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.