Tolkien Scholars

Mr. Douglas A. Anderson is an acknowledged expert in the textual history and development of  both The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings .  He is the editor of The Annotated Hobbit  (1988; revised ed. 2002), which won the Mythopoeic Scholarship Award, and Tales Before Tolkien:  The Roots of Modern Fantasy (2003). He co-authored (with Wayne G. Hammond) J.R.R. Tolkien: A Descriptive Bibliography (1993), which also won a Mythopoeic Scholarship Award. Along with Verlyn Flieger and Michael D. C. Drout, he co-founded and edits the journal Tolkien Studies .

Dr. Jane Chance (PhD. University of Illinois) is one of the most well-known scholars on Tolkien. Author of Lord of the Rings: The Mythology of Power (1992; reprint ed. 2001; translated into Japanese 2003) and Tolkien's Art: A Mythology for England (1979; reprint ed. 2001), she is also the editor of Tolkien the Medievalist , Studies in Medieval Culture and Religion, 3 (2002) and Tolkien and the Invention of Myth (forthcoming 2004).  She has as well edited two issues of Studies in Medievalism , one on the Twentieth Century (1982; rpt. 1991) and one on the Inklings (1991).  She is Professor of English, Medieval Studies, and the Study of Women in Gender, at Rice University where she has taught a Tolkien course since 1976.
http://www.ruf.rice.edu/~jchance/

Ms. Janet Brennan Croft's work focuses on the subject of Tolkien and war.  Her book War in the Works of J.R.R. Tolkien will be published in March 2004, and she will be editing a book on the Peter Jackson films of Tolkien's work for Fall 2004. She is co-paper coordinator for the 2004 Mythopoeic Society conference, and is active in the Popular Culture Association.
http://faculty-staff.ou.edu/C/Janet.B.Croft-1/

Dr. Verlyn Flieger, a well-known Tolkien scholar, is the author of Splintered Light: Logos and Language in Tolkien's World (1983; 2nd edition 2002), A Question of Time: J.R.R. Tolkien's Road to Faërie (1997), and co-editor with Carl Hostetter of Tolkien's Legendarium: Essays on The History of Middle-earth (2000). Together with Douglas A. Anderson and Michael D. C. Drout, she is co-editor of the Journal of Tolkien Studies . Her newest book , Interrupted Music: Tolkien and the Making of a Mythology , is forthcoming from Kent State . She is also the author of a fantasy novel, Pig Tale (2002). She is Professor of English at the University of Maryland.
http://www.Mythus.com

Dr. Edward James (PhD. Oxford) is an historian of early medieval England who teaches at the University of Reading. His research ranges from Merovingian archeology to contemporary science fiction. He is the author of numerous articles and severa lbooks including Science Fiction in the 20th Century and Britain in the First Millennium. He has served as editor of Foundation, one of the major scholarly journals on science fiction/fantasy.
http://www.personal.rdg.ac.uk/~lhsjamse/home.htm

Dr. Leslie Ellen Jones (PhD. UCLA) specializes in comparative mythology and Celtic Studies.  She is the author of Myth and Middle-Earth: Exploring Medieval Legends Behind J.R.R. Tolkien's The Lord of The Rings (Cold Spring Press, 2002) and J .R.R. Tolkien: A Biography (Greenwood Press, 2003); currently working on Witch to Wicca , to be published in 2004.

Dr. Faye Ringel (PhD. Brown University Comparative Literature) focuses on both medieval epics and modern medievalism and has published periodical and book articles on Tolkien's work.  She has collaborated with New Hampshire teachers on teaching Young Adult fantasy in high school and college, and she recently coordinated a "Conversation Across the Levels" for New England teachers addressing state standards for writing. She is Professor of English, Department of Humanities, United States Coast Guard.

Dr. C.W. Sullivan III (PhD. U. of Oregon) holds the position of Distinguished Research Professor at East Carolina University and specializes in the influence of mythology and folklore on modern literature, especially but not limited to fantasy.  He is the author of Welsh Celtic Myth in Modern Fantasy (1989) and The Mabinogi: A Book of Essays (1996). Editor of Children's Folkore Review and co-editor of Celtic Cultural Studies .

Dr. Ralph C. Wood (PhD. University of Chicago) focuses on religion in literature.  Author The Gospel According to Tolkien: Visions of the Kingdom in Middle-earth (Westminster John Knox Press, 2003).  He has taught Tolkien on the college level since 1973. He is the University Professor of Theology and Literature at Baylor University.