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Sometime in 2013, in frustration with what was happening at the International Congress on Medieval Studies, I wrote to the Vice President in charge of the Areas at the Popular Culture Association and asked if the PCA would be interested in my forming a Tolkien Studies Area.
The process for establishing a new subject area is fairly simple. The VP oversees a special session for a year or two, working with the person who is proposing to start and lead the area, and if there is sufficient interest during those years, a new area is formed. “Subject areas” at the PCA are the equivalent of sponsoring sessions at Kalamazoo: the content specialist who leads the area is responsible for advertising the conference, reviewing and accepting proposals, organizing the sessions, and generally serving as the primary communication link between the PCA and the presenters.
I served as the Area Chair for the Science Fiction and Fantasy area in the 1990s (at that point, pre-internet, I showed up at the area’s business meetings, did my usual “why yes I am an autist but I will talk your ear off about what I love,” and ended up Area Chair when the incumbent decided he wanted to step down. I loved doing it. My previous experience helped, I imagine, and the Tolkien Studies Area was approved after our first year.
Going through my records of the conferences in the wake of the 2021 conference (a virtual one, June 2 – 5), I suddenly realized that we were coming up to the tenth anniversary of the Tolkien Studies area in 2023. While the 2020 conference was cancelled, I’m still ‘counting’ it, and the anniversary is based on the year the area started. I decided to combine the session information from each year and make it available to my area emailing list and also post online for archival purposes!
I’m posting it here in my Tolkien Dreamwidth journal because I have decided to make it my general Tolkien academic space going forward. Now that I’ve finished the move and settled in to Bellingham, I hope to start posting here more regularly!
Behind the cut, eight years of programming on Tolkien Studies, a total of 47 sessions (including paper sessions, roundtables, and business meetings)!
Note: for an occasional paper session, only one or two people are listed. Those are the result of people withdrawing. PCA requires three-four papers be scheduled.
2014 CHICAGO, IL 4 Sessions
TOLKIEN STUDIES 1: WAR IN MIDDLE-EARTH
Noms de Guerre: The Power of Naming in War and Conflict in Middle-earth. Janet Croft
Gollum’s Great Chain of Hearing: The Great War and Tolkien’s Last Alliance. Peter Grybauskas
The War Wounded in the Prose Tradition of The Children of Hurin. Margaret Sinex
TOLKIEN STUDIES 2: ILLUSTRATIONS & FILMS
Illustration as Translation: Assertion of National Identity in Tove Jansson’s Illustrations of Tolkien’s The Hobbit. M. Lee Alexander
The Disabled Hero: The Ethics of the Wound in Peter Jackson’s The Lord of the Rings. Todd Comer
Ruins and Dreams: Environmental Visions within The Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey. William Korver
Tolkien and the Multimodal Text: Narrative Transformational Strategies. Janice Bogstad
TOLKIEN STUDIES 3: THE MATERIALITY OF MIDDLE-EARTH
Tolkien and Literary Cartography: Spatiality, Fantasy, Modernity. Robert Tally
Constructions of Middle-earth in Tolkien’s Legendarium.Robin Reid \Breaking the Dragon’s Gaze: Revealing Commodity Fetishism in Tolkien’s Middle-earth. Steven Kelly
Darkness Amid the Day: Eclipses in the Works of J.R.R. Tolkien. Kristine Larsen
TOLKIEN STUDIES 4: COMPLEX HEROES & IDEALS IN TOLKIEN’S LEGENDARIUM
Frodo is Overrated: Why Samwise Gamgee is the True Hero of The Lord of the Rings. Kathryn Allen
The Making of a Hero: Success and Failure of Heroic Characters in Beowulf and The Lord of the Rings. Rachel Syens
Tolkien’s Unfallen Man: Tom Bombadil as an Image of Humanity’s Ideal State. Brian Kenna
Tolkien and the Buddhist influence: thoughts and perspectives. Brad Eden
2015 NEW ORLEANS, LA 8 Sessions
TOLKIEN STUDIES 1: LITERARY STUDIES 1
‘Ore-ganisms’: The Myth and Meaning of ‘Living Rock’ in Middle-earth. Kristine Larsen
Tolkien’s Gimpy Heroes: Trench Fever, Missing Limbs, and the Crippling Long-Term Effects of Injury. Victoria Holtz-Wodzak
‘Nay, not Níniel’: The Wounded Psyche in the Prose Tradition of The Children of Húrin. Margaret Sinex
TOLKIEN STUDIES 2: LITERARY STUDIES 2
Middle-earth’s Eddaic Hierarchy of Music. Megan Whobrey
The Man-Maiden and the Spider with Horns: Galadriel, Shelob, and the Dyamics of Loss and Gender. John Rosegrant
From Folk Tale to Fantasy: J.R.R. Tolkien, Madame D’Aulnoy, and the Evolution of a Literary Form. Rich Cooper
The Name of the Ring: Or, There and Back Again.. Janet Brennan Croft
TOLKIEN STUDIES 3: FILM AND LITERARY STUDIES
Forget the Gold: Unpacking Conservative Ideology in Peter Jackson’s Film Adaptations of The Hobbit. Steven Kelly
The Devil’s Due: Sporting Enemies in the Legendarium.Peter Grybauskas
Smith of Wootton Major and Genre Fantasy.David Bratman
Utumno Born and Utumno Bred, Strong in t’Arm and Thick in t’Ead:Who are Tom, Bert and Bill Huggins? Michael Wodzak
TOLKIEN STUDIES 4: FILM STUDIES
The Union between The Two Towers and the Twin Towers: Contemporary Audience Reception and the influence of war on The Lord of the Rings. Alicia Fox Lenz
Lineage, Family, and the Absent Mother: Comparing Tolkien’s The Hobbit to Jackson/Walsh/Boyens. Janice M. Bogstad,
Extraordinary Orcs: Distorted Bodies in the films of The Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit. Jennifer Spirko
Conflicting Audience Receptions of Tauriel in Peter Jackson’s The Hobbit
Robin Reid
TOLKIEN STUDIES 5: CULTURAL STUDIES
Narration and Description: A Marxist Analysis of J. R. R. Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings. Devena Holmes
TOLKIEN STUDIES 6: NEW APPROACHES TO TOLKIEN STUDIES
Preliminary Thoughts On The Library Of Michael H.R. Tolkien. Brad Eden
Tolkien in Context. Quinn Gervel
Storming the Ivory Tower: Tolkien’s Graduate-Program Possibilities.Michael Elam
TOLKIEN STUDIES 7: FAN CULTURE AND THEORY ROUNDTABLE
‘In a hole in the ground there lived a fangirl’: The Complications of Tolkien, Fandom, and the Hobbit (five participants).
Connected Event: Film Extended Edition of The Desolation of Smaug.
TOLKIEN STUDIES 8: BUSINESS MEETING
2016 SEATTLE, WA 8 Sessions
TOLKIEN STUDIES 1: RECEPTION. THE WORLD HOBBIT PROJECT
There and Back Again: An Unexpected Journey into the Social Media World of “The Hobbit.” Doria Baltruschat
The World Hobbit Project: Findings from the International Audience. Study Martin Barker
Cultural Literacy of Tolkien’s The Hobbit in South Korean Audience and Readers. Aryong Choi-Hantke
How Bilbo lost his innocence – Media Audiences and the Evaluation of The Hobbit as a Children’s Film. Lars Schmeink
TOLKIEN STUDIES 2: TEACHING TOLKIEN’S MIDDLE-EARTH IN THE 21ST CENTURY
Rebecca Addy, Victoria L. Holtz-Wodzak, Brian Walter, Megan Abrahamson, Robin Reid, Leslie Donovan
TOLKIEN STUDIES 3: FANS, TRANSLATIONS, AND ADAPTATIONS
Admirable and Abhorred: (or, Gandalf’s hardly the only Maia in Middle-earth). Maria Alberto
Translating Tolkien into Chinese: Amateur vs. Professional. Xiqing Zheng
Glimpses of lost home in the works of J.R.R. Tolkien and Owen Barfield. Phillip Fitzsimmons
Where Yellow is White? Lego and The Lord of the Rings. Helen Young
TOLKIEN STUDIES 4: ADAPTATION & FILM STUDIES
From Page to Screen: The Rhetoric of Tolkien and Jackson’s The Lord of the Rings Trilogy. Nicole Motaharj
In the Arms of the Mountain: Tolkien’s Erebor on Page and Screen. Brian Walter
I Think It’s the Beards: Gender Ambiguity and the Erasure of Femaleness in Middle-Earth . Amanda Wetrick
Comparing the Elves in Tolkien’s Hobbit and the Hobbit Films: A Change in Centrality for Rivendell and ‘Sylvan” Elves. Janice Bogstad
TOLKIEN STUDIES 5: HISTORICAL APPROACHES
Pre-Vatican II Catholicism for Tolkien Scholars 101. Michael Wodzak
Whistle While You Break the Plates. Alicia Fox-Lenz
The enigma of Michael H.R. Tolkien (1920−1984): his life and character. Brad Eden
TOLKIEN STUDIES 6: EDITORS’ ROUNDTABLE
Janice Bogstad, Janet Croft, Leslie Donovan, Brad Eden, Helen Young
TOLKIEN STUDIES 7: THE SILMARILLION
A Deconstructive Reading of Tolkien Criticism with special emphasis on The Silmarillion. Gazala Anver
The Grammar of Myth in The Silmarillion. Robin Reid
“What Happened to the Kiss? Love between Men in The Children of Hurin.” Margaret Sinex
TOLKIEN STUDIES 8: INTERDISCIPLINARY APPROACHES
Therapeutic Reading of Bilbo’s The Red Book of Westmarch: The Heroes’ Journey Through Mental Illness. Rebecca Addy
“Above All Shadows Rides the Sun”: Redemption and Resurrection in J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings. Jaye Dozier
Rhetoric vs. Witness: Tolkien’s Response to the Language of Conflict. Victoria L. Holtz-Wodzak
2017 SAN DIEGO, CA 6 Sessions
TOLKIEN STUDIES 1: 20th CENTURY LITERATURE AND HISTORY
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
TOLKIEN STUDIES 2: INFLUENCES AND CONNECTIONS
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
TOLKIEN STUDIES 3: TOLKIEN AND ALTERITY
Middle-earth and Medieval Organicism. Kristine Larsen
Marginalization in early 20th-century Britain: Catholics and Protestantism during Tolkien’s lifetime. Brad Eden
Cruising Faery: Queer Desire in Giles, Niggle, and Smith, Stephen Yandell
Race and Tolkien Studies: A Bibliographic Essay Robin Anne Reid
TOLKIEN STUDIES 4: FAN STUDIES 1
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
TOLKIEN STUDIES 5 CULTURAL AND FILM STUDIES
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
TOLKIEN STUDIES 6: FAN STUDIES 2
Whispers of a Tenth Walker: Lord of the Rings Fanfiction and Feminine / Feminist Interventions in Middle-Earth. Eva Wijman
Making or Creating: Fans Transforming Orcs. Robin Anne Reid
Bagginshield: An Exploration of Portrayals of Romantic Relationships between Bilbo Baggins and Thorin Oakenshield in Fanfiction. Sarah Coates
2018 INDIANAPOLIS, IN 7 Sessions
TOLKIEN STUDIES 1: VISUAL ADAPTATIONS
Tolkien through the Lens of Alan Lee: Beren and Luthien. Sultana Raza
A Far Green Country: Adapting the Lands of Middle-earth for Gameplay. Alicia Fox-Lenz
Kindling for the Fire: Tolkien and Fantasy Gaming. Peter Grybauskas
TOLKIEN STUDIES 2: QUEER TOLKIEN 1
“Bending Over with Naked Blade”: The Threat of Male-Male Penetration and Homoeroticism in J.R.R. Tolkien’s Works. Zac Clifton
Frodo, Sam, and Gollum: Jealousy between Men in a Homosocial Setting.
Christopher Cameron
Among Men of War: Destabilization of Gender in The Lord of the Rings’ Faramir and Éowyn. Brooke Petersen
The End is Queer! Voyeurism and Apocalyptic Anxiety in Tolkien. Stephen Yandell
TOLKIEN STUDIES 3: ELVES AND FANS
Where Did He Get All Those Wonderful Elves? Tolkien and the Elf Tradition in LotR. Mary Leech
Sansûkh and the Formation of Metafandom: Fanfiction, The Lord of the Rings, and The Hobbit. Sarah Coates
TOLKIEN STUDIES 4: POLITICAL, PSYCHOLOGICAL, AND ARCHIVAL APPROACHES
No Kings No Masters: Tolkien’s Anarchism and the Shire. Huntley Wayne Hughes
“Under the Wings of Shadow”: Mental Health and the Price of Civilization in The Lord of the Rings. Hilary Justice
Francis Thompson (1859−1907) and Sub-creation. Brad Eden
TOLKIEN STUDIES 5: QUEER TOLKIEN 2
“From the Ashes A Fire is Woken: Queering the ‘Hero’s Journey’.” Melissa Sloat
Contingent Meetings at Helm’s Deep: Disrupting the Heroic Journey in Lord of the Rings through Arwen/Éowyn Femslash. Eva Wijman
An Incomplete Fellowship: The Exclusion of Queer Women in Tolkien Studies. Robin Anne Reid
“and stooping he raised Beleg and kissed his mouth”: Architextuality and Queer Fandom Spaces. Maria Alberto
TOLKIEN STUDIES 6: ON THE FUTURE OF TOLKIEN STUDIES
The Future of Tolkien Research: Thoughts and Visions. Brad Eden.
Bringing Theory Down to Earth: Tolkien’s Universe as a Point of Departure for the Analysis of Contemporary Political Realities. Huntley Hughes
Inhabiting Middle-earth: The immersive world of Tolkien-based Gaming. Alicia Fox-Lenz
Fan Studies. Maria Alberto
Paths and Errands; History and Culture: Hilary Justice
The Need for Intersectional and New Realist Theories of Identity in the 21st Century. Robin Anne Reid
TOLKIEN STUDIES 7: READING: TOLKIEN FANFICTION
[Open Mic after scheduled readers]
Arrogantemu’s Splintered Light series. Maria Alberto
Sansûkh, by determamfidd. Sarah Coates
“Common Tongues,” by Cupidsbow “At About Six O’Clock,” by Lobelia
Robin Anne Reid
Late Third Age/early Fourth Age fic centred on Rohan and Gondor. Eva Wijman
2019 WASHINGTON, D. C. 7 Sessions
TOLKIEN STUDIES 1: ADAPTATIONS OF TOLKIEN’S LEGENDARIUM
The procedural necessity of thematic reversal in video game adaptations of Tolkien’s legendarium. Lindsay Meaning
A Digital Humanities Approach to Genre in Tolkien’s Work. Maria Alberto
Sansûkh As a Lens for the Creation of Fanon and its Intersections with Tolkien’s Canon: A Study of the Sansûkh Fandom. Sarah Coates
Fanfiction’s Hidden City. Dawn Walls-Thumma
TOLKIEN STUDIES 2: ENCHANTMENT, HEALING, AND DESPAIR IN THE LORD OF THE RINGS
What Use Is Tolkien? Literary Enchantment And The Uses Of Fantasy Literature. Dennis Friedrichsen
Slowing Down with Tom Bombadil: Restoring Purpose through Reflection. Cale Baker
Denethor’s Sickness Unto Death: Despair as Moral Disease. Craig A Boyd
TOLKIEN STUDIES 3: MULTIDISCIPLINARY TOLKIEN STUDIES
Crowns and Crowds: The Importance of the Bodleian’s Tolkien: Maker of Middle-earth exhibition in Solving an Astronomical Mystery. Kristine Larsen
The Lord of the Zines: Providing Digital Access to Tolkien Fanzines at Marquette. William Fliss
Re-forging the Ring: J. R. R. Tolkien in the Conservative Press, 1965 – 91. Craig N Franson
Atheists, Agnostics, and Animists, Oh, My!: Tolkien’s Legendarium. Robin Anne Reid
TOLKIEN STUDIES 4: LANDSCAPES IN LEE, TOLKIEN, AND HEMINGWAY
Theories of Omission: Mountains Seen Far Away, Icebergs Right Ahead. Peter Grybauskas
Dulce et decorum: Hemingway, Tolkien, and the Landscapes of Lost Boyhood. Hilary Justice
TOLKIEN STUDIES 5: DIGITAL HUMANITIES AND TOLKIEN PRAXIS ROUNDTABLE
William Fliss, Maria Alberto, Alicia Fox-Lenz„ Sarah Coates
TOLKIEN STUDIES 6: DIGITAL HUMANITIES AND TOLKIEN THEORY ROUNDTABLE
William Fliss, Maria Alberto, Robin Anne Reid, Alicia Fox-Lenz, Sarah Coates
TOLKIEN STUDIES 7: THE FUTURE OF TOLKIEN STUDIES
Kristine Larsen, Lindsay Meaning, William Fliss, Dawn Walls-Thumma, Craig N. Franson
2020, PHILADELPHIA, PA (CANCELLED)
I am listing the presentations that were accepted and scheduled for historical purposes; a number (but not all) of the presenters for this year submitted the same work for 2021 and presented in a virtual format.
TOLKIEN STUDIES 1: RACE AND TOLKIEN
“Where Shadows Lie”: Middle-earth and Neo-fascist Metapolitics. Craig N. Franson
More Dangerous and Less Wise: Racial Hierarchies and Cultural Difference in Tolkien’s World. Robert Tally
Race in J. R. R. Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings And in Katherine Addison’s The Goblin Emperor. Robin Anne Reid
TOLKIEN STUDIES 2: THE LEGENDARIUM
Turin among the Great Tales. Peter Grybauskas
The Nimrodel and Silverlode: Lothlórien as a Secondary World. Meaghan Scott:
“I am no man”: Game of Thrones’ Lyanna Mormont as Borrowed Tolkienian Canonicity. Kristine Larsen:
TOLKIEN STUDIES 3: MULTIDISCIPLINARY TOLKIEN
“Heroes of the North”: Tolkien and Finnish Fandom. M. Lee Alexander
Elf-Songs and Orc-Talk: Environmental Ethics in J.R.R. Tolkien’s Middle-earth, from Beowulf to Peter Jackson. Amber Lehning:
Rendering Visible An Understanding Of Power In Leadership In Tolkien’s Creation Mythology: Ainulindalë And Akallabêth. James Eric Siburt
TOLKIEN STUDIES 4: THE FUTURE OF TOLKIEN STUDIES
Craig N. Franson, Robert Tally, Peter Grybauskas, James Eric Siburt, Amber Lehning, Robin Anne Reid
2021 VIRTUAL (BOSTON, MA) 7 Sessions
TOLKIEN STUDIES 1: ENVIRONMENTAL ETHICS AND LEADERSHIP THEORY IN TOLKIEN’S LEGENDARIUM
Elf-Songs and Orc-Talk: Environmental Ethics in J.R.R. Tolkien’s Middle-earth, from Beowulf to Peter Jackson. Amber Lehning
Theories of Leadership in Middle-earth. Michael Joseph Urick
Rendering Visible an Understanding of Power In Leadership in Tolkien’s Creation Mythology: Ainulindalë And Akallabêth. James Eric Siburt
TOLKIEN STUDIES 2: MULTIDISCIPLINARY APPROACHES TO TOLKIEN’S LEGENDARIUM
The Nimrodel and Silverlode: Lothlórien as a Secondary World. Meaghan Scott
Tolkien’s Penchant for Alliteration: Using XML to Analyze The Lay of Leithian. Rebecca Power
Tolkien’s New Old English Genre: The Homecoming of Beorhtnoth. Anna Smol
‘I am no man’: Game of Thrones’ Lyanna Mormont as Borrowed Tolkienian Canonicity. Kristine Larsen
TOLKIEN STUDIES 3: TOLKIEN RECEPTION STUDIES
Cait Coker, Cordeliah G. Logsdony, Dawn Walls-Thumma, Maria Alberto,
Robin Anne Reid
TOLKIEN STUDIES 4: RACE AND RACISMS IN TOLKIEN’S SECONDARY AND OUR PRIMARY WORLDS
More Dangerous and Less Wise: Racial Hierarchies and Cultural Difference in Tolkien’s World. Robert Tally
Scales Of Malice: The Banal Evil of Middle-earth’s Tyrant-History. Alastair Whyte
‘Where Shadows Lie’: Middle-earth and Neo-fascist Metapolitics. Craig N. Franson
Race in J. R. R. Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings And in Katherine Addison’s The Goblin Emperor. Robin Anne Reid
TOLKIEN STUDIES 5: TOLKIEN’S FANDOM
‘Heroes of the North’: Tolkien and Finnish Fandom. M. Lee Alexander
‘What care I for the hands of a king?’: Tolkien, Fanfiction, and Narratives of the Self. Cordeliah G. Logsdon
The Pillar and the Vastness: A Longitudinal View of the Tolkien Fanfiction Fandom. Dawn Walls-Thumma
Mathom Economies? Fan Gift Culture and A Tolkien Fic Exchange Event. Maria Alberto
TOLKIEN STUDIES 6: THE FUTURE OF TOLKIEN STUDIES
Craig N. Franson, Rebecca Power, James Siburt , Amber Lehning, Anna Smol, Kristine Larsen
TOLKIEN STUDIES 7: THE COUNCIL OF TOLKIEN STUDIES (BUSINESS MEETING).
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