Community Profile

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This community was created to support a Tolkien scholarly project.

I am a professor in the Department of Literature and Languages at Texas A&M University-Commerce. You may view my faculty information by clicking on this link and scrolling down.

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My fan history:

I was active in Star Trek fandom during the 1970s, participated in a comics/gen APA during the 1980's, and have come back to The Lord of the Rings online fandom in the new century. I write RPS and FPS stories as well as meta.

My teaching interests:

I teach creative writing, critical theory, Tolkien's work, and new media.

My scholarly interests:

My current projects are a Tolkien Corpus project as well as a digital humanities project relating to discussions of racism online (for more detail about scholarship, click on the Website link above which takes you to my primary academic journal on Dreamwidth).

Any research questions or materials posted on this journal (polls, questions, etc.) have been approved by my university's Institutional Review Board.

Here is the official approval notice for the first iteration of the "Women and Tolkien" presentation:
March 19, 2012

Dear Dr. Robin Reid:

On behalf of the Texas A & M University-Commerce Institutional Review Board, I have considered your proposal, Women and Tolkien: Amazons, Valkyries, Feminists, and Slashers [2012-406] and have determined that it is exempt from Full Board review. Please verify with Ms. Mona Gilley that she has everything she needs for her files (Mona_Gilley@tamu-commerce.edu).

Do be mindful that this approval is good for one year, and that if your project extends beyond one year you must request a continuation. Additionally, should there be any sort of adverse event it is your duty to report that to the IRB immediately.

Dr. Carmen Salazar
Chair, IRB


Carmen F. Salazar, Ph.D.
Chair, Institutional Review Board (IRB)
Associate Professor
Department of Psychology, Counseling, and Special Education Texas A&M University-Commerce Commerce, TX 75429-3011
(903) 886-5634
Carmen_Salazar@tamu-commerce.edu