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2012 International Spenser Society Executive Committee Meeting Notes

The Executive Committee of the International Spenser Society met on January 6, 2012 in Seattle, Washington.  Present were Kenneth Gross (President), David Lee Miller (Vice-President), David Landreth (University of California, Berkeley), Beth Quitslund (Ohio University), and Philip Schwyzer (University of Exeter).  Also present were Sheila Cavanagh (ex officio as Editor of The Spenser Review) and Melissa Sanchez (University of Pennsylvania, liaison with RSA).

  1. The committee reviewed and approved the minutes of the 2011 meeting.
  2. Secretary-Treasurer Rhonda Lemke Sanford was unable to attend but submitted the following report in absentia

Financial Report:

Beginning bank balance           $17,000 

Ending balance                        $17,160 

  • During 2011, we had the extraordinary expense of having more medals struck, which amounted to $972.76.
  • The balance in the graduate student fund is $996 (which is included in the balance above).

Membership Report:

We have 393 members at the end of 2011.

  1. President Kenneth Gross reviewed plans for the annual members’ luncheon pending on January 7.   The Colin Clout medal for career achievement was presented to William A. Oram (Smith College), and the Isabel McCaffrey Prize went to Jane Grogan (University College, Dublin) for her book Exemplary Spenser: Visual and Poetic Pedagogy in The Faerie Queene (2009, Ashgate).   The judges “noted in particular her innovative and thought-provoking reading of Book VI of The Faerie Queene.  Grogan takes two particularly thorny and debated aspects of Spenser’s poem—its treatment and employment of the visual and its didacticism—and contextualizes them in ways that advance our readings of both Spenser’s works and his culture.”
  2. Four members of the Executive Committee needed to be replaced: David Landreth, Philip Schwyzer, and Christopher Warley because their terms ended, and Graham Hammill because he moves into the Vice-Presidency.  Members nominated to the board for new terms (and elected at the luncheon): Gerard Passannante (University of Maryland), Thomas Herron (Eastern Carolina University), Andrew Wallace (Carleton College), and Jane Grogan (University College, Dublin).
  3. The committee next took up discussion of The Spenser Review.  Now that the journal is online, we have an opportunity to rethink its form and mission.  Incoming President David Lee Miller agreed to lead a committee charged with surveying the membership, exploring models provided by other online journals, and reporting back to the Executive Committee with a set of recommendations no later than mid-summer.  Also agreeing to serve on this committee were Sheila Cavanagh, Julian Lethbridge, Andrew Zurcher, and Roland Greene.
  4. The committee then turned to session topics for the 2013 MLA and RSA conferences.  Topics for the MLA include one open session and a session on  “Spenser in the Eighteenth Century,” to be co-sponsored with the MLA Division on Restoration and Early-Eighteenth-Century English Literature, and organized by Joseph Loewenstein (Washington University, St. Louis) and Albert Rivero (Marquette University).  The topic for our RSA session, to be organized by Melissa Sanchez, is “Spenser and the Non-Human.”  Kenneth Gross has posted a CFP for the co-sponsored session to the Sidney-Spenser listserv.
  5. The Executive Committee then briefly discussed possibilities for another international conference.  Nothing has been firmly decided, but incoming President David Lee Miller agreed to continue discussions with a possible host and sponsors; the Executive Committee agreed to offer on behalf of the Society whatever support and assistance are required.
  6. Judges were selected for the 2013 MacCaffrey Prize, awarded to the best article on Spenser from the years 2010-2011: David Landreth and Ayesha Ramachandran have agreed to serve.
  7. Under new business, it was mentioned that the ISS has some funds to sponsor graduate student travel to MLA and that it would be good to remind the membership of this opportunity.

Respectfully submitted, 16 January 2012

David Lee Miller 

42.2.25

Cite as:

"2012 International Spenser Society Executive Committee Meeting Notes," Spenser Review 42.2.25 (Winter 2013). Accessed March 29th, 2024.
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