[Lush]

I'm fairly curious on how much of an impact she thought this had on academia as a whole. Does she think this has a major impact (e.g. on the false assumptions drawn from the popularity of the book) or minor(e.g. putting LOTR next to Terry Brooks )?

Judging from what we talked about, I would say that it depends on the scholar in question. As for LOTR being placed next to Terry Brooks, that's more related to the nature of the fantasy genre as perceived by the general public than some scholar's jealousy toward Tolkien, though the two aren't mutually exclusive.