Hello and thank you for visiting my website! My name is Luke Shelton and I am a researcher who focuses on J.R.R. Tolkien, medievalism, and medieval texts. On this website you will find information about my current research, my presentations and professional activities, and occasional random thoughts as well.

Currently, my research focuses on the ways that young readers understand and respond to The Lord of the Rings by J.R.R. Tolkien. I hope to pull together a number of resources and interesting insights here that I can share along the way!

There are two ongoing series on the blog, the Tolkien Experience Project and the Tolkien Experience Podcast:

The Tolkien Experience Project posts every Tuesday at 8:00 am EST/EDT. It is an attempt to catalogue the experience of different Tolkien fans and share them in a public forum to grow community around Tolkien’s work!

The Tolkien Experience Podcast posts every other Friday at 10:00 am EST/EDT. It is an attempt to take the original Tolkien Experience Project further. Each episode is an interview with an influential scholar or member of the fan community.  Just like the original project, the podcast grew from a desire to bring the scholar and fan communities closer together through our shared interest in Tolkien, his works, and adaptations thereof.