August 2024 Call for Papers and Proposals

Journal of Tolkien Research Special Issue: Asexuality and Aromanticism in Tolkien’s Legendarium

Queer scholarship in Tolkien studies has made great strides in recent years, from David Craig’s “‘Queer Lodgings’: Gender and Sexuality in ‘The Lord of the Rings’” (2001) to Jane Chance’s Tolkien, Self and Other (2016) and Christopher Vaccaro and Yvette Kisor’s Tolkien and Alterity (2017). At a critical juncture of growth, this sub-field is poised to evaluate and address any gaps that exist as the field moves forward. One such gap, in both Tolkien studies and queer studies, is asexuality and aromanticism, which, while part of the LGBTQIA+ umbrella, are significantly underrepresented in scholarship and interpretation.

Asexuality, defined broadly as not experiencing sexual attraction to other people, and aromanticism, not experiencing romantic attraction to other people, convey a spectrum of individual experiences (ace-spectrum, or aspec). Aspec perspectives not only represent these individual identities and experiences but also illuminate and refresh understandings of love, desire, relationships, communities, and culture. Implemented within literary interpretation, an aspec lens offers insights into characters, plots, themes, narrative structures, and much more.

In order to address a gap in queer scholarship in Tolkien studies and to solicit new perspectives that can deepen understandings of Tolkien’s work, we invite submissions for a proposed special issue in Journal of Tolkien Research that focuses on asexuality and aromanticism in Tolkien’s work.

Topics can include but are not limited to:

  • Aspec readings of individual characters
  • Interpretations of love/relationships beyond (but not necessarily excluding) romantic, sexual, and/or platonic love
  • Intersections between aspec theory and gender, disability, race, or other critical theory
  • Comparative readings between Tolkien’s work and other fiction
  • Amatonormativity or aspec aspects in Tolkien’s work, life, and historical context
  • Reception of Tolkien’s work by aspec readers
  • Aspec interpretations within adaptations of Tolkien’s work
  • Interpretations focused on specific identities within the ace-spectrum, including demi-
  • sexual/romantic, grey-sexual/romantic, etc.

Proposals/abstracts of a maximum of 300 words, along with a short bio and working bibliography (not included in word count), should be sent via email to aspectolkien@gmail.com no later than midnight Eastern Time on August 31, 2024.

Tolkien at Kalamazoo 2025

Hosted by the Medieval Institute at Western Michigan University, the International Congress on Medieval Studies is an annual gathering of thousands of scholars interested in medieval studies. The Congress embraces the study of all aspects of the Middle Ages, extending into late antiquity and the early modern period, including—but not limited to—history, language, literature, linguistics, art, archaeology, religion, science, medicine, music, drama, philosophy, gender, sexuality, mysticism and technology, as well as medievalism. The 60th International Congress on Medieval Studies takes place Thursday, May 8, through Saturday, May 10, 2025. Find more at the conference website.

Tolkien at Kalamazoo will be offering a total of eight sessions (paper sessions and roundtables), two of which are co-sponsored. The sessions are a mix of in-person, virtual, and hybrid as identified below. Send 100-word abstracts or complete papers to Christopher Vaccaro (cvaccaro@uvm.edu) and Yvette Kisor (ykisor@ramapo.edu) by the1st of September.

Tolkien and Medieval Conceptions of the Sea (in-person paper session): HYBRID

The Medieval Roots of the Poems of J. R. R. Tolkien (in-person roundtable): HYBRID

Tolkien and Old Norse (hybrid / in-person paper session): HYBRID

Tolkien and Medieval Feminisms (in-person paper session)

Medieval Languages and Tolkien's Language Invention (in-person paper session)

Medieval Resonances in Tolkien's Letters (in-person roundtable)

Fire, Dragons, & Jewels, O My!: Medieval Poems & J.R.R. Tolkien (co-sponsored with the Pearl-Poet Society, virtual paper session)

Return of the Franchise: The Ongoing Reception and Interpretation of Tolkien's Medievalism (co-sponsored with the Tales after Tolkien Society, virtual paper session): HYBRID

Coming Soon: Call for Proposals for McFarland's Critical Explorations in Tolkien Studies Series

We are sharing this information on behalf of Robin Anne Reid:

I recently signed a Letter of Agreement with McFarland Publishers to become the series editor for a new series, Critical Explorations in Tolkien Studies. The series will open for proposals in 2025 after I assemble an advisory board.

Scholars can submit proposals in either of two tracks. The first track is for single-author or collaborative monographs and edited collections written for academic experts that should be between 70-100K words long. The second track is for shorter Critical Companions, between 40-50K words long, written for a general audience including but not limited to students and fans. Submissions for both tracks will go through a double-blind peer review process.

Proposals on topics relating to Tolkien's published works as well as to the edited posthumous publications; the adaptations for film, television, and games; the translations; and fan transformative works (textual and visual) or other reception studies may be submitted to either track.

While peer-reviewed scholarship is a professional necessity for tenure-track and tenured academics, there is also value in shorter works, informed by critical theories, that focus on an aspect of single work or a thematic group of works, especially ones that have received less critical attention than The Lord of the Rings. The Critical Companions are designed to introduce a more general audience to analytical approaches and the scholarship in Tolkien studies by situating works in their socio-historical contexts; explaining how the text or texts fit into the field of Tolkien studies; and modelling how to apply critical theories to analyze primary texts.

The primary goals of the series are to add significant original contributions to Tolkien scholarship by developing and to create and support greater diversity in the field by embracing a wide definition of what Tolkien studies includes in relation to authors, texts, topics, theories, and methods.

Both single author and collaborative works, especially those foregrounding intersectionality, are explicitly welcome from authors without regard to ability status, age, caste, class, ethnicity, gender, nationality, religion, or sexuality. Approaches can include but are not limited to theories and methods from class studies, cultural studies, critical race studies; digital and new media studies; fan and reception studies; feminist, gender, and queer studies; film studies, languages and linguistics, literary studies (any period); medieval and medievalist studies; pedagogical studies, modernist and postmodernist studies, media and marketing studies; religious and theological studies; source studies; stylistics, and tourism studies. 

Contingent faculty, early-career faculty, graduate students, independent scholars, tenure-track and tenured faculty in the Americas and worldwide who are trained in any discipline and period specialization are invited to submit proposals in either track and to consider applying to become m become a member of the advisory board.

The call for applications to the advisory board will be circulated shortly. Please email robinareid@fastmail with any questions you may have.

Tolkien at UVM 2025: Tolkien and War

The theme for the 2025 Tolkien at UVM conference will be Tolkien and War. The conference will be held on April 5, 2025, at the University of Vermont. Recent conferences have been hybrid and welcomed presentations and attendees online as well.

Signum University Regional Moots

These small, regional conferences are held at various dates and locations. See the Regional Moots page for more details.

Many thanks to Robin Anne Reid and her Online Conference Project for handily compiling this information on a regular basis!