Apologies & An Update!
March was a great month, but so very busy!
My apologies for the long radio silence, but most of March was dedicated to working toward the 2024 PCA conference (March 27-30), in Chicago, Illinois. This year’s F2F conference was the second since the Covid lockdown (2020) which was followed by two virtual conferences.
It was fantastic! The numbers were up, and while I could not attend as many paper sessions and roundtables as I would have liked (because I had to attend meetings!), every single one I attended was superb, with good numbers, and excellent discussions.
However, what I learned during the virtual years was that there are amazing scholars (many of whom I know personally) all around the world who cannot attend F2F conferences (for a number of reasons). So I remain committed to developing virtual options and sharing information about the virtual and hybrid options more and more conferences are offering.
In pursuit of that, I am sharing a somewhat edited version of the report that I sent out to email list of people who have attended PCA in the past and posted in the PCA-members-only community forum.
Please feel free to share freely!
Hello all: This post contains a slightly edited version of the report I send out to my Tolkien Studies list, and also (with the new PCA website) post on the Tolkien Studies PCA Community forum (which is members only).
This posting on Substack, however, is open-access!
If you are interested in being included on the Email list, which I use to send out information about PCA and other Tolkien conferences and publication opportunities, please let me know by sending an email to me at robinareid AT fastmail.com. You do not have to be a member of PCA to be on that list!
This announcement is an update about the Tolkien Studies Area at PCA, plus a link to a post about another wonderful opportunity for Tolkien scholars, and info about a project I am planning to do for my Substack, Writing from Ithilien
I'll keep this as short as I can, but please email me if you have any questions or wish to get involved with the projects I discuss below.
First, I have updated the list of Tolkien Studies Area presentations at the PCA from 2014-2024: you can see the rich history of the area's scholarship and, in addition, I set up a Substack Table of Contents at the start so you could click on an individual year’s sessions rather than scrolling through what is becoming a rather long list! (Being a natural long-form writer since I learned how to type, I’m happy at the scope Substack allows for long pieces!).1
Second, I want to thank all the presenters who have given so much to the area over the years, and to welcome new scholars who were unwary enough to express interest in Tolkien Studies area at the 2024 PCA in my presence who were added to my list!
If you too are interested in writing about "Tolkien" (which I define as including his legendarium but also adaptations and transformative works about his legendarium), please consider joining us!
Alternately, you may be interested in other areas at PCA which is organized around "Subject Areas," each with its own area chair/chairs.2 There are other areas who would welcome Tolkien scholarship, so the good news is that that you don't have to choose between areas. In addition, the PCA allows two areas to co-sponsor paper sessions and roundtables which allows for some fantastic multi-inter-cross-disciplinary discussions to occur!
For instance, there was a "Tolkien and Philosophy" paper session in the Philosophy and Culture Area at the 2024 PCA (sadly scheduled against one of the Tolkien Studies Area sessions!), and the chair of the Mythology and Contemporary Culture Area and I met this year and immediately started plotting to organize some jointly sponsored sessions (which are just like the regular sessions, but are listed in both areas and can draw from a wider group of presenters). I should also note for those of you who are not familiar with PCA culture that there are no limits on how many sessions an area offers. It’s historically been and currently is a very welcoming conference culture.
Third: I have been searching for a volunteer to serve as the Tolkien Studies Area chair when I have to step down. I started looking for a replacement in 2018, I think, or 2019, but then Covid happened, an event which gave me more reasons for finding a replacement beyond my personal belief that one person should not occupy organizational positions for years and years and years but should rather share the opportunities. Keep an eye on this space for the announcement of not one but two area co-chairs which I will make when it's official (meaning, approved by the PCA Governing Board!).
I have a lifetime membership in PCA and will still be active in the organization after stepping down at the end of the 2025 conference but in a virtual capacity only--unless the PCA returns to Seattle which is just down the road from where I live!
Knowing that many scholars world-wide, as I increasingly am, are unable to attend the F2F conferences, I have been tracking and posting about virtual (completely online) and hybrid (online and F2F) conferences, primarily in Tolkien studies, which leads to the next item:
Fourth: The Tolkien Studies Area at PCA is just one conference available for the growing field of Tolkien studies: and more and more, the smaller conferences are working on hybrid and virtual events. I am trying to track and announce all the conference opportunities I know of (and encourage others to send ones they know of to me) for my Online Conference Project (which I will be updating soon with later 2024 and 2025 virtual and hybrid CFPs!).
The conferences can be either specifically Tolkien-focused events, or larger multi-topic and multi-disciplinary events (like PCA) who would welcome Tolkien scholars. Both types of conferences are fantastic in different ways, and I've enjoyed attending both types in my life.
For instance, my friend Anna Smol has posted information about the 20th Annual Tolkien at UVM conference (April 13, 2024) which is a hybrid one. The final program has been announced, and you can register (US $40.00) here.
More information, and the PDF downloadable program is posted on Anna's blog.
It’s an incredible program, and I’m so happy to be a part of it! I’ll be presenting a paper on “Victoria Goddard's Nine World Series: Interleaving and Resonating with J.R.R. Tolkien's Mythopoeic Worldbuilding.”
Fifth (and last!): I am becoming more and more interested in making information about Tolkien scholarship and fanfiction available online. One part of that effort involves posting bibliographies on my Substack). Another option, and one I would like to start this summer, is posting informal interviews with people writing about "Tolkien" (which in my personal lexicon means the Tolkien phenomenon, including adaptations and transformative works).
I do not limit "writing about" to mean only academic scholarship. Fan scholarship counts! Fanfiction counts! I know that fanart or vidding exist, and there are many wonderful communities; I do not know enough about visual arts to include them (also costuming, and cosplay) which is why I focus on writing.
There are two ways I can do this: one is the tried and true traditional one where I email you questions, and you respond, and I post the interview. But having done more with Zoom these days, I'm thinking that I could also learn how to record, save, and post Zoom interviews! So that's another option.
This project will be long-term and ongoing. If you're interested in experimenting with this project with me, let me know, and if you know somebody who you'd like to see participate, please introduce us here or via email.
Ack, the issue of making content easier to find reminds me I need to update my Index!
You do have to become a member of PCA/ACA to access these groups and to present at the conference. Starting for the 2025 conference, the membership and registration rates will be tiered rather than flat rate, based on annual income. You can become a member without participating in the conference though!