Falling Into Fall!
Updates, Announcements, and Links!
I’m not sure how it’s suddenly October, and fall, and the summer is over, and here we are! This post is a list of updates, announcements, and links that I hope are of interest!
The Queer Lodgings Podcast Interview is live! We had a great time with the fantastic Podcasters.
The Tolkien Society has published the program for the Tolkien and Religion in the Twenty-First Century Seminar scheduled for Sunday 26th November (Online, Free). They have also posted the abstracts. Here is the list of presenters/presentations in order (specific times are given at the link above).
Ilana Mushin, Finrod the Mensch: A Jewish Perspective
Sonali Chunodkar, Ilúvatar as a Reader/Listener-God: A Barthesian Interpretation of Sub-creation in Tolkien
Alexandra Filonenko, On Some Esoteric Motifs in The Silmarillion
Taylor Driggers & Mariana Rios Maldonado, Here at the End(s) of All Things: The Fall of Númenor as a Theology of Failure for Middle-earth
Erik Jampa Andersson, ‘With Furious Speed’ – Tolkien, Revelation, and the Tibetan Treasure Tradition
BREAK
Hollie Willis, ‘Borne away like smoke’: Unpacking J.R.R Tolkien’s Depiction of Cremation in Middle-earth in the Context of Catholic Canon Law
Adam Debosscher, The Pyre of Denethor: from suicide on the page to manslaughter on the screen
Rafael Silva Fouto, Pagan Magic and the Marvelous: Songs of Enchantment in J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Silmarillion
Brianna Burdetsky, Tolkien and Roth: The Legendarium Meets Jewish History
BREAK
Mercury Natis, Baruk Khazâd! Antisemitism, Jewish Joy, and Dwarven Contexts
Tom Martin, The Tao of Tom Bombadil
Jeffrey Moore, Where In the Story Are We?: The Epilogue of The Lord of the Rings and a Retrospective Apocalypse
David Chambers, Black Eucatastrophe and Black Power
CLOSING COMMENTS
The line-up looks absolutely fantastic: I have registered although I’ll be watching most via the recordings uploaded to YouTube given the eight-hour time difference between me and England!
I have updated my Online Conference Project page with the CFPs for a number of 2024 conferences (one virtual, and a number hybrid) who are now accepting proposals, or will be soon.
The Mythopoeic Society’s virtual Online Midwinter Seminar 2024 will run on the 17th–18th of February 2024. The theme is Something Mighty Queer and the deadline for submitting a proposal is November 30, 2023.
The hybrid Tolkien at UVM Conference at the University of Vermont will run on Saturday, April 13, 2024. The theme is “The Psychologies of Middle-earth,” and Dr. Sara Brown is the keynote speaker. The deadline for submitting a proposal is January 15, 2024.
Signum University runs a hybrid Annual Conference (Mythmoot) as well as a number of regional Moots, most of which seem to be hybrid as well (click on the link to get the details for a Moot whose theme and/or location works for you!).