Luke Shelton

I am currently a PhD student in the School of Critical Studies at the University of Glasgow. My PhD research focuses on the reception of J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings by young readers. The Principal Supervisor of my research is Dr. Dimitra Fimi. In addition to my role at University of Glasgow, I am an adjunct professor in the Department of Literature and Language at East Tennessee State University (ETSU). I also currently serve as the Assistant to the Technical Editor for Nineteenth-Century Gender Studies. I received my Master of Arts (M.A.) from ETSU in 2017, also receiving ETSU's John D. Allen Award for Outstanding Graduate Student in English at that time. During my time in the M.A. program, I served as a Graduate Assistant and taught several sections of composition. As an M.A. student, I completed a thesis entitled “Celtic Water Hags, Violent Children, and Wild Men: Reexamining the Syncretic Nature of Beowulf” under the direction of Thomas H. Crofts. In addition to completing the M.A. requirements with distinction, I also presented research at eight conferences, and organized several campus activities. Before attending ETSU for graduate studies, I worked as a high school English teacher for two years. I taught classes on American Literature, World Literature, and Communication. In this capacity, I learned much more than the content for the courses. I became a more effective communicator with students and learned how to manage a classroom and create engaging lessons that encourage students to be responsible for their own learning beyond school walls.