A two-day event on February 20-21, 2015, sponsored and produced by CMRS, intended as a means to bring together faculty, graduate students, undergraduates, and local communities to explore, celebrate, and critique the diverse historical and cultural themes that relate to The Hobbit and the other works of J.R.R. Tolkien. The multiple spaces reserved will allow for simultaneous academic panels, culinary demonstrations, arts and crafts presentations, live-action demonstrations, and other exhibits or activities, reflecting the juxtaposition of historical and cultural traditions to fantasy and creative invention that characterizes Tolkien's works.
This is the second in a yearly series of events under the broader CMRS theme of 'Popular Culture and the Deep Past,' in which contemporary pop-cultural manifestations will be explored and celebrated with attention to their profound and wide-ranging historical and cultural contexts. A guiding principle of the series is to bring diverse communities together in and around Ohio State, including the academic and non-academic, scholarly and performative, creative, educational, and reflective communities.
Academic Panels:
Friday, February 20
9:00 a.m.
Registration & Refreshments
9:30 a.m.
Welcoming Remarks
Dr. Graeme Boone, Director of the Center for Medieval and Renaissance Studies
Mark Shanda, Arts and Humanities Divisional Dean, College of Arts and Sciences
10:00 – 12 noon
Session I: Riddles and Games Cartoon Room 1
Session Chair: Travis Neel, The Ohio State University
“That Guy Looks Like Aragorn!”: Repurposing Tolkien in Modern Media from Diablo to The Quest
Samuel Brock UNC- Chapel Hill
“It likes riddles, praps it does, does it?”: Power, Play, and Gnomic Space in The Hobbit
Jonathan Burgoyne The Ohio State University
"The Board is Set, and the Pieces are Moving": Tolkien and Games
James McNelis III Wilmington College
Session II: Tolkien’s Audiences Cartoon Room 2
Session Chair: Dorothy Noyes, The Ohio State University
Hospitality in Times of War: The Troublesome Guest, the Foreboding Host, and the Insecure Home in The Hobbit and The Lion, The Witch, and the Wardrobe
Hannah Swamidoss Eastfield College
The Union between The Two Towers and the Twin Towers: Contemporary Audience Reception and the Influence of War on The Lord of the Rings
Alicia Fox-Lenz Mythgard Institute
Why the Halfling? The Hobbit as Formative Mythos for the Modern Age
Katelynn Carver University of St. Andrews
Discovering the Deep Past: Hobbits and the Contemporary Reader
Megan Murton Xavier University
~12:00 – 1:30 ~ Lunch Break
1:30 – 3:30
Session III – Between Philosophy and Theory Cartoon Room 1
Session Chair: Robey Clark Patrick, The Ohio State University
Using Historical Criticism and Hermeneutics to Re-Imagine the Works of Tolkien
Patrick Burns The Ohio State University
“I wonder if we’ll ever be put into songs or tales”: Tolkien’s Meta-Narratives across Existential Boundaries
Maria Alberto Cleveland State
Tolkien’s “On Fairy Stories” and the Theoretical Definition of Fantasy
Andrés Montañés-Lleras The Ohio State University
Exiting the Cave: Bilbo’s Heroic Transformation
Daniel Compora University of Toledo
Session IVa – Language Cartoon Room 2
Session Chair: Steve Bruso, Fordham University
An Analysis of Tolkien’s Fictional Languages and Their Linguistic Value
Larissa Cooney Southern New Hampshire University
If You Teach It, They Will Come There and Back Again: 10 Years of a Tolkien-&-Language Class that Outdraws Linguistic Courses
Richard Janda Indiana University
Session IVb – Tolkien’s Ecocritical Objects Cartoon Room 2
Things that Want Things: Agentic Objects in Middle Earth
Anne Harriss DePauw University
Tolkien’s Queer Elements: Thinking with Landscapes
Christopher Roman Kent State University - Tuscawaras
4:00 – 6:00
Session V – One Game to Rule Them All: LoTR Online (A Video Panel)
Chair: Carol Robinson, Kent State University – Trumbull Cartoon Room 1
Filling in Edges: Lord of the Rings, Silmarillion, and Lord of the Rings Online
N.M. Heckel American Military Academy
Other Bones in the Lord of the Rings Online Soup
Geoffrey B. Elliott Oklahoma State University
Racial Bodies in Digital Middle Earth
Helen Young University of Sydney
Drawing and Writing the Body (Shapes)
Carol Robinson Kent State University – Trumbull
6:00 – 8:00 Orton Geological Museum,
Reception Orton Hall
6:30 p.m. Room 110,
Poetry and Flash Fiction Reading Orton Hall
Ft. Paige Quiñones and Molly Olguin
Saturday, February 21
9:00 a.m. Ohio Union
Registration and Refreshments Lower Level
9:30 – 11:30
Session VI – Tolkien & Music Lower Level Meeting Room
Chair: Brad Eden, Valparaiso University
Creation’s Song: The Old English Foundation of Tolkien’s Ainulindalë
Gary Fuller Brigham Young University
“The desire of the hearts of dwarves”: Misty Mountains Cold and Two Interpretations of Tolkien
Dana Plank-Blasko The Ohio State University
Shore’s Tolkien Music: Some Leit Reading
Graeme Boone The Ohio State University
How and Why Symphonic?: Howard Shore’s Lord of the Rings Scores and the Lord of the Rings Symphony
Arved Ashby The Ohio State University
Session VII – Representations Maudine Cow Room
Chair: Alan Kalish, The Ohio State University
Representations of Female Characters in Illustrations of Tolkien’s Works
Julie Lynne Drisdelle University of Moncton
Tolkien’s Medieval Animals
John Block Friedman The Ohio State University
Medieval Fashion and Tolkien Films
Sarah Grace Heller The Ohio State University
Tolkien in camera: Representing Middle-Earth in a Post(?)-Jacksonian Classroom
Stephen Yandell Xavier University
12:00 – 12:45 Creative Arts Room
Tolkien Artworks, Featuring Brad Eden Lower Level, Ohio Union
Followed by a book signing (The Hobbit in Tolkien's Mythology: Essays on Revisions and Influences)
“Copies available for purchase on-site; cash or check payable to ‘The Ohio State University Foundation’”
1:00 – 2:30 Hagerty 180
Falconry Demonstration Hagerty Hall
w/ Joe Dorrian
Introduced by Professor James McNelis III, Wilmington College
2:30 – 4:30
Session VIII – Tolkien & Literary Studies (Roundtable) Maudine Cow Rm
Presider: Clare Simmons, The Ohio State University
Richard Firth Green, The Ohio State University
Karen Winstead, The Ohio State University
Hannibal Hamlin, The Ohio State University
David Brewer, The Ohio State University
Brian Mcallister, The Ohio State University
Session IX - Tolkien Scholarship (Roundtable) Lower Level Meeting Room
Presider: TBA
James McNelis III, Wilmington College
Carol Robinson, Kent State University – Trumbull
Stephen Yandell, Xavier University
Brad Eden, Valparaiso University
4:30 – 6:00
Session X – Bodies, Wounds, Affects Lower Level Meeting Room
Chair: Gabe Vicencio, The Ohio State Univeristy
“Doughty Men”: The Male Body, Hardship, and Wounds in The Lord of the Rings
Steven Bruso Fordham University
Scars of Middle Earth
Mary Kate Hurley Ohio University
Nothing Like Looking: The Stuplime and the Childish in Peter Jackson’s Hobbit Adaptation/s
Michael Harwick The Ohio State University
Session XI – Video Game Workshop Maudine Cow Room
Presider: Carol Robinson, Kent State University – Trumbull
(Interested participants need to provide their own laptops with wifi capabilities in order to access and play along.)
Additional Attractions:
Please click here for more information on the Hobbit Tea,
Friday:
Orton Geological Museum, Orton Hall
6:00-8:00 pm
Reception
6:30 pm, Orton Hall room 110
Poetry and Flash Fiction Reading
Featuring Paige Quiñones and Molly Olguin
Saturday:
Creative Arts Room, Lower Level of the Ohio Union
Exhibitions
9:00 am-12 noon
Calligraphy Guild of Columbus
9:00 am-2:00 pm
Eric Johnson (Ohio State – Rare Books & Manuscripts),
Mary-Allen Johnson (Ohio State – Hilandar Research Library)
Bradford Eden (Valparaiso U. – Library Services)
9:00 am-4:00 pm
Medieval Swords Display
12:00-12:45
Tolkien Artworks
Featuring Bradford Eden (Valparaiso University, Library Services)
Book signing
Followed by a book signing (The Hobbit in Tolkien's Mythology: Essays on Revisions and Influences)
Copies available for purchase on-site; cash or checks payable to "The Ohio State University Foundation"
Dance Room 1, Lower Level of the Ohio Union
9:00 am-4:00 pm
Children's Room and Game Room: Arts and Games for enthusiasts of all ages!
- J.R.R. Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings
- The Hobbit: The Defeat of Smaug
- The Lord of the Rings: The Card Game
- Hobbit Tales
- The Hobbit Card Game
- Smaug Dragon Puzzle
Dance Room 2, Lower Level of the Ohio Union
10:00 am
Medieval Dancing
The Medieval and Renaissance Performer's Guild offers participants a lesson in the art of medieval dance.
2:30 pm
Medieval Dancing
David Sweeten (The Ohio State University) teaches participants the art of medieval dance and leads you along as you learn the steps.
4:30 pm
Stage Combat
The Medieval and Renaissance Performer's Guild brings some hits! Learn the strikes, holds, and grapples of early modern combat in this staged demonstration.
Lower Level Foyer, Ohio Union
9:00 am-4:00 pm
Alexandras Adornments
A vendor from the Ohio Renaissance Festival specializes in making jewelry, renaissance feather fans, mini top hats... and more!
Exhibit & Demonstration
Professor Richard Janda and student Morgan Smith (of Indiana University) will present samples of an invented language, discuss a Tolkien in-class activity ("The Adventures of Sage Alforge"), and play recorded excerpts of student projects that involve music, translation, or (other) conlangs.
Hagerty 046, Hagerty Hall
12:00
Screening of a lecture by Tom Shippey delivered at The Ohio State University in 2006
Facilitated by Professor James McNelis III
(Wilmington College)
Hagerty 180, Hagerty Hall
9:30 am
Film Screening #1:
The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey (Extended Edition)
1:00-2:30
Falconry Demonstration
Featuring Joe Dorrian (falconer)
Introduced by Professor James McNelis III (Wilmington College)
2:30 pm
Film Screening # 2:
The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug
Maudine Cow Room
4:30-6:00 pm
Video Game Workshop
Presider: Carole Robinson, Kent State University-- Trumbull
(Interested participants need to provide their own laptops with wifi capabilities in order to access and play along).
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Unless otherwise indicated, all events will take place in the Ohio Union, 1739 N. High Street, or in Hagerty Hall, 1775 College Road, Columbus, OH 43210.
- Tolkien Conference call for papers.
- Tolkien Days registration form
- Registration Deadline: Wednesday February 18!!!!
- Hotel Accommodations: We have group rooms reserved at Hampton Inn & Suites (501 N. High Street). To make a reservation, please call 614-559-2000 and use the code TOL . You can also go to the website and use the promotional group code TOL.
You may also contact either Travis Neel, Robey Patrick, or Miriam Rudavsky-Brody at cmrs_gaa@osu.edu, or the main CMRS address at cmrs@osu.edu for more information.
To join the discussion of panel construction and content, see the Facebook group.