The Edmund Spenser Home Page: Spenser Society

HISTORY AND CONSTITUTION

The Hugh Maclean Memorial Lecture

Each year at MLA the Spenser Society hosts a luncheon for members, at which an invited speaker delivers an address, known since 1999 as the Hugh Maclean Memorial Lecture. Past luncheons have featured some of the great Spenserian scholars of our era, and the memorial below attests, in its range of speakers and topics, to the vitality and cohesiveness of Spenser studies today. The year cited indicates the date of the delivery of the lecture (always December); further details on any lecture can be found in the subsequent issue of the Spenser Newsletter or Spenser Review--i.e. the first issue of the year following the luncheon.

1983
Balachandra Rajan, "How the poem vanishes: Closure in The Faerie Queene"

1984
Humphrey Tonkin, introducing the Crane Chamber Choir, "Spenser in Concert"

1985
A. Kent Hieatt, "The literary canon and canonicity--for Spenserians"

1986
Donald Cheney, "A View of the present state of the Spenser Encyclopedia"

1987
Annabel Patterson, "Acyron, or the Uncouth"

1988
A. C. Hamilton, on the forthcoming Spenser Encyclopedia

1989
Elizabeth Bieman, "'Be bold...Be not too bold': Spenser and the female critic"

1990
John Hollander, on Spenser as the poet's poet

1991
Maureen Quilligan, on comic laughter in The Faerie Queene

1992
Harry Berger, Jr., untitled Lacanian reading of Book I

1993
Paul Stevens, "Milton, Spenser, and the Rhetoric of Colonialism"

1994
Paul Alpers, "Giamatti's Spenser"

1995
Michael Murrin, "The Bourgeois Faerie Queene"

1996
Judith H. Anderson, "Locupletion: Linguistic meaning in Spenser's time"

1997
Andrew Hadfield, "Was Spenser a Republican?"

1998
Richard McCabe, "Opposed Reflections: Self-Reflexive parody"

1999
Anne Lake Prescott, "Spenser's Circles"

2000
Richard Helgerson, "the Strangeness of Spenser"

2001
Lorna Hutson, "Malbecco and Suspicion"

2002
David Quint, "The Anatomy of Epic in Book 2 of The Faerie Queene"

2003
Roundtable with Harry Berger, Jr., Sheila Cavanagh, Patrick Cheney, Anne Lake Prescott, and Susanne Wofford, with questions submitted by John Watkins

2004
Janet Adelman, "Revaluing the Body in The Faerie Queene I"

2005
Lauren Silberman, "Making Faces and Playing Chicken in Mother Hubberds Tale"

2006
Stephen Orgel, on early readers' marginalia in The Faerie Queene

2007
Gordon Teskey, "Let's Get Spenser on the Undergraduate Curriculum Everywhere!"

2008
Bruce R. Smith, "The Greening of Spenser"

2009
Richard Halpern, "Una's Evil"

The Constitution of the International Spenser Society

I. NAME
The name of this Society shall be the INTERNATIONAL SPENSER SOCIETY.

II. PURPOSE
The objectives of this Society shall be to further Spenser scholarship, not only in this country but also abroad, by bringing Spenser scholars together at an annual meeting, by selecting outstanding scholars for honor, by encouraging research in progress, by promoting the exchange of ideas in the field of Spenser study, and by carrying on such other activities as the members of the Society may determine from time to time.

Said Society is organized exclusively for charitable and educational purposes, including, for such purposes, the making of distributions to organizations under Internal Revenue Code 501(c)(3). No part of the net earnings of the Society shall inure to the benefit of, or be distributable to its members, trustees, directors, officers or other private persons, except that the Society shall be authorized and empowered to pay reasonable compensation for services rendered and to make payments and distributions in furtherance of Section 501(c)(3) purposes. No substantial part of the activities of the Society shall be the carrying on of propaganda, or otherwise attempting to influence legislation, and the Society shall not participate in, or intervene in (including the publishing or distribution of statements) any political campaign on behalf of, or in opposition to, any candidate for public office.

Notwithstanding any other provision of the Articles, the Society shall not carry on any other activities not permitted to be carried on (a) by a corporation exempt from Federal income tax under Section 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code or (b) by a corporation, contributions to which are deductible under section 170(c)(2) of the Internal Revenue Code (or corresponding section of any future Federal tax code).

III. MEMBERSHIP
Any person may become a member of the Society upon payment of annual dues as fixed in the Bylaws, and may continue as a member by payment of subsequent annual dues.

IV. OFFICERS
The officers of the Society shall be: a President, a Vice-President, a Secretary, and a Treasurer. The President and Vice-President shall be elected for a term of a year at the Annual Meeting in accordance with the provisions of the Bylaws. They shall serve until their successors have been elected, and they shall be eligible to succeed themselves. The Secretary and Treasurer shall be chosen by the Executive Committee, and shall hold office for terms and under such conditions as the Committee may specify.

V. ADMINISTRATION
The affairs of the Society shall be administered by an Executive Committee, consisting of the President and the Vice-President ex officio, the Secretary and the Treasurer, and nine term members, three of whom shall be elected at each Annual Meeting for terms of three years in a manner described in the Bylaws. The Committee shall take all appropriate action on behalf of the Society, naming committees when it so desires, and through the Secretary and Treasurer shall furnish a Report at the Society's Annual Meeting. Term members shall be eligible to succeed themselves. Five term members and officers shall constitute a quorum.

VI. ANNUAL MEETING
The Society shall hold an Annual Meeting, normally during the annual session of the Modern Language Association of America.

VII. AMENDMENTS
Any amendment of this Constitution shall take effect immediately upon approval of two-thirds of the members present at the Annual Meeting, provided that it shall have been presented by mail to the entire membership at least one month before the date of this meeting.

VIII. DISSOLUTION
Upon dissolution of the International Spenser Society, assets shall be distributed for one or more exempt purposes within the meaning of Section 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code, or corresponding section of any future Federal tax code, or shall be distributed to the Federal government, or to a state or local government, for a public purpose.

Bylaws of the International Spenser Society

I. DUES
The annual dues shall be five dollars for a regular membership and one dollar for a special membership (for retired or unemployed persons). Any member who shall not have paid his dues by December 31 shall be considered to have resigned his membership. But any member who has resigned or who has become delinquent in the payment of his dues shall be reinstated as a member immediately upon the payment of dues for the current year.
Please note that these figures are currently under revision. For further information on dues, please see the Society's membership page, or contact the ISS Treasurer, Craig Berry.

II. HONORED SCHOLARS
At such time as may seem appropriate the Executive Committee shall, on the basis of a poll of the general membership, cite one or more scholars who have made notable contributions to Spenser scholarship.

III. DUTIES OF OFFICERS
The President shall preside at the Annual Meeting and at meetings of the Executive Committee, shall direct the call of meetings of the Executive Committee upon his own initiative or upon the request of any two of the other officers, shall name a replacement for any officer who is unable to serve, and shall promptly act on any matter properly referred to him by the officers between meetings of the Committee. The Vice-President, in the President's absence, shall preside at the Annual Meeting and at meetings of the Executive Committee, and upon the death or resignation of the President, shall himself become President. The Secretary shall act also as Secretary of the Executive Committee, shall at the direction of the President call all meetings of the Committee, shall within one month of any Committee meeting issue minutes to the members thereof, shall conduct the general correspondence of the Society, and shall have such charge of the arrangements for the Annual Meeting as the Executive Committee may direct. The Treasurer shall be the custodian of all funds, shall call for and collect dues, shall pay all bills properly incurred, shall prepare a proposed budget by January 31, and shall submit his records for audit by the Executive Committee whenever the Committee so directs.

IV. ELECTIONS
Each year the Executive Committee shall prepare a slate of nominations for President, Vice-President, and three new members of the Committee. These nominations shall be reported at the Annual Meeting of the Society. Nominations from the floor shall also be called for. The members shall then proceed to an election. A person receiving a clear majority of the votes cast shall be deemed to have been elected.

V. PARTICIPATION IN THE ANNUAL MEETING
The Annual Meeting is open to nonmembers, but only members may vote upon Society business.

VI. AMENDMENTS
Any amendment of these Bylaws shall take effect immediately upon approval by two-thirds of the members present at the Annual Meeting, provided that it shall have been presented by mail to the entire membership at least one month before the date of this meeting.

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