Executive Committee Meeting 2020

10 January 2020

Cortina, Seattle, WA

The Executive Committee of the International Spenser Society met on 10 January 2020 in Seattle, WA. In attendance were President Tiffany Jo Werth (University of California Davis), Vice-President Ayesha Ramachandran (Yale University), Treasurer Sarah Van der Laan (Indiana University), Kim Coles (University of Maryland), Brent Dawson (University of Oregon), and Debapriya Sarkar (University of Connecticut). Participating via video link were Patricia Palmer (National University of Ireland, Maynooth), Thomas Ward (U.S. Naval Academy), and Susanne Wofford (New York University).

1. Minutes and matters arising. Tiffany Jo Werth thanked members for traveling to Seattle to participate in Society affairs. The committee thanked Kim Coles for organizing the Society-sponsored panel at MLA: ‘Spenser’s Species: or, Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them’.  The panel was especially well-attended, with approximately 45 audience members. The committee also thanked former executive committee member David Baker for spearheading a session co-organized with the Society for the History of Reading, Authorship, and Publishing: ‘Spenser and the Digital Humanities’, well-attended by 15 audience members. Tiffany Jo Werth thanked Rachel Hile for organising the venues for the Executive Committee Meeting and Annual General Meeting.

1. Treasurer’s report. Treasurer Sarah Van der Laan reported that the return to a dues-paying membership model has enabled Society finances to recover from the steep decline that followed the suspension of dues. In 2019, the Society counted 129 dues-paying members and 65 donors, representing a tenfold increase in income, a threefold increase in donations, and a fourfold increase in donors from 2018. The majority of donations were made to the new dedicated fund for graduate student support. Our net income was sufficient to meet our expenditures. Financial reserves showed a modest improvement.

Principal expenditures in 2019 included the subsidized lunches for the MacLean lecturer and graduate student panellist at the 2019 Annual General Meeting, the RSA happy hour co-sponsored with the Milton Society of America, the Isabel MacCaffrey Prize, and the first biennial Anne Lake Prescott graduate student essay prize.

In addition to these recurring expenditures, expenses anticipated in 2020 include a new MLA happy hour co-sponsored with the Milton Society of America and the John Donne Society.

In 2020 the Society will continue to explore ways of expanding the membership base and securing funding for future international conferences and collaborations with other societies and organisations.

1. Society Prizes. The Isabel MacCaffrey Prize this year considered books published in 2017 and 2018. The winner, publicly announced at the Annual General Meeting the following day, was Hazel Wilkinson for Edmund Spenser and the Eighteenth-Century Book (Cambridge University Press, 2017).

Although the Anne Lake Prescott Prize for graduate student work, as a biennial prize, was not awarded this year, the committee discussed the need to encourage submissions and build awareness of the prize in and beyond the Spenser community. The frequency of the prize will be reviewed as it becomes better established.

1. Discussion of logistics for the move of the Annual General Meeting from MLA to RSA. As previously announced, the Society will move its Executive Committee and Annual General Meetings from MLA to RSA for a three-year trial period beginning in 2021. The committee will discuss changes to the format of these meetings to accommodate their new setting. Although the terms of new members and officers will begin immediately, they will extend through RSA 2023.

1. Nomination and election of two new committee members and two officers. Two new committee members were required to replace Thomas Ward and Julian Yates, whose three-year terms came to an end with this year’s MLA Convention. The committee reviewed the names put forward over the course of the year and elected Joshua Reid (East Tennessee State University) and Yulia Ryzhik (University of Toronto Scarborough). Tiffany Jo Werth shared the sad news that Rachel Hile had submitted her resignation as Secretary and thanked her for her extraordinary service to the Society. Chris Barrett (Louisiana State University) was nominated and elected to replace her. Finally, the nomination of Joe Moshenska (University of Oxford) as Vice-President was reviewed and approved. All four elected candidates have agreed to serve.
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3. Society subcommittees and yearly business.
   1. Selection of judges for MacCaffrey prize. In 2020 the prize will consider articles published in 2018 and 2019. A subcommittee will be formed to propose changes to the existing structure of the prize.
   2. Anne Lake Prescott Graduate Paper Prize. The committee was reminded of a dedicated email address for submissions (spensergradprize@gmail.com). All committee and Society members are encouraged to urge their grad students to submit excellent work.
   3. RSA liaison. Susanne Wofford will join Debapriya Sarkar in organizing the Society’s guaranteed panels at the Renaissance Society of America annual conference. The committee thanked Thomas Ward for his work as RSA liaison.
   4. MLA liaison. Debapriya Sarkar will organize the Society’s guaranteed panel at the Modern Language Association Annual Convention, with backup from Ayesha Ramachandran. The Society will continue to seek out fellow societies to co-organize panels.
   5. SCSC. Sarah Van der Laan will continue as Society liaison to the Sixteenth Century Society and Conference.
   6. SAA. The possibility of a seminar proposal for the Shakespeare Association of America that features Spenser in some capacity was discussed. The committee thanked Rebecca Totaro for organizing a Spenser-friendly seminar for SAA Denver 2020 on ‘Keeping Care in Early Modern England’.

1. Session topics for ISS-sponsored conference panels. The Society will sponsor panel sessions at SCSC 2020 (Baltimore, MD), MLA 2021 (Toronto), and RSA 2021 (Dublin). Committee members brainstormed possible panel topics, from which the RSA and SCSC liaisons (Debapriya Sarkar and Susanne Wofford and Sarah Van der Laan, respectively) may draw in planning their ISS-sponsored panels at those conferences. Topics included:
   1. Spenser and the MACMORRIS project
   2. translingualism in Spenser
   3. Irish Spenser
   4. Spenser and disability
   5. Spenser and ecocriticism
   6. global Spenser
   7. postcolonial Spenser
   8. lyric Spenser
   9. Spenser without Spenser

1. Update on Spenser Review. Tiffany Jo Werth thanked Jane Grogan and Andrew Hadfield for their excellent stewardship of the Spenser Review. For reasons of time, the Editors’ report was circulated to the committee members electronically. (See Appendix A for the full report.)

1. Next International Spenser Society conference. Tiffany Jo Werth reported that Kim Coles has been spearheading an effort to host a conference in conjunction with the Folger Shakespeare library and consortium. On the west coast, Tiffany Jo Werth has been working with Heather James and the EMSI at the Huntington-USC for the following cycle. With Society finances stabilizing, it may be possible to offer some financial support for a conference.

1. Diversifying the Pipeline. Kim Coles led a discussion on strategies and courses of action. The committee considered possible actions that the Society might undertake.

1. ISS Code of Conduct. The committee discussed and approved the document prepared by Ayesha Ramachandran and Brent Dawson. The Code will be posted on the Society’s website and circulated to the full membership via email.

1. ISS activities at MLA. Tiffany Jo Werth reminded committee members of further Society events. The Society co-sponsored a Social Hour with the Milton Society of America and the John Donne Society. The Annual General Meeting and luncheon featured the Hugh MacLean Lecture, given this year by Professor William Oram (Smith College) and entitled ‘What Happens in the Amoretti?’

Respectfully submitted,

Sarah Van der Laan

Treasurer

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