Hello everyone!

I thought I would just take a minute to give everyone an update about my PhD work. As many of you know, I have been working on my dissertation since the fall of 2017. It has been an exciting and educational process, and there is much to tell!

While I was at Cardiff Metropolitan University, I completed an extensive literature review and a Rationale and Methodology chapter. Then, I filed for and received ethics approval to interview young readers about their interpretation of The Lord of the Rings. The initial goal was to compare/contrast the views of young readers with the consensus of Tolkien scholarship on various topics.

(If you would like, you can see the Project’s homepage on my website.)

Over the past summer, I completed many interviews with young readers! These were the highlight of the project so far! I heard so many wonderful, insightful comments from young readers, and I cannot wait to share these insights through my dissertation!

In the fall of 2018, I transferred the project to University of Glasgow! (This was an exciting opportunity made possible when my supervisor, Dimitra Fimi, was hired by the university!) You can see their shiny new profile of me as a student on the School of Critical Studies website!

Now that I am at Glasgow, I have drafted three chapters which analyze the way that young readers approach the genre, characters, and setting on The Lord of the Rings. I do not want to put an end date on the project just yet, as there is still a lot to be done, but I have made a lot of progress over the last year, and I wanted to share that great news with you!

I will keep posting updates on the project’s Facebook page as I can!

Until then, I thank you for supporting an aspiring researchers, Tolkien scholarship generally, and myself personally!

Sincerely,

Luke