In just this first week of summer classes, I'm feeling the difference - a single class vs. four classes, an internship vs. internship and teaching, three upcoming conferences vs., well, three conferences down. . . 

Fine, fine - some things never change. 

Still slightly stunned and star-struck after attending the 2015 PCA/ACA conference Thursday-Saturday. . . it may sound cliche, but I really learned a great deal from the experience. 

Area chair Pam Detrixhe organized some amazing panels on religion and popular culture, and on my particular panel of Religion and Literature, fellow  presenter Michael Jahosky offered a fascinating re-consideration of don't-call-it-allegory in Middle Earth (really looking forward to that book. . .). The fandom and fandom studies panels were all refreshingly wide-ranging, and I wish there had been a way to attend all of the Tolkien Studies panels organized by Robin Reid too . . .


 In addition to such stellar content, though, the overall atmosphere of the conference was very welcoming. It was such an enjoyable and rewarding experience to meet and speak both with other graduate students in similar fields of interest as well as with so many of the scholars in these fields!

Is it odd that I'm already looking at my schedule for the Spring 2016 semester, planning for Seattle next March?

Nah. . . 

you're excited about catching up on grading, assignments, an upcoming conference paper, and the PhD to-do list during spring break.

Boredom? That's so two years ago. . .  

I've encountered a problem while working on my paper for the second Popular Culture and the Deep Past conference later this month. 

I wish I could say it was an unexpected problem, but that would be a liiie. . . I knew this was coming. Since my argument concerns meta-narratives, I'm looking far past The Lord of the Rings, and I have three documents of notes from ten books. And I'll have the usual fifteen minutes to present. 

To be frank: length is not my friend when writing about J.R.R. Tolkien. 

Fair warning to any future readers who might come digging through the archives - I'm writing this post to test the functionality and appearance of my re-designed website. This might not be the best place to come looking for insight. . . 

Not yet, at least!