The Shakespeare Conference: SHK 35.018 Wednesday, 7 February 2024
From: Richard A. Strier <rastrier@uchicago.edu>
Date: February 6, 2024, 12:49 PM EST
Subject: Shakespeare Adaptation
For those interested in adaptation of Shakespeare plays, I have an essay on Nahum Tate’s King Lear in the most recent issue of Modern Philology (February 2024). Has some surprises.
Richard Strier
The Shakespeare Conference: SHK 35.019 Tuesday, 13 February 2024
From: Thomas Dabbs <tdabbs@cl.aoyama.ac.jp>;
Date: February 12, 2024, 1:39 AM EST
Subject: Speaking of Shakespeare: Thomas Dabbs
This is a talk that Stephen Wittek of Carnegie Mellon University had with Thomas Dabbs (me), about the SoS Series, teaching the Bible in Japan, the influence of Paul’s Cross Churchyard on Elizabethan drama, and Shakespearean adaptation in Japan.
The Shakespeare Conference: SHK 35.020 Tuesday, 13 February 2024
From: Darren Freebury-Jones <darren_f.j@hotmail.co.uk>;
Date: February 13, 2024, 8:52 AM EST
Subject: Shakespeare’s Borrowed Feathers
My forthcoming book with Manchester University Press, Shakespeare’s Borrowed Feathers, is now available to pre-order for £25 here:
https://manchesteruniversitypress.co.uk/9781526177322/shakespeares-borrowed-feathers
Here is a description of the book:
Shakespeare’s plays have influenced generations of writers, but who were the early modern playwrights who influenced him? Shakespeare’s Borrowed Feathers offers a fresh look at William Shakespeare and the community of playwrights that shaped his work. This compelling book argues that we need to see early modern drama as a communal enterprise, with playwrights borrowing from and adapting one another’s work.
From John Lyly’s wit to the collaborative genius of John Fletcher, to Christopher Marlowe and Ben Jonson, Shakespeare's Borrowed Feathers offers fresh insights into Shakespeare’s artistic development and shows us new ways of looking at the masterpieces that have enchanted audiences for centuries.
The Shakespeare Conference: SHK 35.026 Friday, 23 February 2024
From: Alice Dailey <alice.dailey@villanova.edu>
Date: February 21, 2024 3:02 PM EST
Subject: The Spanish Tragedy Production and Symposium
Dear Friends and Colleagues,
I write on behalf of myself and my co-director at Villanova University, Chelsea Phillips, to invite you to our production of Thomas Kyd’s The Spanish Tragedy and a coinciding scholarly/pedagogical Spanish Tragedy Symposium this April following SAA. The production will be staged in our new Mullen Center for the Performing Arts on April 11-21, 2024, as the culminating show in Villanova Theater’s 2023-24 season. The symposium, April 19-20, features keynote talks by Richard Preiss (University of Utah) and Andrea Stevens (University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign).
Our production of The Spanish Tragedy stars James Keegan in the role of Hieronimo. Keegan’s stage career has included roles at The Folger Theatre, Theatreworks, The Delaware Shakespeare Festival, and The American Shakespeare Center’s Blackfriars Playhouse, where he performed as a company member for 16 seasons in roles including King Lear, Falstaff, Iago, Macbeth, Prospero, Titus Andronicus, Mark Antony, Shylock, Tamburlaine, Bosola, and Barabas. We are thrilled to welcome him to Villanova as part of our year-long, grant-funded study of The Spanish Tragedy.
See flyer attached; follow the link below for more detailed information about the production and symposium and to register or purchase tickets. And please feel free to share, and reach out if you have questions!
Very best,
Alice
The Shakespeare Conference: SHK 35.027 Friday, 23 February 2024
From: Jessica Tvordi <tvordi@suu.edu>
Date: February 23, 2024 11:06 AM EST
Subject: CFP: Wooden O Symposium
August 5-7, 2024
Southern Utah University - Utah Shakespeare Festival
The 2024 Wooden O Symposium will be held in conjunction with the Rocky Mountain Medieval and Renaissance Association’s annual conference in Cedar City, UT.
We are also pleased to announce our keynote speaker is Vanessa I. Corredera (Andrews University), author of Reanimating Shakespeare's Othello in Post-Racial America (Edinburgh University Press, 2022).
The Wooden O Symposium invites panel and paper proposals on any topic relating to Shakespeare and his plays:
We encourage papers and presentations that speak to the Utah Shakespeare Festival’s 2024 summer season: Henry VIII, The Winter’s Tale, The Taming of the Shrew, and Much Ado About Nothing.
The deadline for proposals is April 20, 2024.
Please include a 100-200-word abstract or session proposal (including individual abstracts) and the following information:
All abstracts should be submitted through the following link: http://www.memberplanet.com/s/rmmra/rmmra2024application
For more information, please contact the conference co-organizers, Scott Knowles at scottknowles@suu.edu or Jessica Tvordi at tvordi@suu.edu
The Shakespeare Conference: SHK 35.028 Thursday, 29 February 2024
From: The British Graduate Shakespeare Conference <chair.britgrad@gmail.com>
Date: February 29 at 3:59 AM EST
Subject: BritGrad Call for Papers - Only One Month Left to Submit!
CALL FOR PAPERS
The Twenty-Sixth Annual British Graduate Shakespeare Conference
Thursday 13th — Saturday 15th June, 2024
There are just FOUR weeks left to submit an abstract for BritGrad 2024!
The twenty-sixth annual British Graduate Shakespeare Conference will take place on Thursday 13th—Saturday 15th June 2024. We are delighted to announce that this year’s BritGrad will be a fully hybrid conference, where delegates will be able to present their research in person at the Shakespeare Institute or online via Zoom. Postgraduates from around the world are invited to submit abstracts on a wide range of topics including, but not limited to: early modern literature, book history, theatre history, textual studies, pedagogy, gender studies, editing, music, politics, cultural studies, and performance practice. Proposals must relate to the study of Shakespeare and/or the Early Modern period.
How to apply:
1) Fill in the registration form which can be found here
2) Email an abstract or proposal to registrar.britgrad@gmail.com
Proposals can take any one of the following forms:
Abstracts of up to 200 words proposing research papers that are 20 minutes in length.
Proposals for panels made up of three papers, each 20 minutes in length. This requires an abstract of up to 200 words for each paper, as well as a title and a rationale of up to 100 words for the panel.
Proposals for seminars that are one-hour in length. This requires a list of participants, abstracts of up to 200 words for each participant, a seminar title, and a rationale of up to 100 words detailing the content of the session. Note that the seminar leader is responsible for recruiting participants.
Proposals for workshops and other creative sessions, such as a showcase of original writing, that are one-hour in length. Proposals for creative sessions should take the form of an abstract of up to 200 words.
For more information on what each session entails, please see the FAQ page on our website. If you would like to propose another type of session that does not fit into the above categories, please contact us.
The deadline for submission is 5pm GMT on Thursday 28th March 2024.
Delegates will be notified if their application to present at BritGrad has been accepted before registration opens on Thursday 4th April 2024.
Abstract Prize:
Every year BritGrad awards a prize for the best abstract, with the winner being awarded £100. We are delighted to confirm that this will continue for BritGrad 2024 and all accepted abstracts will be put forward for the award.
Further questions:
For abstract submissions, please email our registrars, Clare-Louise Rhys-Jones and Holly Ellis, at registrar.britgrad@gmail.com.
For general enquiries, please contact us at britgrad.conference@gmail.com.
For more specific enquiries, please contact our co-chairs, Sarah Hodgson and Saraya Haddad, at chair.britgrad@gmail.com.
The Shakespeare Conference: SHK 35.029 Tuesday, 5 March 2024
From: Darren Freebury-Jones <darren_f.j@hotmail.co.uk
Date: March 5 at 4:17 AM EST
Subject: The Collected Works of Thomas Kyd: Volume I
Dear SHAKSPERians,
We are pleased to announce the publication of The Collected Works of Thomas Kyd: Volume I. Further information can be found here: https://boydellandbrewer.com/9781843846949/the-collected-works-of-thomas-kyd/
The contributors to the first and forthcoming second volume are as follows:
Editor in chief
Sir Brian Vickers, FBA
School of Advanced Study, London University
Associate Editor
Darren Freebury-Jones
The Shakespeare Birthplace Trust, Stratford-upon-Avon
Editors
† David Bevington
University of Chicago
Matthew Dimmock
University of Sussex
Eugene Giddens
Anglia Ruskin University
Adam Horsley
Exeter University
Domenico Lovascio
University of Genoa
Rebekah Owens
Anglia Ruskin University
Lucy Rayfield
Oxford University
Daniel Starza Smith
King’s College London
Darren Freebury-Jones
The Shakespeare Conference: SHK 35.031 Monday, 11 March 2024
From: Thomas Dabbs <tdabbs@cl.aoyama.ac.jp>
Date: March 8 at 2:51 PM EST
Subject: Diana Henderson: Speaking of Shakespeare
This is a talk with Diana Henderson of MIT about her recent work in Shakespearean pedagogy and Shakespearean adaptation in particular, but also about her influential contributions to literary study during her career as a Shakespeare scholar: https://youtu.be/Nrmho0xMQ8Y.
The Shakespeare Conference: SHK 35.032 Monday, 11 March 2024
From: Michael Egan <drmichaelegan@yahoo.com>
Date: March 10 at 4:53 PM EDT
Subject: Book Announcement
The Critical Legacy of Thomas of Woodstock or Richard II Part One 1870-Present, edited by Michael Egan (Westshore Press, 2024.)
The anonymous 17th-century drama known as The Tragedy of Woodstock or Richard II, Part One has excited debate and controversy among Shakespeare scholars for more than 150 years. Did he write it? Or is it just a knock-off by an ambitious plagiarist? This anthology of articles and book extracts introduces readers to both sides of the debate, with selections covering more than 150 years of “Woodstock Studies.” Contributors include J.O. Halliwell, Wolfgang Keller, F.S. Boas, Bertram Lloyd, A.P. Rossiter, Wilhelmina P. Frijlinck, Ian Robinson, Eric Sams, MacDonald P. Jackson, Rainbow Saari, and editor Michael Egan.
The Shakespeare Conference: SHK 35.033 Friday, 15 March 2024
From: Sally-Beth MacLean <sea.maclean@gmail.com>
Date: March 15 at 2:38 PM EDT
Subject: Announcing new digital REED edition for the Bear Gardens/Hope Playhouse
The Records of Early English Drama is pleased to announce another new open access resource for teaching and research: the Bear Gardens/Hope Playhouse, edited by Stephanie Hovland and Sally-Beth MacLean. As with other REED Online collections, this is an integrated digital edition of records, in this case relating to the Bear Gardens on the south bank of the Thames in Southwark, and to the Hope, Philip Henslowe’s combined bearbaiting/playhouse enterprise, built in 1613-14.
The records number over a hundred and run from 1546-1640. Accompanying the records are the informative introductory chapters familiar to REED users, one on the history of the properties and one on entertainment, with links embedded to relevant records. Appendix 1 contains selected events for the post-1642 afterlife of the fourth Bear Garden. Appendix 3 contains some contemporary ‘Allusions and Reminiscences’ of the Bear Gardens and bearbaiting and Appendix 4 guides the researcher through the complex litigation following the death of Henslowe in 1616.
The transcribed records are fully searchable. Most are linked with images of original manuscript sources from the London Metropolitan Archives, The British Library, and The National Archives, Kew, as well as with relevant images on the Henslowe-Alleyn Digitisation Project website. A historically-informed GIS map of Southwark and the Bankside in the context of the wider pre-1642 London area is interoperable with the records text. The map features select contemporary roads and lanes, polygons delimiting property boundaries, identifiable sewer lines, and layers to indicate manor, ward, and parish boundaries. A timeline feature linking events with the map and the records will be uploaded by summer 2024.
The Bear Gardens/Hope Playhouse is now available on REED Online at https://ereed.library.utoronto.ca/collections/bghop/.
The Shakespeare Conference: SHK 35.034 Tuesday, 19 March 2024
From: Darren Freebury-Jones<darren_f.j@hotmail.co.uk>
Date: March 19 at 11:08 AM EDT
Subject: CALL FOR PAPERS: Special issue of The Explicator: ‘Shakespeare and His Contemporaries’
I am pleased to announce that I will be guest editor for a special issue of The Explicator journal on the topic of ‘Shakespeare and His Contemporaries’.
The issue will address Shakespeare and contemporary authors, shedding light on the lives, works, and reception of poets, dramatists, and pamphleteers of the early modern period, and also the ways in which Shakespeare interacted with, influenced or was influenced by, and collaborated with other Elizabethan and Jacobean authors.
The Explicator is a peer-reviewed, quarterly journal of literary criticism founded in 1942. Issues are published in print and electronically. The journal is owned by Taylor & Francis.
Main deadlines:
16 June 2024:
Please send an abstract of up to 200 words and a working title to the guest editor: Darren_f.j@hotmail.co.uk
30 June 2024:
Notification of acceptance of proposal.
1 September 2024:
Submission of articles for the special issue to the journal.
Please note that original articles must comply with the editorial norms with a recommended word count of ~2,500 or less. All articles are published in English.
The full Call for Papers complete with links to the submission portal and style guidelines is available here: https://darrenfj.files.wordpress.com/2017/11/call-for-papers-shakespeare-and-his-contemporaries.pdf
Any queries, feel free to email me.
Darren Freebury-Jones.
The Shakespeare Conference: SHK 35.035 Tuesday, 19 March 2024
From: Stephanie Chamberlain <chamberlainsericson@gmail.com>
Date: March 19 at 2:52 PM EDT
Subject: CFP: Journal of the Wooden O
The Journal of the Wooden O (JWO) is a peer-reviewed academic publication focusing on Shakespeare studies. The editors invite papers on topics related to Shakespeare, including Shakespearean texts, Shakespeare in performance, the adaptation of Shakespeare works (film, fiction, and visual and performing arts), Elizabethan and Jacobean culture and history, and Shakespeare’s contemporaries.
The JWO is published annually by Southern Utah University Press in connection with the Gerald R. Sherratt Library and the Utah Shakespeare Festival. Articles published in the JWO are indexed in the MLA International Bibliography, World Shakespeare Bibliography and appear full-text in EBSCO Academic Search Premiere.
Selected papers from the annual Wooden O Symposium are also considered for publication.
SUBMISSIONS: Manuscripts should follow the Chicago Manual of Style, 17th edition. Manuscript submissions should generally be between 3000-7000 words in length. Please review the JWO Style Sheet, which may be found here. The deadline for submission is October 18, 2024. Authors should include all of the following information on a separate page with their submission:
Submit electronic copy to: woodeno@suu.edu (Only .doc, .docx or .rtf files will be accepted.)
For more information, contact:
Journal of the Wooden O
c/o Southern Utah University Press
351 W. University Blvd.
Cedar City, Utah 84720
435.586.1955
The Shakespeare Conference: SHK 35.036 Wednesday, 27 March 2024
From: Matthew Steggle <ms17027@bristol.ac.uk>
Date: March 27 at 9:19 AM EDT
Subject: Spiritual Testament
SHAKSPER subscribers might be interested in an article I’ve just published in Shakespeare Quarterly. The article is here –https://academic.oup.com/sq/advance-article-abstract/doi/10.1093/sq/quae003/7631576
And this is the abstract:
One of the thorniest problems in Shakespeare biography is the “Spiritual Testament,” the document attributed to John Shakespeare, father of the playwright, in which he appears to declare a radical and personally dangerous devotion to the Catholic religion. Central to all discussions of the religious environment in which Shakespeare grew up, this document’s acceptance or rejection has been something of a shibboleth for Shakespeare biographers. This essay studies a group of hitherto unnoticed early print editions of the text that underlies the “Spiritual Testament.” In it, I advance a double thesis: first, that the “Spiritual Testament” cannot belong to John Shakespeare for reasons of date; and second, that its most likely creator is arguably Joan Shakespeare Hart (1569–1646), Shakespeare’s sister.
All the best,
Matt
The Shakespeare Conference: SHK 35.037 Friday, 29 March 2024
From: Scott Newstok <newstoks@rhodes.edu>
Date: March 28 at 4:38 PM EDT
Subject: Marjorie Garber in Memphis, April 10–12
Prolific humanities scholar Marjorie Garber returns to Memphis for a series of events on April 10–12, 2024. Since serving as our Phi Beta Kappa Visiting Scholar at Rhodes in 2014, Garber has published three more books: The Muses on Their Lunch Hour; Character: The History of a Cultural Obsession; and, most recently, Shakespeare in Bloomsbury, praised by the TLS as “a delight to read … beautifully written, and beautifully presented … a constant source of illumination.”
On Wednesday, April 10, Garber will lead a discussion with faculty and graduate students at the University of Memphis about the recent history and current state of the academic humanities (12:00–1:30pm; African American Reading Room, Patterson Hall 221). Following an afternoon interview with WKNO’s “Checking on the Arts,” Garber will conduct a Meeman Center class on her books Shakespeare After All and Shakespeare and Modern Culture (5:30–7:00pm; Dorothy C. King Hall).
On Thursday, April 11, after visiting with Rhodes students in the morning, Garber will join the Wilson Humanities committee for a conversation about her experience directing Harvard’s Humanities Center as well as serving as President of the Consortium of Humanities Centers and Institutes (CHCI) (2:00–3:00pm; Spence Wilson Room, Briggs Hall). Garber will then offer opening remarks at Rhodes’ 21st Annual Symposium on Gender and Sexuality Studies (3:30pm; Blount Auditorium), reflecting upon why research in this field remains vital. The Rhodes College Bookstore will have copies of her landmark study Vested Interests: Cross-Dressing and Cultural Anxiety available for purchase and signing (Blount Lobby). Later that evening, Garber will give a reading from her latest book, Shakespeare in Bloomsbury, at Novel bookstore (6:00pm; 387 Perkins Extended).
On Friday, April 12, Garber will deliver the keynote luncheon address at the 29th Annual Conference of the Association for Core Texts and Courses (ACTC). Her talk is titled Displacement: Shakespeare, Freud, and the Place of the Humanities (12:30–1:45pm; Heritage Ballroom, Sheraton Downtown Memphis). This luncheon is free to registered ACTC guests, but please note that seating is limited; pre-registration is required for all non-conference attendees. After her lecture, registered ACTC guests are also welcome to attend a panel discussion about Garber’s Shakespeare After All, winner of Phi Beta Kappa’s Christian Gauss Award. Respondents include Rhodes professors Daniel Cullen and Stephen Wirls as well as Carol McNamara (2:00–4:30pm; Magnolia Room, Sheraton Downtown Memphis).
Garber’s visit is co-sponsored by the Rhodes College Pearce Shakespeare Endowment, the Project for the Study of Liberal Democracy, the Department of English, Gender and Sexuality Studies, and the Wilson Humanities committee; the University of Memphis Naseeb Shaheen Memorial Lecture Series and the Marcus W. Orr Center for the Humanities; and the Association for Core Texts and Courses.
Best,
Scott Newstok
The Shakespeare Conference: SHK 35.040 Sunday, 7 April 2024
From: Jimmy Newlin <jinewlin@gmail.com>
Date: April 7 at 8:40 AM EDT
Subject: CFP: Ohio Valley Shakespeare Conference (Case Western Reserve University, 2024)
Announcing the 47th Ohio Valley Shakespeare Conference
October 24-26, 2024
Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland, OH
Conference theme: “Shakespeare and the Mind”
The study of Shakespeare has long informed modern and contemporary understandings of the mind. From Sigmund Freud’s influential account of the Oedipus complex in Hamlet to Stanley Cavell’s readings of Shakespeare’s tragedies as interrogations of epistemological skepticism to the recurring focus on Shakespeare in interdisciplinary subfields like cognitive literary studies and the neurohumanities, Shakespeare’s plays and poems continue to impact the sense of what, and how, we know about ourselves. At the same time, some communities have felt excluded from these conversations, reflecting how readings of Shakespeare have also influenced troubling assumptions about a “normative” mind.
The OVSC welcomes papers and roundtables on all topics related to a general theme of Shakespeare and the mind. How did the early moderns conceptualize thought, emotion, and instinct—and how does Shakespeare’s corpus reflect or resist those models? How has the renaissance influenced modern and contemporary understandings of thought, insight, or the unconscious? Do Shakespeare’s texts—or their adaptations or staging—provide any value for clinicians or therapists treating patients suffering from trauma or psychiatric disorders? In short, what did Shakespeare think about the act of thinking?
We welcome papers and projects taking any number of critical approaches, be they formalist, historicist, or theoretical. Projects focused on Shakespeare’s reception, adaptation, and performance, as well as papers focused on Shakespeare’s contemporaries (i.e., other early modern authors, artists, and thinkers) are also welcome. We especially encourage papers that adopt an interdisciplinary approach. The conference is open to graduate students for regular sessions and to undergraduate students for roundtable seminars. Graduate students and undergraduate students are encouraged to submit papers for the M. Rick Smith Memorial Prize and the Julia R. Lupton Graduate Prize.
Plenary Speakers:
Richard Strier, Frank L. Sulzberger Distinguished Service Professor Emeritus, University of Chicago. Author of Shakespearean Issues: Agency, Skepticism, and Other Puzzles (University of Pennsylvania Press, 2022), The Unrepentant Renaissance from Petrarch to Shakespeare to Milton (University of Chicago Press, 2011), Resistant Structures: Particularity, Radicalism, and Renaissance Texts (University of California Press, 1995), and Love Known: Theology and Experience in George Herbert’s Poetry (University of Chicago Press, 1983).
Heather Hirschfeld, Kenneth Curry Professor of English, the University of Tennessee–Knoxville. Author of The End of Satisfaction: Drama and Repentance in the Age of Shakespeare (Cornell University Press, 2014) and Joint Enterprises: Collaborative Drama and the Institutionalization of the English Renaissance Theater (University of Massachusetts Press, 2004).
Please submit 200-300 word abstracts by September 9, 2024 to ovsc2024@gmail.com. The OVSC also offers an Early Decision option, with the deadline of June 10, 2024.
