Tolkien at Kalamazoo, 2010

So, when mentioning Mythcon (in Dallas) and the Festival in the Shire (in Wales) a few posts back, I should have followed these up with an update on this year's Medieval Congress at Kalamazoo, which once again has a robust Tolkien track. This is my third year going to Kalamazoo: the first just to see friends and find out what the event was like, the second to also take part in one roundtable (on OFS), and now to present a paper and also be on a roundtable. Here's the schedule for their various Tolkien events:

Thursday, 10 am session:

NEH Summer Institute “J. R. R. Tolkien: The Real and Imagined Middle Ages” One Year Later

Organizer: Judy Ann Ford, Texas A&M Univ.–Commerce

Presider: Judy Ann Ford

Just a War Theory to Rule All Them History Classes? A Model for High School

Paul Wexler, Needham High School

Free Will and the Enemy: A Study in the Dichotomy of the Orcs

James Tustin, Clark High School

By Paths Appointed

Leta Edwards, NEH Summer Institute on Tolkien

Beowulf and the Early Middle Ages

Ethan Dolleman, NEH Summer Institute on Tolkien

The Symbolic Power of Water

Diana Caddell, Austin Community College

Tolkien as Father

Sandra Pettit, NEH Summer Institute on Tolkien

Friday, 10 am session:

Medieval Fantasy, Alchemy, and Modern Science in Tolkien’s Legendarium

Sponsor: Tolkien at Kalamazoo

Organizer: Robin Anne Reid, Texas A&M Univ.–Commerce

Presider: Robin Anne Reid

Elvencentrism: “Elven Nature Preserves” in the Works of J. R. R. Tolkien

Ann Martinez, Univ. of Kansas

“Worlds on Worlds”: Tolkien, Lewis, and the Medieval and Modern Theological Implications of Extraterrestrial Life

Kristine Larsen, Central Connecticut State Univ.

Inside Literature: Tolkien’s Explorations of Medieval Genres

John D. Rateliff, Independent Scholar

J. R. R. Tolkien and The Battle of Maldon: An Example of “Freer” Verse?

Stuart D. Lee, Univ. of Oxford

Friday, 1.30 pm session:

Tolkien and the Bible

Sponsor: Tolkien at Kalamazoo

Organizer: Robin Anne Reid, Texas A&M Univ.–Commerce

Presider: Christopher T. Vaccaro, Univ. of Vermont

Neues Testament und Märchen: Tolkien, Fairy Stories, and the Gospels

John William Houghton, Hill School

“Justice is not healing”: J. R. R. Tolkien’s Pauline Constructs in “Finwë and Míriel”

Amelia A. Rutledge, George Mason Univ.

Tolkien on the Old English Pater Noster: Digging Niggling Calligraphy

John R. Holmes, Franciscan Univ. of Steubenville

The Lord of the Fish: Tolkien and the Book of Jonah

Michael Foster, Independent Scholar

Friday, 3.30 pm session:

Tolkien as Scholar, Translator, Academic

Sponsor: Tolkien at Kalamazoo

Organizer: Robin Anne Reid, Texas A&M Univ.–Commerce

Presider: Bradford Lee Eden, Univ. of California–Santa Barbara

Tolkien as Pearl Maiden: Exhortation as Parable

David Thomson, Baylor Univ.

Casting Away Treasures: Tolkien’s Use of The Pearl in The Hobbit and Lord of the Rings

Leigh Smith, East Stroudsburg Univ.

The Pearl and The Jewels: Beren and Luthien and The Pearl

Janice M. Bogstad, Univ. of Wisconsin–Eau Claire

Friday Evening:

Tolkien Unbound: Readers’ Theater Performance

Sponsor: Tolkien at Kalamazoo

Organizer: Robin Anne Reid, Texas A&M

Univ.–Commerce

Presider: Merlin DeTardo, Independent Scholar

Readings from Sigurd and Gudrun

Yvette Kisor, Ramapo College: Jennifer Culver, Univ. of Texas–Dallas; and Bradford Lee Eden, Univ. of California–Santa Barbara

“The Road Goes Ever On” by Donald Swann

Eileen Marie Moore, Cleveland State Univ.

The Lord of the Ringos

Michael Foster, Independent Scholar, and Amy Amendt-Raduege, Whatcom Community College

Saturday, 10 am session:

The Hobbit (A Roundtable)

Sponsor: Tolkien at Kalamazoo

Organizer: Robin Anne Reid, Texas A&M Univ.

Presider: Douglas A. Anderson, Independent Scholar

A roundtable discussion with Jennifer Culver, Univ. of Texas–Dallas;

Deborah Sabo, Univ. of Arkansas–Fayetteville;

John D. Rateliff, Independent Scholar;

Corey Olsen, Washington College;

Janice M. Bogstad, Univ. of Wisconsin–Eau Claire; and

Merlin DeTardo, Independent Scholar.

Saturday, noon:

Tolkien at Kalamazoo

Business Meeting*

Saturday, 3.30 pm session:

Medievalism in Music and the Fine Arts**

Sponsor: Studies in Medievalism

. . . . . . .

Jeff Smith’s “Bone”: Revising Tolkien and Lewis’s Antimodernist Fantasies

Andrew Taylor, Western Michigan Univ.

Sunday, 8.30 am session:

Tolkien Un-bodied

Session 533 Valley II 202

Sponsor: Tolkien at Kalamazoo

Organizer: Robin Anne Reid, Texas A&M Univ.–Commerce

Presider: Benjamin S. W. Barootes, McGill Univ.

To Be or Not to Be? The Enigma of the Balrog in Tolkien’s Mythology

Bradford Lee Eden, Univ. of California–Santa Barbara

Tolkien’s Ramblin’ Men

Peter Grybauskas, Univ. of Maryland

“It is enough to make the dead rise out of their graves!”: Tolkien, Oliphant, and Gendered Conventions of the Supernatural

Sharin Schroeder, Univ. of Minnesota–Twin Cities

Sunday, 10.30 am session:

Teaching Tolkien (A Roundtable)

Sponsor: Tolkien at Kalamazoo

Organizer: Robin Anne Reid, Texas A&M Univ.–Commerce

Presider: Judy Ann Ford, Texas A&M Univ.–Commerce

A roundtable discussion with Victoria Wodzak, Viterbo Univ.;

Michael Foster, Independent Scholar;

Jon Porter, Butler Univ.;

Kristine Larsen, Central Connecticut State Univ.;

Corey Olsen, Washington College; and

Benjamin S. W. Barootes, McGill Univ.

All in all, quite a wide spread of topics. I'm looking forward to it.

--John R.

current audiobook: THE FAERIE QUEENE (Bk I)

*This is where new panels and roundtables for the next year get proposed.

**This is a Tolkien paper on an otherwise non-Tolkien panel. There may be more, since I searched for the word "Tolkien" and may have missed a Tolkien-related paper that didn't include his name in the title (e.g., if it used "Middle-earth" instead).