Tolkien Scholars, Teachers From Throughout Country Here Next Year

COMMERCE, Texas — J.R.R. Tolkien experts from throughout the United States and the United Kingdom will be at Texas A&M University-Commerce this summer to speak at a National Endowment for the Humanities workshop.

Funded by a $175,395 NEH grant, the workshop will target 25 secondary level teachers from history, literature, and the humanities from throughout the country. The teachers will work together with the Tolkien experts to create their own projects for use in their classrooms.

Dr. Robin Anne Reid, literature and languages department faculty member, and Dr. Judy Ann Ford, history department faculty member, are directing the workshop.

“Dr. Ford and I look forward to working with teachers and scholars to create an interdisciplinary institute that will consider Tolkien’s ‘The Lord of the Rings’ from the perspectives of literature, history, archaeology, geography, astronomy and physics, folklore, and mythology,” Reid said.

The theme of the July 13-Aug. 13 workshop will be “J.R.R. Tolkien’s ‘The Lord of the Rings’: The Real and Imagined Middle Ages.”