The Online Conference Project
On Hiatus July 2, 2024
When I started this project, there were relatively few virtual (or hybrid) conferences, but over the past couple of years, almost all the conferences I attend have established hybrid modes (although some do a better job than other of making all conference opportunities available to those of us attending virtually). There are also more virtual options, and I am working toward expanding those.
Rather than trying to keep this updated, I plan to post CFPs for conferences in individual posts when I receive them from the organizers and circulate that information.
I’m leaving this edited post as a record for myself!
Introduction & Overview
After seeing outstanding presentations at the 2021-22 Virtual PCA conferences by a significant number of Tolkien scholars who had never been able to attend the f2f PCA in the past, and who will not be able to attend future f2f PCA conferences because of the various barriers, I started the Online Conference Project.
My goal is to collect and share information about conferences that are either hybrid (meaning allowing for both virtual and in-person presentations and attendance) or virtual (meaning completely online), especially those of interest to those of us working in Tolkien studies and fantasy/speculative fiction studies generally.1
Last year, I sent the information out to an email list: this year, I am combining that email list with my other emails lists relating to Tolkien scholarship.
I admit my personal preference is for the entirely virtual because in my experience, the virtual attendees at hybrid conferences tend to be given less access to the full f2f sessions, experiences, and opportunities. Of course, what access virtual attendees have depends entirely on the conference: I am learning that “hybrid” can mean many things, often depending on the size of the conference. In any case, I will continue to list both modes of conferencing!