All kidding aside....
There may not be degrees in Tolkienology, but you can sure do a master's or doctoral dissertation on something related to Tolkien. Work with someone like Jane Chance at Rice University, Verlyn Flieger at University of Maryland, Michael Stanton at University of Vermont, or T.A. Shippey at St. Louis University, all of whom are actively publishing in the field. Most of these professors teach within an English department. Shippey is a philologist (like Tolkien) who holds a general chair in the humanities.
If you earn a Ph.d., you'll go through two years or more of general course work in literature. Then you'll be buried for at least two years on a research project of your choosing, at least one that your adviser will agree to. If you're real lucky, you'll end up teaching English language and lit at another college, and maybe even make tenure. You'll never get rich, but you'll have your summers off, plus winter break and such, and maybe even get a sabbatical every now and then when you can run off to someplace like Marquette University and study JRRT's writings in manuscript.
There's even a second possibility. There are language departments out there that let you specialize in invented or man-made languages. And, of course, JRRT could fall under this heading. I don't know anyone who's actually done this or where they studied, but a friend teaching Spanish told me she'd been to language conferences where there were a few folk like this around.
BTW, I do have a special axe to grind about this. Hold on because here comes a major rant......
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and inspiring bored and out of work graduate students to write irrelevant research books about Tolkien’s mythology.
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I've seen similar opinions voiced too often on these boards.
There are threads on the Downs Book forum which come very close to the kind of research that grad students and professors carry on at a university. And, like anything else, there's good scholarship and bad scholarship. Before you start flinging apples at these men and women, sit down and read some of their stuff. I defy someone to study Verlyn Flieger's or T.A. Shippey's works and not come away learning something.
How many times are we told that are own interests and discussions are "irrelevent" and that Tolkien is not truly literature? Professors like these are no different. They have to face frequent barbs from their colleagues for what they love, so why are we adding to their woes? These people are doing what they're doing because they feel Tolkien and his writings are worth studying. We don't have to agree with everything they say or view them as some kind of gods, but I think they deserve the same respect that we'd give to another Tolkien poster on this board.
Rant over......
Cami Goodchild
[ May 19, 2003: Message edited by: Child of the 7th Age ]