An inevitable comment. I'd rather not go near it. That discussion would be worse than the Balrog one.
I'm a university student who is making a effort, however small, within my English department to try and get Tolkien some recognition within the circles of academia. He is already respected as a linguist, but not as a novelist. I wrote both my sophomore and junior papers on his works.
T.A. Shippey's work is probably as close to academic criticism of Tolkien as I've read to this point.