Tag Archives: CFP

CFP: “Show they queere substance”

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Details for an upcoming event at the University of Westminster.

A 2015 episode of RuPaul’s Drag Race saw the work of Shakespeare make a perhaps rather surprising appearance on the show. In the episode, titled ‘Shakesqueer’, the season eight queens performed in rewritten Shakespeare plays – Romeo and Juliet became ‘Romy and Juliet’ and Macbeth became ‘Macbitch’. In 2016, the Globe gave us a production of A Midsummer Night’s Dream with Helenus (played by male actor Ankur Bahl) rather than Helena, transforming the relationship with Demetrius (and indeed Lysander) into an overtly queer one. At exactly the same moment, Russell T. Davies inserted a lesbian kiss into his BBC adaptation of the same play – a kiss which prompted Katie Hopkins to declare “I don’t want Shakespeare queered-up so you feel more at home”.

This queer cultural exploration of the Early Modern is happening at the same time that academic scholarship continues to use queer theoretical frames as a way of illuminating and interrogating Early Modern texts and contexts. Notably, this can be seen in John S. Garrison’s Friendship and Queer Theory in the Renaissance: Gender and Sexuality in Early Modern England (2013); Simone Chess’ Male-to-Female Crossdressing in Early Modern English Literature: Gender, Performance, and Queer Relations (2016); and Will Stockton’s forthcoming Members of His Body (2017), amongst many, many others.

This one-day symposium seeks to ask two questions: firstly, what can queer frames tell us about Early Modern texts and contexts? Secondly, in what ways can the Early Modern (be it literature, culture or politics) speak to queer cultures in the present? Or, what do queer reiterations of Early Modern texts and contexts achieve in the present?

Topics may include but not be limited to:

  • the intersections between queerness and race in both Early Modern texts/contexts; and contemporary reiterations of Early Modern cultural artefacts;
  • queer uses of Early Modern texts in the contemporary;
  • queer readings of Early Modern texts or contexts;
  • what it means to suggest that a “queered-up” Shakespeare (for example) might make one feel “more at home”;
  • considerations of contemporary productions of Early Modern plays which draw out queerness or which introduce queerness;
  • queer history/histories.

Abstract of 250 words, accompanied by a short bio, should be submitted to Kate Graham at k.graham1@westminster.ac.uk by March 3rd 2017.

Shakespeare in the Context of his Time

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‘What legacy shall I bequeath to thee?’ – Shakespeare in the Context of his Time

 An Interdisciplinary Graduate and Early Career Symposium Call for Papers

 Centre for Early Modern Studies, University of Aberdeen

22nd October 2016

Both universal and a product of his time Shakespeare remains an enigmatic writer. The celebration of the 400th anniversary of his death demonstrates his continued impact on scholarly thought and popular culture. Investigating Shakespeare among his contemporaries in a period of transformations will help to understand his enduring popularity. The symposium ‘Shakespeare in the Context of his Time’ invites proposals which consider the cultural transfer and translation of Shakespearean ideas on his time, but also the influence of the cultural context of the intellectual and cultural world of the sixteenth century on Shakespeare himself. This includes the intellectual exchange between Shakespeare and his contemporaries examined through all aspects of cultural, literary and theatrical influence. Papers are invited from early career scholars and graduate students in all disciplines which touch on Shakespeare’s work. ‘Shakespeare in the Context of his Time’ is organised by the Centre for Early Modern Studies at the University of Aberdeen.

Please email 250-word abstracts by Sunday the 15th of May to Alison Passe and Julia Kotzur at shakespeareincontext@gmail.com. Papers should be a maximum of 20 minutes in length. Please include a brief biography (no more than 150 words). Possible topics could include:

– Shakespeare and Europe

– Contemporaneous intellectual sources of Shakespeare’s ideas

– The transfer of ideas between playwrights

– Shakespearean linguistics

– English History Plays

– Influences across multiple genres

– Performance history including Shakespearean theatre and use of his stage

Teaching & Learning in Early Modern England: Skills & Knowledge in Practice

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A conference to be held at the University of Cambridge, 1st-2nd September 2016

Organisers: Jennifer Bishop & John Gallagher

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From the workshop to the schoolroom, teaching and learning were everyday activities in early modern England. But who learnt what, from whom, and where? How did knowledge transmission work in practice? And what did it mean to be educated, to be skilful, in a rapidly changing society? This conference aims to bring together scholars working on the transmission of knowledge and skills in order to ask new questions about the educational cultures of early modern England.

What was being taught in early modern England? Scholarship on artisanal and technical knowledge has pointed the way towards a history of education and knowledge transfer not limited by the walls of educational institutions. This history can bring together the studies of literacy and language, of artisanal and technical crafts, of science and medicine, of print, fashion, and commerce.

Where did teaching and learning happen? Outside established educational institutions lay vibrant cultures of knowledge transmission and exchange. This conference is interested in sites where knowledge was transmitted formally or informally, from workshops to schoolrooms and printing houses to coffee houses. What was the role of location, neighbourhood, and community in the circulation of knowledge? How did material environments interact with learning processes?

Who was a teacher? Who were the masters, teachers, tutors, and experts – male and female, English and immigrants – who transmitted knowledge and skills in early modern England? How did masters and teachers establish their technical or pedagogical authority, and how did they advertise or compete with one another? Can we reconstruct networks of knowledge, communities of teachers? Do our historiographies do justice to all those who performed educational labour? This conference hopes to consider ushers, technicians, servants, and labourers alongside masters and tutors.

How were skills and knowledge taught and transmitted? Learning is more than an intellectual experience. What were the physical, oral, and sensory realities of early modern learning? In artisanal and academic situations, how was embodied knowledge taught and transmitted? What was the role of the oral and the verbal in the transmission of knowledge? How can scholars access the experiences of teachers and learners in early modern England?

The deadline for abstracts is 1st April 2016. Please send abstracts of no more than 300 words to teachingandlearning2016@gmail.com.

National Boundaries in Early Modern Literary Studies

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An Early Career Symposium, supported by a British Academy Rising Star Engagement Award (BARSEA), at Queen Mary University of London on Friday 18 September 2015.

7Rw1KXiOWhat are the benefits for researchers in early modern European literary studies (c. 1450-1700) of specializing in a particular national literature? What is gained by working across national boundaries and in more than one language? And how can research agendas respond better to the transnational and multilingual nature of literature at this time. This one-day symposium, organized in association with the Centre for Renaissance and Early Modern Studies at Queen Mary University of London, will be held on Friday 18 September 2015. The day will consist of papers and panel discussions, a roundtable, and an opening address given by Prof. Ingrid De Smet FBA (Warwick).The symposium is especially designed for early career researchers (including advanced postgrads) working in several disciplines (including English, Modern Languages and History) to reflect on challenges and opportunities for research in early modern European literary culture in different languages and that crosses national boundaries. A central aim is to give researchers working in different areas the chance to meet each other, make new contacts and exchange ideas. Expressions of interest in speaking at the event (including giving a 15-20 minute paper)  are welcome; see website for more details. Thanks to generous support from a British Academy Rising Star Engagement Award (BARSEA), attendance is free, and lunch and refreshments will be provided. In order to attract researchers from across the country, the organizers are able to assist with travel expenses for participants travelling from outside London. Places are limited and will be reserved on a first-come-first-served basis. For more information about the event and how to register please visit http://www.earlymodernboundaries.com.

CFP: Epistolary Cultures – Letters and Letter-writing in Early Modern Europe

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University of York, Humanities Research Centre, 18-19 March 2016

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The University of York is pleased to announce Epistolary Cultures – Letters and Letter-writing in Early Modern Europe, a two-day conference (Humanities Research Centre, 18-19 March 2016). 

From the place of Cicero’s intimate letters in the development of Renaissance humanism, to the knowledge networks of merchants, collectors and scientists, to the role of women in the republic of letters, recent years have seen a flowering of studies on the practice of letter-writing in Early Modern Europe, as well as major editing projects of early modern letters – Hartlib, Comenius, Scaliger, Casaubon, Browne, Greville, and the EMLO and Cultures of Knowledge projects. This conference will explore the manifold aspects of early modern letter-writing in the sixteenth and seventeenth century in its Latin and vernacular forms. It will consider topics such as the intellectual geographies of letter-writing, the connections between vernacular and Latin letter cultures, questions of genre, rhetoric and style, as well as the political, religious, and scientific uses of letters.  
 
Keynote speakers include Henry Woudhuysen and Andrew Zurcher.
Other speakers include: Tom Charlton James Daybell, Johanna Harris Joe Moshenska, Alison Searle, Richard Serjeantson
Papers might explore:
Rhetoric and letter writing.
Humanism and the republic of letters.
The early modern secretary.
Women and the republic of letters.
The classical and the biblical letter in early modern thought.
Letters and the professions – law, trade, war and diplomacy.
Materials of letter writing: paper, pen, parchment, seals.
The personal letter: friends and family
Love letters.
Writing disaster: plague and war letters.
Geographies of letter writing.
Scientific letters.
Petition letters.
Royal letters.
Prison letters.
Collections and the publishing of letters.
Verse epistles.
Epistolary fiction.
Dedicatory and prefatory letters.
Case studies.
 
Applications: please send a 250-500 word abstract and short c.v. to: Kevin Killeen (kevin.killeen@york.ac.uk) and Freya Sierhuis (freya.sierhuis@york.ac.uk) before 27 April 2015. We welcome applications from early and mid-career researchers, as well as established scholars.

 

SP 14/129 FOL. 68V (NATIONAL ARCHIVES)