ℌello, all, and may you all be well!
The Tales after Tolkien Society is pleased to report having received the following information from the International Congress on Medieval Studies, namely that the Society's proposal for a session titled Return of the Franchise: Twenty-First-Century Continuations of Tolkien's Medievalism has been accepted. It is session ID 6320, and it has been accepted as a hybrid session--meaning that there will be a physical presence on site as well as openness to virtual presentation!
Please view the official call for papers, here, and consider sending your submission directly to the Society's session, here. Abstracts are due no later than 15 September 2024. In the meantime, the public description of the session is
Seventy years after the release of J.R.R. Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings, his work continues to circulate and inspire. However, the franchise built around his work has also expanded recently. Whether looking at the upcoming movies, The War of the Rohirrim and Hunt for Gollum, the imminent second season of the Rings of Power show, or video games like Return to Moria and Tales of the Shire, we have seen a marked increase of licensed Middle-earth media over the last few years. It is in this proliferation of Tolkienian works that this paper panel aims to discuss the new iterations and additions to the Lord of the Rings franchise.
Approaches that take in diverse media and/or work from a variety of theoretical approaches are welcome. Proposals from those typically excluded from formal academe are particularly welcome.
