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 2024 iteration of the event, the Society conducted its annual general meeting; it also sponsored and presented a paper session and a roundtable discussion. 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 2023 Congress, taking place online via the Congress. It was called to order on 9 May 2024 at 8:32pm, GMT-4hrs. Presiding was President Geoffrey B. Elliott; in attendance were Secretary and Social Media Officer Rachel Sikorski, as well as Kris Swank and John D. Rateliff.
As previously noted, the agenda for the meeting consisted of two items: determination of offerings for the 2025 Congress and election of the Society President for the term 2024-2027 (as provided for by §4.2.2 of the Society Constitution and subsections). Regarding the first, the Society purposes to focus on session co-sponsorships with groups whose aims are similar to those of the Society, with Kris Swank agreeing to liaise with the Tolkien at Kalamazoo group and Geoffrey B. Elliott agreeing to liaise with the International Society for the Study of Medievalism. The Society will also be proposing a roundtable session, Off of the Printed Prose Page: Multimodal Medievalisms. A second session topic will be held in reserve against need.
Regarding the election of Society President, Geoffrey B. Elliott reaffirmed his recusal from consideration, citing outside concerns, previous terms in office, and the need for new direction. By agreement, Rachel Sikorski resigned as Social Media Officer and was acclaimed as President, appointing Geoffrey B. Elliott to the position of Social Media Officer for the duration of the current term (until 2025), which agreement was approved by the membership present.
The discussion that followed clarified points of action to be taken and understandings of the above agenda items for members present. Clarification of past years' discussions was also made. No additional business was brought up by the Society for consideration.
A motion to adjourn the meeting was made by Rachel Sikorski and seconded by Kris Swank. No opposition being heard, the meeting was adjourned at 9:31pm, UTC-4hrs.
The Paper Session
The paper session, "Alternative Medievalisms against the Tolkienian Tradition," was scheduled for 10 May 2024 at 1:30pm, UTC-4hrs. Kris Swank presided over the session. Geoffrey B. Elliott and Rachel Sikorski presented papers.
Geoffrey B. Elliott's paper, "An Update to 'Moving Beyond Tolkien's Medievalism,'" referenced early work the Society had done before adding to an argument that had been made at earlier Congresses and in print--namely that Robin Hobb's Realm of the Elderlings milieu, by presenting refiguration of North America, expands upon the Tolkienian fantasy tradition in useful ways. A copy of his paper will appear on his personal website, www.elliottrwi.com.
Rachel Sikorski's paper, "Critical Successes: Celebrating and Exploring the Rise of Diverse Settings Within Tabletop Role-Playing Games,” analyzed three recently published sourcebooks/guides—Journeys Through The Radiant Citadel, The Islands Of Sina Una, and Coyote & Crow—in the TTRPG hobby. Her paper focused on the recent push for non-Eurocentric settings and stories in the community and how that market shift is currently being addressed by the large companies in the space, as well as independent publishers and game-makers. An (unabridged) version of her paper will be posted on this blog in the coming weeks.
The Roundtable
The roundtable session, "Tolkien and Twenty-First Century Challenges," featured two speakers. The first, Hafsah Khan (she/her), was introduced as "a second-year MA student in the English department at New York University. She is interested in exploring how imperial structures seep into fantastical landscapes, colonizing the imagination, as well as the way sociopolitical otherizations processes are mimicked in fantasy world-building. She is currently working on completing her thesis which explores constructions of monstrosity and blackness in Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings by examining the geographical and linguistic cultural codes used in association with the Orc race. The second, Brenna Duperron, was introduced as "a recent graduate of the doctoral program in the Department of English at Dalhousie University. Her SSHRC-funded doctoral project, 'Fear Not the Language of the World: Red Reading Literacy in The Book of Margery Kempe,' bridges Indigenous and premodern scholarship, disrupting the borders of orality/literacy in medieval texts. Her next project interrogates the intersection between Indigeneity and fantasy medievalism, and how the genre reasserts settler-colonial frameworks and ideologies."
Following remarks by the featured speakers, robust discussion ensued, taking in a number of topics of interest. Representations of settler-colonial ideologies and complications of those representations were treated at some length, and participants in the discussion offered several useful links for further reading and research:
- https://www.srbombadil.com/fearteymito/categoria-producto/congreso/
- https://theconversation.com/italys-far-right-claim-the-lord-of-the-rings-but-theyve-misread-tolkiens-message-218148
- https://www.tolkiensociety.org/2023/04/new-society-publication-tolkien-and-diversity/
- https://signumuniversity.org/event/thesis-theater-eugene-sullivan/
Noted also was Society contact information. In addition to this webspace, the Society has a presence on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/groups/726754757384460/, at https://twitter.com/posttolkien, and on Discord at https://discord.gg/bckushTH. Please join us!
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