Shakespeare FuturEd is an international conference exploring the nexus of Shakespeare Studies and Education to be held at the University of Sydney on 1 and 2 February 2019. 

We are seeking proposals for papers, panels and workshops that interrogate and experiment with new directions in Shakespeare pedagogy in theory and practice. We welcome proposals from primary and secondary teachers, tertiary educators, researchers, theatre practitioners, and anyone with an interest in Shakespeare and education.

What does Shakespeare education look like now? Where is it headed? What are its accepted norms and critical problems? How is it theorised? How does Shakespeare education manifest in institutions such as schools and universities? How is it performed by theatre companies and community organisations? How is it affected and transformed by digital, virtual and blended learning initiatives and contexts? What is the role played by collaborative educational projects and informal learning environments? How does present Shakespeare education—its theory, practice and needs—relate to imagined or experimental futures for education?

Keynote speakers:

Catherine Beavis, Professor, Curriculum, Pedagogy, Assessment and Digital Learning, and Deputy Director, REDI: Research for Educational Impact, Deakin University

Joanna Erskine, Head of Education, Bell Shakespeare

Laura Turchi, Assistant Professor of Education, University of Houston

Find out more about the CFP here. Ready to register? Registration is free and available via this link.

Paper proposals are invited for this international conference to be held at Bangor University, North Wales, 26-28 June, 2019. ‘This conference is the latest event in association with the International Research Network, Women’s Literary Culture and the Medieval Canon  (https://www.surrey.ac.uk/womens-literary-culture-medieval-canon).

Keynote Speakers:

Jonathan Hsy, The George Washington University
Shazia Jagot, The University of Surrey
Elaine Treharne, Stanford University

Our last conference, held at Bergen in 2017, encouraged lively conversations that focused predominantly on European texts and authors. At Bangor we aim to extend this dialogue by speaking internationally, and examining how our understanding of medieval European women writers and the canon might be enhanced by taking a more global perspective. What new light is shed by adopting a global perspective on medieval women’s literary modes and practices? What evidence exists for social and intellectual connectivity between European women’s textual culture and that of women living in the lands that border the Mediterranean and beyond? How do medieval women represent the global in their works and to what purposes?

The conference will be full of conversation: a series of ‘In conversation with’ network members, poster presentations, panel discussions, and twenty-minute papers. We welcome individual and collaborative papers that speak internationally on topics that might include the following:

• Women as authors
• Women as patrons
• Book ownership and use in the household
• Genre and gender
• Literary reception
• Women as translators
• Women readers
• Book ownership in women’s religious communities
• Manuscript production
• Literary influence
• Textual transmission
• Collaboration
• Women, Literature and Location: place, travel, pilgrimage
• Women, Literature and Life-course
• Literature and Trade

Paper abstracts of no more than 250 words, plus a short biography, should be sent to Dr Sue Niebrzydowski at s.niebrzydowski@bangor.ac.uk and Professor Liz Herbert McAvoy at e.mcavoy@swansea.ac.uk no later than 31 October 2018. Successful speakers will be notified shortly thereafter, and online registration will open in late November 2018.

The Academic Board for Othello’s Island invites applications to present papers at the 6th edition of Othello’s Island, the 6th annual interdisciplinary conference on Byzantine, Medieval, Renaissance and Early Modern art, literary, archaeological, historical and cultural studies. This will take place in Nicosia, Cyprus, in April 2019 and is organised in association with the University of Nicosia, the University of Kent, the University of Sheffield and Sheffield Hallam University.

We are interested in hearing papers on diverse aspects of Byzantine, Medieval, Renaissance and early modern art, literature, history, society and other aspects of culture. A special colloquium will also be held as part of the conference in 2019, focusing on Early Modern Women Writers,.

Our remit is broad, and so papers do not have to be related to Shakespeare, Cyprus or the Mediterranean. It is worth looking at the range of papers from past conferences to see that previous speakers have covered topics ranging from slavery in medieval Cyprus and Malta, to the impact of Italian Renaissance art on Cypriot Byzantine painting, and even discussion on the Anglo-Saxon epic Beowulf.

In the seven years of its existence, Othello’s Island has developed a reputation as one of the most liberal-minded and friendly medieval and renaissance studies conferences in the world today, and it is also genuinely interdisciplinary. In part this is due to the relatively small size of the event, which generates a true sense of community during the conference.

Our location in Cyprus allows for visits to some stunning medieval museums and other sites, including the French gothic cathedrals of St Sophia in Nicosia, and St Nicholas in Famagusta, and we are housed in the centre of the medieval old town of Nicosia, with its narrow winding streets and impressive city walls and gate houses.

Deadline for submissions is 31 December, 2018.

For the full call for papers please visit www.othellosisland.org

Lead Academic Co-ordinators: Prof. James Fitzmaurice (Northern Arizona University, USA); Prof. Lisa Hopkins (Sheffield Hallam University, UK); Dr Sarah James (University of Kent, UK; Dr Michael Paraskos FRSA (Imperial College London, UK)

Academic Board: Dr Stella Achillaos (University of Cyprus, Cyprus); Jane Chick (University of East Anglia, UK); Prof. James Fitzmaurice (Northern Arizona University, USA); Prof. Lisa Hopkins (Sheffield Hallam University, UK); Dr Sarah James (University of Kent, UK); Dr Richard Maguire (University of East Anglia, UK); Dr Michael Paraskos (Imperial College London, UK); Dr Laurence Publicover (University of Bristol, UK); Prof. David Rollo (University of Southern California, USA); Dr Rita Severis (CVAR, Cyprus); Prof. Astrid Swenson (Bath Spa University, UK); and, Dr Violetta Trofimova (St Petersburg University, Russia)