Tag Archives: Valparaiso

New symphony by Johan de Meij to premiere at 2018 Tolkien Conference

12 Sunday Mar 2017

Posted by in Conferences, Tolkien

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Mark you calendars! November 1 – 4, 2018 is the date for a large, international Tolkien conference to be held at Valparaiso University in Indiana. Organizer Brad Eden has commissioned a new composition to be premiered at this conference by Johan de Meij, composer of Symphony #1 (Lord of the Rings), which he conducted during the 2013 Hobbit conference at Valparaiso. You can listen to part of that performance here:
 

Brad has set up a  GoFundMe page to raise the funds to pay Johan for this commission. As Brad notes, “those who give $250, $500, and $1,000 or more will be listed in the program at various levels of support and forever linked to this composition.”

https://www.gofundme.com/return-to-myddle-erde-symphony

You can read more about Johan de Meij’s work on his website, The Music of Johan de Meij. Brad has also invited Simon Tolkien, the grandson of J.R.R. Tolkien, to talk about his novels, and he is currently lining up plenary speakers as well as topics and themes for papers and panel discussions. He will have more details in the next few months. If you’re attending the PCA/ACA, Kalamazoo, or Leeds conferences, be sure to ask Brad for more information.

Calls For Papers: Tolkien

08 Saturday Jun 2013

Posted by in Calls for Papers, Tolkien

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One proposal deadline is a few days away; one a few months away; and one just passed by without my realizing it, but I’m going to post all three CFPs anyway. (Maybe late proposals will be accepted?).

With a proposal deadline of June 15, a call has gone out from Dr. Brad Eden for essays on J.R.R. Tolkien and The Hobbit:  Its Place and Influence on the Larger Legendarium. 

From Dr. Eden:

“This is a call for book chapters for an edited volume discussing research and scholarship on the influence of The Hobbit on the revision and expansion by Tolkien of the larger Middle-earth legendarium.  Christopher Tolkien has stated in writing that the writing and publication of The Hobbit in the 1930’s had no influence at all on Tolkien’s ongoing expansion and revisions of his legendarium.  Recent scholarship and detailed research has shown, however, that Tolkien was influenced by the plots, characters, and ideas presented in The Hobbit, some of which had an extraordinary effect on subsequent expansions, revisions, and new concepts within his legendarium.

This book will be anchored by two plenary papers presented at the “Celebrating The Hobbit” conference at Valparaiso University in March 2013.  Verlyn Flieger discussed French influences on the development of Bilbo Baggins in her “Bilbo’s French connections” paper, while John Rateliff provided numerous examples of The Hobbit‘s influence on Tolkien’s legendarium in his plenary address “Anchoring the Myth:  The Impact of The Hobbit on Tolkien’s Legendarium.”  Both of these papers will be included in the volume, along with other presentations from this conference.

The editor is looking for additional content for this volume, based on the above topic.  If you are interested in submitting a chapter for this volume, please send your proposal (in 500 words or less), title, and contact information to Dr. Brad Eden, editor, by June 15, 2013 (brad.eden@valpo.edu).  If accepted, your book chapter would be due no later than December 1, 2013.  At this time, discussions regarding a publisher for this volume are in progress; McFarland has expressed an interest.”

Other CFPs have come from The Mythopoeic Press, which has two collections in the planning stages:

Baptism of Fire: The Birth of Modern British Fantasy in World War I. Edited by Janet Brennan Croft.
Abstract deadline: September 1, 2013.
For more details.

Women in the Works of J.R.R. Tolkien. Janet Brennan Croft and Leslie Donovan, editors. 
Abstract deadline: May 30, 2013.
For more details.

Upcoming Tolkien conferences 2012-13

13 Monday Aug 2012

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

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Having missed the Mythopoeic Society’s conference that just wrapped up in California last week – one of these days I’ll get there! – and thinking about the Return of the Ring conference that will begin in Loughborough UK in a few days – where  I had been hoping to go but had to cancel in the end – I started thinking about other Tolkien-related conferences that I can and cannot attend in the coming year. Here is a list of upcoming Tolkien conferences – the ones I know of, at least.  This year marks the 75th anniversary of the publication of The Hobbit, and with Peter Jackson’s first installment of The Hobbit films coming out in December, there is particular interest in that text this year.

Do you know of any other conferences relating to Tolkien studies that I’ve missed? Please let me know!

Return of the Ring: Celebrating Tolkien in 2012
University of Loughborough, UK
August 16-20, 2012
http://www.returnofthering.org/

Tolkien: The Forest and the City
The School of English, Trinity College, Dublin
September 21-22, 2012
http://www.tcd.ie/English/news-events/Tolkien Conference.php
Keynote address by Tom Shippey. Invited lecturers: Michael D.C. Drout; Verlyn Flieger; Thomas Honegger; Alison Milbank. Roundtable: Henry Gee. Papers by Dimitra Fimi and others.

Oxonmoot
Lady Margaret Hall, Oxford
September 21-23, 2012
http://www.oxonmoot.org/

Hobbit Symposium
The Woode-walkers Medieval Studies Group, the English Dept., and Center for Medieval and Renaissance Studies, St. Louis University, St. Louis, Missouri, US
December 1, 2012
Call for papers: September 22, 2012
Plenary address: Douglas A. Anderson
http://woodewalkers.wordpress.com/hobbit-symposium/

Celebrating The Hobbit: A Conference on the Works of J.R.R. Tolkien
Valparaiso University
Valparaiso, Indiana, US
March 1-3, 2013
Call for papers: September 1, 2012
Plenary speakers: Verlyn Flieger, Douglas A. Anderson, John D. Rateliff. Featuring a 25th anniversary performance of Symphony #1: The Lord of the Rings, composed and conducted by Johan de Meij.
http://conference.valpo.edu/tolkien/

10th Annual Tolkien at UVM Conference
University of Vermont
Burlington, Vermont, US
Keynote speaker: John D. Rateliff
The conference usually takes place in early April (2013).
The call for papers usually has a January deadline.
Contact: Chris Vacarro : cvaccaro [at] uvm [dot] edu

Leo Con 2013
Sci-Fi, Fantasy, Anime/Manga, Gaming Convention
Texas A&M Commerce
April 13, 2013
Planned events include Hobbit discussion panels.
http://leoconn.wordpress.com/sigil/books/

10th DTG Tolkien Seminar 2013
Adaptations of Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings
10th DTG Tolkien Seminar
RWTH Aachen
April, 26-28, 2013
Call for papers: November 30, 2012
http://www.tolkiengesellschaft.de/8051/call-for-papers-tolkien-seminar-2013/

Tolkien at Kalamazoo
International Congress on Medieval Studies
University of Western Michigan
Kalamazoo, Michigan, US
May 9-12, 2013
Call for papers: September 15, 2012
http://www.wmich.edu/medieval/congress/

Follow the Congress links for contact information and instructions on how to submit proposals. Sessions that specifically mention Tolkien are the following:
Tolkien at Kalamazoo:I.In Honor of Verlyn Flieger: The State of Tolkien Scholarship (ARoundtable Discussion); II. Art and Music of TheHobbit; III. Tolkien as Medieval Scholar; IV. Women in Tolkien’s Professional Life; V. In Honor of Jane Chance: Tolkien and Alterity; VI. Tolkien Unbound (A Performance)

Society for the Study of Homosexuality in the Middle Ages (SSHMA)Queer Tolkien [cosponsored with Tolkien at Kalamazoo]

Tales after Tolkien: Medievalism and Twenty-First-Century Fantasy Literature

Mythcon 44
Green and Growing: The Land and Its Inhabitants in Fantasy
The Mythopoeic Society
Michigan State University
East Lansing, Michigan, US
July 12-15, 2013
http://www.mythsoc.org/mythcon/44/

Omentielva Lempea: The Fifth International Conference on J.R.R. Tolkien’s Invented Languages
August 8-11, 2013
Helsinki, Finland
http://www.omentielva.com/next.htm

And looking even further ahead:

3rd Conference on Middle-earth, Part 2
March 28-30, 2014
Westford, MA, US
Call for papers:  March 25, 2013 – December 31, 2013
http://www.3rdcome.org/index.html

I’m wondering if there will be any Tolkien sessions at the MLA 2013 convention or at the International Conference on the Fantastic in the Arts in 2013?  If you know of any Tolkien studies panels there or elsewhere, let us know!