Dr. Amy H. Sturgis, adjunct instructor in the Liberal Studies Department in the University College at Belmont University, has been invited to be a Guest of Honor at the Gathering of the Fellowship in Toronto, Canada from December 15-17, 2003.
The Gathering of the Fellowship is an international event commemorating the works of author J.R.R. Tolkien and the worldwide premiere of the film The Lord of the Rings: Return of the King, and is expected to involve several thousand participants from over twenty different nations.
Other confirmed Guests of Honor for the three-day event include actors from The Lord of the Rings films and leading Tolkien artists, musicians, and academics.
Dr. Sturgis will present a talk entitled Harry Potter Is A Hobbit: How J.R.R. Tolkien Put the Adult in Children’s Literature,” and participate in scholarly panels on Teaching Tolkien at the University Level, The Lord of the Rings: The Books vs. The Films, and Women in Middle-Earth. Her appearance is sponsored by the New York Tolkien Society Heren Istarion.
In July 2003, Sturgis presented original research on Tolkien at the annual meeting of the Mythopoeic Society and also participated in the conference’s “Teaching Tolkien” panel presentation.
Sturgis is the co-founder and coordinator of Lómelindi, the Nashville Smial of the Tolkien Society. She teaches, among other things, J.R.R. Tolkien in History, Political Thought, and Literature and Harry Potter and His Predecessors at Belmont University.
