Body

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.