Signum University invites you to join us on Saturday, 12 December, in Detroit, MI, USA for Motown Moot. This hybrid event will take place at Woodside Bible Church – Plymouth. For our very first Moot in Michigan, you are invited to compare and contrast the times of the Elves, Dwarves, and Hobbits with our own through our theme of Tolkien and the Modern Age.
Register Here for Motown Moot!
Cost: $50 USD for in-person attendance, $25 USD for remote attendance
“Men had then existed for 448 [Valian Years] + 22 [Sun Years]: i.e., 64,534 Sun Years, which, though doubtless insufficient scientifically (since that is only – we being in 1960 of the 7th Age – 16,000 years ago: total about 80,000), is adequate for purposes of the Silmarillion.”
J.R.R. Tolkien, The Nature Of Middle-Earth
While J.R.R. Tolkien is often celebrated as a sub-creator of ancient mythologies and a chronicler of a lost heroic past, his profound and complex relationship with the Modern Age demands fresh exploration. Motown Moot seeks to investigate the dynamic interplay between Tolkien’s legendarium and the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. We invite presentations that look at, and beyond, the view of Tolkien as a critic of modernity, and examine how his work engages with, critiques, and even unexpectedly illuminates modern, contemporary concerns.
Potential topics may include, but are not limited to:
- Tolkien’s response to the trauma of industrial warfare and technological acceleration
- Eco-critical readings of his works in an age of climate crisis
- The modern applicability of Tolkien’s themes of community, stewardship, and resistance
- Post-modern and adaptive readings of Tolkien’s texts
- The relevance of Tolkien’s concepts of eucatastrophe, estel, and amdir in an anxious world
Come join us in Detroit with one foot in the distant past and the other in the present.
Submit Your Presentation Proposal Here!
Please note that a conference theme helps tie the day together and optimize fun, and we welcome anyone to respond to the Call for Proposals. Our moots are supportive environments for practicing or developing your presentation skills regardless of your experience.
This Call for Proposals will close after 12 November. We will finalize the schedule then and post it here.
Please read our Regional Moot Recording and Privacy Notice. You will be required to agree to its contents in our registration system before completing your ticket purchase.
