Diversity and Counter-Diversity in Tolkien Scholarship

So, I'd been going back and forth over whether to attend this year's Tolkien Seminar hosted by the Tolkien Society. It's a time intensive event, as I found out when I tried to attend the full array of presentations last year (who knew sitting and watching a screen cd be so tiring as the hours drag on?). Plus, the focus of this year's event is outside the range of my work on Tolkien. 

https://www.tolkiensociety.org/2021/06/seminar-speakers-announced-tolkien-and-diversity/

But on the theory that it's good to get out of yr comfort zone once in a while, I finally went ahead and signed up this morning.

 Which turned out to be good timing, because this afternoon a friend (hi J.) sent me a link about people who are staging, or trying to stage, a counter-conference, to be held (virtually) concurrently with the long-planned Tolkien Society event. Some information (not much) can be found on the insurgent group's website: 

https://societyoftolkien.org/

Much more, including discussion, appears on Mike Glyer's site, FILE 770, including that the group organizing the counter-event that has only been in existence for about a week,* making it sound more like a flash mob than a conference:

http://file770.com/purported-event-will-counter-program-the-seminar-on-diversity-in-tolkien/

--John R.

*just to clarify: The Tolkien Society has been around since 1969 or so, and is a registered charity in the U.K. 'Society of Tolkien' is a new group who have formed specifically to protest the Tolkien Society's seminar.