#Kzoo2022 Report (and an eye toward #Kzoo2023)

𝔗he Tales after Tolkien Society continued its work at the online International Congress on Medieval Studies hosted by Western Michigan University in Kalamazoo, Michigan. For the 2022 iteration of the event, the Society conducted its annual general meeting and sponsored and presented a roundtable session. Notes about each appear below.

The Meeting

Per §5.1 of the Society Constitution, an Annual General Meeting of the Society was held during the 2022 Congress, taking place online and called to order at 6pm US Central Daylight Time. Society President Geoffrey B. Elliott presided; Rachel Sikorski, Society Secretary and Social Media Officer, took minutes. In attendance were the aforementioned officers and members Carrie Pagels, Gillian Polack, and Kris Swank.

Formal agenda items to be considered were

1. Determination of session offerings for the 2023 Congress,
2. Election of a Vice-president (USA) for the term of 2022-2025,
3. Election of a Social Media Officer for the term of 2022-2025, and
4. Concerns for general Society attention and consideration.

As to the first point, suggested in the meeting were five possible topics: a roundtable on medievalism and despair, unconventional medievalisms, medievalism and diversity, medievalism and religion, and medievalists/medievalism and the news. Lively discussion of topics followed, resulting in determination that the Society propose three sessions to the 2023 Congress (with titles amended for clarity and sense):

• Bad Medieval/ism: Mis/Uses of the Medieval in Contemporary Fiction; or, I Know It's Wrong, But I Want to Have Fun—A Roundtable
• Hidden Middle Ages: Where the Middle Ages Hides in Plain Sight in Contemporary Narratives—A Paper Session
• Religion along the Tolkienian Fantasy Tradition: New Medievalist Narratives—A Paper Session
  

Discussion surrounding the first proposal was particularly lively and engaging, and efforts to recruit speakers for it will be undertaken by Society membership, pending approval from the Congress of the session.

The roundtable has proposed as an online / hybrid event, allowing greater participation / engagement; the paper sessions have been proposed as online panels.

As to the second point, the incumbent in the office was not present at the meeting, and no candidates stood for election. Following past practice, the President has asked the incumbent to remain in office for the span of one year, until the Society's Annual General Meeting in 2023. Response is pending as of this writing.

As to the third point, the incumbent in the office, being present in the meeting, was asked if she wished to continue in office; she assented. A call for other nominees was made, with no response. Accordingly, Rachel Sikorski was acclaimed to the office once again.

As to the fourth point, how to prompt more engagement with the Society blog was discussed. Per discussion and approval from the membership present, verbiage recruiting guest posts will be drafted and posted to the Society's web presence and the Congress's website, and it will be made available to membership via email by request; one such request was made by Gillian Polack, to be answered as promptly as circumstances reasonably permit.

A motion to adjourn the meeting was made by Carrie Pagels and seconded by Gillian Polack. No objections being noted, the meeting was adjourned at 7pm US Central Daylight Time.

The Session

The Society's roundtable session, Twenty-First Century Neo/Medievalisms, was organized by the Society President and presided over by Society Secretary and Social Media Officer Rachel Sikorski; it was presented at 4pm US Central Daylight Time on Thursday, 12 May 2022. The session featured comments from the President, from independent scholar Michael A. Torregrossa, and from Lars Olaf Johnson of Cornell University. Elliott spoke on the use of neo/medievalist and medieval materials in the fifth edition of the Pendragon tabletop role-playing games. Johnson spoke on queerness in Game of Thrones, making particular reference to Society Founder Helen Young's work (of which an example is here, with another here). Torregrossa presented remarks on comic book depictions of Merlin, doing much to trace the history of those presentations and their general shape; the DC Comics Etrigan receives a fair bit of attention in his comments. Discussion of all three topics was lively and engaging, promising more such to come in future years.