Below are listed publications that specifically deal with teaching Tolkien’s life or works, primarily in college-level courses, although a few involve secondary school courses. The references included have been screened for relevance. Suggestions for additions to this bibliography are welcome; please suggest them in the comments section at the bottom of this page.

Beal, Jane. “Teaching Tolkien’s Translations of Medieval Literature: Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, Sir Orfeo and Pearl.” This Rough Magic, vol. 5, no. 1, June 2014, pp. 1-40, http://www.thisroughmagic.org/beal%20article.html.

Bishop, Katherine E. “The Pedagogical Fantastic: Active Learning Through and In Fantasy Literature.” Comparative Culture, vol. 22, no. 2, 2018, pp. 46-51.

Chance, Jane. “Tolkien and his Sources.” Approaches to Teaching Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, edited by Miriam Youngerman Miller and Jane Chance, MLA, 1986, pp. 43-68.

—–. “Tough Love: Teaching the New Medievalisms.” Studies in Medievalism, vol. 18, 2010, pp. 76-98.

Clayton, Jay, and Don Rodrigues. “Pwning Tolkien’s Trilogy: Game Studies in a Massively Open Online Course (MOOC).” Teaching Games and Game Studies in the Literature Classroom, edited by Tison Pugh and Lynn Ramey, Bloomsbury Publishing, 2022, pp. 63-70.

Donovan, Leslie A., ed. Approaches to Teaching Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings and Other Works. MLA, 2015. (Contents available here.)

Dotolo, Frederick, and Theresa Nicolay. “Approaching History Through Literature: Generating Knowledge Through Writing and Inquiry in a Cross Disciplinary First-Year Learning Community.” The History Teacher, vol. 42, no. 1, 2008, pp. 25-34.

Fimi, Dimitra. “Teaching and Studying Tolkien.” Mallorn, vol. 46, 2008, pp. 27-29.

Ford, Jim: “Fantasy Classics: Hobbits and Harry in Interdisciplinary Courses.” Fantasy Media in the Classroom: Essays on Teaching with Film, Television, Literature, Graphic Novels and Video Games, edited by Emily Dial-Driver, Sally Emmons, and Jim Ford. Jefferson, McFarland, 2012, pp. 138-47.

Foster, Mike. “Teaching Tolkien.” The Lord of the Rings, 1954-2004: Scholarship in Honor of Richard E. Blackwelder, edited by Wayne G. Hammond and Christina Scull, Marquette UP, 2006, pp. 257-67.

Gross, Thomas F. “The Promise of the Personality Theories Course.” Teaching of Psychology, vol. 9, no. 2, 1982, pp. 113-14.

Hall, Sandra. “Tolkien Studies and Online Learning: A Personal Journey.” Amon Hen: The Bulletin of the Tolkien Society, vol. 233, Jan. 2012, pp. 21-23.

Holtz-Wodzak, V. “Running Widdershins Round Middle Earth: Why Teaching Tolkien Matters.” Analytic Teaching and Philosophical Praxis, vol. 29, no. 1, 2009, pp. 10-16, https://journal.viterbo.edu/index.php/atpp/article/view/1020.

Honegger, Thomas, and Jana Honegger. “Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings – Beyond the Printed Text.” Cultural Studies in the EFL Classroom, edited by Werner Delanoy and Laurenz Volkmann, Winter, 2006, pp. 323-35.

Jorgensen, Estelle R. “Myth, Song, and Music Education: The Case of Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings and Swann’s The Road Goes Ever On.” Journal of Aesthetic Education, vol. 40, no. 3, 2006, pp. 1-21.

Kotlarczyk, Adam. “Teaching Tolkien: Language, Scholarship, and Creativity.” Illinois English Bulletin, vol. 102, no. 2, 2015, pp. 23-38.

Larsen, Kristine. “The Astronomy of Middle-Earth: Teaching Astronomy through Tolkien.” Cosmos in the Classroom, edited by Andrew Fraknoi and William Waller, Astronomical Society of the Pacific Press, 2004, pp. 237-45.

—–. “Death to Bree Creek Quadrangle: Teaching Students to Hate Tolkien One Geological Map at a Time.” Amon Hen: The Bulletin of the Tolkien Society, vol. 260, July 2016, pp. 12-15.

—–. “There and Back Again in the Classroom and in Outreach: Astronomy and The Hobbit.” Mercury, vol. 41, no. 4, 2012, pp. 15-17.

Lief, Jason. “Challenging the Objectivist Paradigm: Teaching Biblical Theology with J. R. R. Tolkien, C. S. Lewis, and Guillermo Del Toro.” Teaching Theology & Religion, vol. 12, no. 4, 2009, pp. 321-32.

Monta, Susannah B. “Teaching Spenser As Fantasy Literature; Or, How to Lure Unsuspecting Undergraduates into a Spenser Course.” Pedagogy: Critical Approaches to Teaching Literature, Language, Composition, and Culture, vol. 3, no. 2, 2003, pp. 191-96.

Morgan, Alun. “The Lord of the Rings– a Mythos Applicable in Unsustainable Times?” Environmental Education Research, vol. 16, 2010, pp. 3-4.

Perry, Phyllis J. Teaching Fantasy Novels: From The Hobbit to Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire. Teacher Ideas Press, 2003.

Power, Rebecca. “Becoming a Subcreator: Response to ‘Studies in Medievalism: Tolkien and Mythmaking.’” Fandom as Classroom Practice: A Teaching Guide, edited by Katherine Anderson Howell, U of Iowa P, 2018, pp. 32-34.

Purser, Phil. “‘There and Back Again’: J. R. R. Tolkien and the Literature of the Medieval Quest.” Studies in Medieval and Renaissance Teaching, vol. 16, no. 2, 2009, pp. 31-42.

Rankin, Sherry. “‘Where Are the Horse and the Rider?’: An Approach to Using J. R. R. Tolkien’s The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings to Teach Medieval Literature in the British Literature Survey Classroom.” CCTE Studies, vol. 79, 2014, pp. 48-57.

Reid, Robin Anne, and Judy Ann Ford: “From Beowulf to Post-modernism: Interdisciplinary Team-Teaching of J. R. R.Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings.” The Ring Goes Ever On: Proceedings of the Tolkien 2005 Conference, edited by Sarah Wells, vol. 1, The Tolkien Society, 2008, pp. 106-11.

Risden, E. L. “Teaching Tolkien and His World, and Why He Matters.” Tolkien’s Intellectual Landscape, McFarland, 2015, pp. 181-99.

—–. “The World of the Text: Source Study, Philology, and Teaching the Middle Ages Through Tolkien.” Studies in Medieval and Renaissance Teaching, vol. 19, no. 2, 2012, pp. 81-94.

Ruane, Abigail E, and Patrick James. “The International Relations of Middle-earth: Learning from The Lord of the Rings.” International Studies Perspectives, vol. 9, no. 4, 2008, pp. 377-94.

Sauro, Shannon, and Björn Sundmark. “Critically Examining the Use of Blog-Based Fanfiction in the Advanced Language Classroom.” ReCALL: The Journal of EUROCALL, vol. 31, no. 1, Jan. 2019, pp. 40–55.

—–. “Report from Middle-earth: Fan Fiction Tasks in the EFL Classroom.” ELT Journal, vol. 70, no. 4, Oct. 2016, pp. 414–23.

Schindler, Tim, Matthew DiPietro, and Randall Wesley. Concerning Hobbits and Other Matters: Tolkien Across the Disciplines: Papers Delivered at the University of St. Thomas Tolkien Conference, 26 April 2001, University of St. Thomas, 2001.

Schultz, Anne-Marie, and C. D. Maples. 2024. “Plato, C.S. Lewis, and J. R. R. Tolkien Using Literary and Philosophical Texts to Navigate Post-Pandemic and Political Teaching Challenges.” Religions, vol. 15, no. 3, p. 257, https://doi.org/10.3390/rel15030257.

Smol, Anna. “Adaptation as Analysis: Creative Work in an English Classroom.” Fandom as Classroom Practice: A Teaching Guide, edited by Katherine Anderson Howell, U of Iowa P, 2018, pp. 17–31.

Stanton, Michael N. “Teaching Tolkien.” Exercise Exchange, vol. 18, no. 1, fall 1973, pp. 2-5.

Sturgis, Amy H. “Interdisciplinary Tolkien.” The Art of Teaching, vol. 11, no. 4, November 2005, p. 1.

—–. “‘Tolkien is the Wind and the Way’: The Educational Value of Tolkien-Inspired World Music.” Middle-earth Minstrel: Essays on Music in Tolkien, edited by Bradford Lee Eden, McFarland Publishing, 2010, pp. 126-39.

Thomas, Melissa. “Teaching Fantasy: Overcoming the Stigma of Fluff.” English Journal, vol. 92, no. 5, 2003, pp. 60-64.

Vaquero, Alexander Frank García, and Maria Alcantud Diaz. “Exploring Tolkien’s Literary Universe in the EFL Classroom. Approaching Literature through Robotics-Enhanced Inquiry-Based Learning.” Digital Education Review, no. 44, Jan. 2023, pp. 1-12.