).  The Tolkien at Kalamazoo group sponsors as many sessions as are allowed by the Congress organizers, and other sponsoring groups have sessions on Tolkien or on medievalisms as well.  You can search through the conference program  for what interests you.

New York City Tolkien Conference
New York City Tolkien ConferenceBaruch College
New York
June 13, 2015

The call for papers is on the site, with a deadline for proposals of April 7, 2015.  The keynote speaker will be Janet Brennan Croft and musical guest of honour, John DiBartolo.

Mythopoeic Society Conference / Mythcon 46
Mythopoeic Society
Hotel Elegante
Colorado Springs, Colorado
July 31-August 3, 2015

The special theme is the Arthurian Mythos.  I expect that more details about the program will appear on the website soon. This conference is usually a nice combination of serious academic papers and fun social events, readings, and more.

International Medieval Congress 
IMC 2015 poster
University of Leeds
July 6-9, 2015

This is the largest conference on medieval studies in Europe. A search through the program found three sessions on Tolkien.

Update February 12: Dr. Dimitra Fimi, who has organized some of these sessions, has more details about sessions on Tolkien, medievalism, fantasy, Arthurian tradition and more on her blog.

And looking ahead towards the end of the summer,  there is always
The Tolkien Society’s Oxonmoot
Tolkien Society
September 10-13, 2015.
St. Anthony’s  College, Oxford

And here are a couple of other conferences that focus on medievalism and that could very well end up sponsoring sessions on Tolkien:

The Middle Ages in the Modern World (MAMO)
June 29 – July 2, 2015
University of Lincoln, Lincoln UK

Update Feb. 12:  The provisional programme is now available. One session on Tolkien and lots of other good panels on various medievalism topics.

International Conference on Medievalism
This conference usually takes place in the fall.  I don’t see any information on the website yet about the next meeting.

I realize on looking over this list that it is heavily skewed towards Tolkien as a medievalist. If there are any other conferences you feel people should know about, please feel free to add them in the comments. It would also be interesting to know about other Tolkien conferences beyond North America and the UK.

Update Feb. 12:  Thanks to Marcel Aubron Bülles  here is another conference program:

German Tolkien Society
University of Aachen
May 1-3, 2015

Tolkien Studies at Popular Culture Association 2015 meeting

01 Wednesday Oct 2014

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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 1-4, 2015:

“We welcome proposals on any area of Tolkien Studies (the Legendarium, adaptations, reader reception and fan studies, media and marketing) from any disciplinary or interdisciplinary perspective. Sessions are scheduled in 1½ hour slots, typically with four papers or speakers per standard session.”

Proposals have to be submitted through the conference website by November 1st at http://ncp.pcaaca.org.

The full call for papers and contact details can be found here: PCA 2015 CFP [pdf]

To follow the progress of the conference planning, you can always join the Tolkien Studies at PCA Facebook group.