A young TP leading the indefatigable Moocows while wearing his second-best marching hat.
My name is Corey Olsen. My family is from southern New Hampshire, and I got my BA from Williams College in 1996. A Phi Beta Kappa member, I graduated with Highest Honors in English and also double-majored in Astrophysics. While at Williams, I sang with the Elizabethans and proudly directed the Mucho Macho Moocow Marching Band.
I went to graduate school at Columbia University, where I received my PhD in 2004. I specialize in medieval literature, and my research interests include the poetry of Geoffrey Chaucer, the Morte Darthur of Sir Thomas Malory, and, of course, Tolkien.
TP processing in a WAC graduation ceremony.
In 2011, encouraged by my enthusiastic Tolkien Professor podcast listeners, I established the Mythgard Institute. Mythgard aspires to be an organization that will support and facilitate teaching and research in Tolkien studies, fantasy literature, and related fields into the twenty-first century. The Institute extends the Tolkien Professor dialogue through a belief in studying what we love and sharing it with all those who wish to learn.
I am also currently a professor in the English Department of Washington College, a delightful little liberal-arts college in Chestertown, on Maryland’s Eastern Shore. At WAC (as it is affectionately known), I teach courses on Chaucer, courtly love, Arthurian literature, the Bible, Greco-Roman mythology, and a full-semester course on the works of Tolkien.
At the graduation ceremony in 2007, I was deeply honored to receive the Alumni Association’s Award for Distinguished Teaching, the most prestigious teaching award given to a faculty member at Washington College. I am also the faculty advisor of the auspiciously-named English honor society, Sigma Tau Delta (STD).
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