Shakespeare 401: What’s Next? – Call For Papers

2017 Shakespearean Theatre Conference
“Shakespeare 401: What’s Next?”
University of Waterloo, Stratford
June 22-24, 2017

We invite proposals for 20-minute papers, full sessions, and workshops for the second Shakespearean Theatre Conference, to be held June 22-24, 2017. All approaches to Tudor-Stuart drama and its afterlives are welcome. In the wake of the Shakespeare quatercentenary, we especially encourage papers that think broadly and creatively about the future of this drama. How can old plays best speak to the diversity of contemporary identities? What new critical and creative directions seem particularly promising? Which established practices remained indispensable? What — or who — is due for a revival?

Plenary speakers:

  • Sarah Beckwith (Duke University)
  • Martha Henry (Stratford Festival)
  • Peter Holland (University of Notre Dame)
  • Julia Reinhard Lupton (University of California, Irvine)

The conference is a joint venture of the University of Waterloo and the Stratford Festival, and will bring together scholars and practitioners to talk about how performance influences scholarship and vice versa. Paper sessions will be held at the University of Waterloo’s Stratford campus, with plays and special events hosted by the Stratford Festival. The 2017 season at Stratford will include productions of Twelfth Night, Romeo and Juliet, Timon of Athens, The Changeling, Tartuffe, The School for Scandal, and The Bakkhai.

Please send proposals to Shakespeare@uwaterloo.ca by January 31, 2017.

RN Books and Arts Live: Shakespeare in Contemporary Culture with Peter Holbrook and Sarah Kanowski @ State Library of Queensland

RN Books and Arts Live: Shakespeare in Contemporary Culture with Peter Holbrook and Sarah Kanowski

Date: Thursday 8 September, 2016
Time: 4:00pm
Venue: Auditorium 1, SLQ, Level 2, State Library of Queensland
Cost: Free. Book tickets here: https://uplit.com.au/bookings/book?presenter=AUBWF&event=16143

Join RN Books and Arts Sarah Kanowski as she discusses the work and influence of William Shakespeare 400 years after his death with Professor Peter Holbrook, Professor of Shakespeare and English Renaissance Literature at the University of Queensland.

Some of Professor Holbrook’s recent publications include English Renaissance Tragedy: Ideas of Freedom (London: Bloomsbury/Arden Shakespeare, 2015) and Shakespeare’s Creative Legacies: Artists, Writers, Performers, and Readers, co-edited with Paul Edmondson (London: Bloomsbury/Arden Shakespeare, 2016). Shakespeare’s Individualism appeared with Cambridge University Press in the U.K. in 2010. Fans of the Bard are encouraged to celebrate all things Shakespeare at this very special free event.

Peter Holbrook is a Professor of Shakespeare and English Renaissance Literature at The University of Queensland, and directs a research unit there focused on the history of emotions Peter is a Fellow of the Australian Academy of the Humanities and has written widely for the print media.

Sarah Kanowski presents the Books and Arts program on ABC RN on Saturdays. She has a Masters Degree in English from Oxford University, has edited Island magazine in Tasmania and also herded goats in Chile.

ANZAMEMS 2017 – Reminder CFP Closes in One Week (on September 1)

A quick reminder that the Call For Papers for the 2017 ANZAMEMS conference which will be held at Victoria University of Wellington, New Zealand, on 7-10 February 2017, closes in one week on September 1. Call for Papers: https://anzamems2017.wordpress.com

Postgraduate Bursaries: There are a range of travel bursaries and prizes available to postgraduate students to assist with conference costs. For further information see: https://anzamems2017.wordpress.com/bursaries-prizes

Gender, Places, Spaces, Thresholds – Call For Papers

Gender, Places, Spaces, Thresholds
Canterbury Christ Church University
12–15 January, 2017

Keynote Speakers:

  • Anthony Bale
  • Leonie Hicks
  • Sheila Sweetinburgh

This is a Call for Papers for a three-day conference on the theme of ‘Gender and Place, Space, and Liminalities’ hosted by the long-running Gender and Medieval Studies Conference Series. This year our venue is Canterbury Christ Church University which is on the site of St Augustine’s Abbey (founded in 613) close to Canterbury Cathedral.

We are looking for papers that explore the relationships between gender and medieval geographical, cultural, social, spatial, and imagined locations – as well as those which explore aspects of gender and liminalities. In viewing the materiality of place and space through the lens of gender, we wish to encourage both cross- and trans-disciplinary discourses concerning how gender is rendered stable and unstable via networks, objects (relics for example), individuals, communities, and exchanges in the Middle Ages. Proposals are now being accepted for 20 minute papers and 90 minute panel sessions. Topics to consider may include, but are not limited to:

  • Gender and the politics of medieval architectural spaces
  • Methodologies and meanings of gender and liminalities
  • Gendered networks
  • Queer spaces
  • Thresholds, boundary-breaking and boundary-stepping
  • Materiality of sites and gender
  • Questioning gender roles in places of production, commerce, shopping, and patronage
  • Gendered and transgendered liminal spaces in medieval books as objects and as literature
  • The role of space and place in gendered activities and behaviours
  • Gendering in medieval performance, music, drama, rituals, pilgrimage, and processions
  • Gendered network
  • Places of crime and punishment

The conference will employ a range of formats: three keynote lectures, a practitioner-led drama workshop, round-tables, and panel sessions. There will be opportunities to explore Canterbury’s unique standing archaeology and attend Cathedral Evensong (the modern equivalent of the medieval monastic office of Compline).

Papers from postgraduate and early career scholars are welcome and reduced conference rates are available. We welcome scholars from a range of disciplines, including history, literature, art history, archaeology and drama. The conference is supported by a small travel fund, the Kate Westoby Fund. Students and unwaged scholars are invited to apply to the fund up to one month after they have attended the conference. The fund can only pay UK travel expenses. Available funds are limited and divided between all applicants and it is often not possible to pay claims in full. Because of prohibitive bank charges on international payments, claims can only be paid into UK bank accounts. For further inquiries about the fund please contact the treasurer Dr Isabel Davis (i.davis@bbk.ac.uk).

Please email proposals of no more than 300 words to organiser Diane Heath at diane.heath@canterbury.ac.uk by 7 September, 2016. All queries should also be directed to this address. Please also include biographical information detailing your name, research area, institution and level of study (if applicable). Further details will be available on the conference website.

Habitual Behaviour in Early Modern Europe – Call For Papers

Habitual Behaviour in Early Modern Europe
Humanities Research Institute, University of Sheffield
1–2 June, 2017

Conference Website

‘Habit, n: A settled disposition or tendency to act in a certain way, esp. one acquired by frequent repetition of the same act until it becomes almost or quite involuntary.’
Oxford English Dictionary

‘Habit is Motion made more easy and ready by Custom.’
Thomas Hobbes, 1656, Elements Philos

What habits, practices, or routines, made up day-to-day life in Europe between 1500-1750? At what point was habitual behaviour, such as excessive drinking, considered problematic? And how did ideas about habitual practice fit into early modern concepts of body and self?

This two-day interdisciplinary conference aims to draw together scholars working on material culture, digital humanities, medicine, consumption, daily routine, practice, theory, and more, and invites them to consider their research under the heading of ‘habit’. We welcome papers on habitual behaviour, customs and practices, and daily routines, whether mealtimes or medicine, venery or vinosity.

Keynote speakers: Professor Steven Shapin (Harvard University) and Dr Sasha Handley (University of Manchester), both speaking about their forthcoming publications.

Please submit abstracts of 250 words for 20 minute papers, accompanied by a short speaker biography. We accept proposals for panels of 3 papers, under a session title. Submissions welcome from postgraduate research students as well as established scholars.

Please send abstracts to earlymodernhabits@gmail.com no later than Wednesday 16 November, 2016.

Medical Practice in Early Modern Britain in Comparative Perspective – Call For Papers

Medical Practice in Early Modern Britain in Comparative Perspective
University of Exeter (UK)
4-6 September, 2017

Papers are invited for an international conference to be held at the University of Exeter (UK) on 4-6 September 2017, funded by the Wellcome Trust Senior Investigator Award for the project ‘The Medical World of Early Modern England, Wales and Ireland 1500-1715’ led by Professor Jonathan Barry and Dr Peter Elmer at Exeter (see the project website at http://practitioners.exeter.ac.uk).

This conference will consider the outputs from this project, in particular the database which has been created of more than 30,000 medical practitioners operating in the period, and the opportunities this offers for new research in the field. It will also consider comparative perspectives on early modern Britain, both spatially and temporally, and so welcomes papers from colleagues working on medical practice in other parts of Europe or its colonies, on other cultures (Islamic, Indian, Chinese etc) and also on the periods either side of our 1500-1715 focus, so that we can place the findings of the project in the widest possible context.

Proposals for panels will be welcomed, but so will individual paper proposals, including from research students (for whom bursaries covering the cost of attendance will be available). Those attending will be given exclusive access in advance of the conference to research findings from the project database, which they will be encouraged to consider in their contributions, which we expect to be pre-circulated to encourage the highest level of focused debate during the conference. Senior scholars willing to act as commentators on papers are also encouraged to express an interest in this role, as well as in offering their own papers.

Major themes for consideration include the following:

  • Continuity and change in the character and scope of medical practice, including the impact of war and imperial expansion on pre-existing medical culture, the influence of new ideas and/or persistence of established approaches across the period, as well as the significance of attempts at regulation.
  • Trends in education, training and career patterns, encompassing hereditary succession, patronage, apprenticeship and university study, and levels of provision in different regions and types of settlement.
  • The roles played by women, in popular and domestic medicine and beyond, and by other alternatives to orthodox male practitioners, and by the growth of new methods fro the production and sale of medicines.
  • The place of medicine within processes of social and cultural change in the British Isles more generally, and the wider parts played by medical practitioners in scientific, intellectual, political, military, confessional and other spheres.
  • The opportunities for comparative research across national boundaries, both in tracing the movement of medical practitioners and in comparing levels and types of medical provision in different cultures.

If you are interested in participating please send an email to Professor Jonathan Barry at J.Barry@exeter.ac.uk, with an abstract of c. 200 words indicating the proposed topic of any paper or panel, preferably by 15 September, 2016.

Amherst College: Assistant Professor in Medieval and Early Modern European History – Call For Applications

Amherst College: Faculty Search: Department of History
Assistant Professor in Medieval and Early Modern European History

The Department of History at Amherst College invites applications for a full-time, tenure-track position at the rank of assistant professor in Medieval and Early Modern European history, beginning in the fall of 2017. The area of specialization is open, but we particularly seek candidates who will offer a broad range of courses, including, but not limited to, those that cross conventional chronological boundaries between the medieval and early modern periods. Within the last decade, Amherst College has profoundly transformed its student body in terms of socioeconomic status, ethnicity, and nationality, among other areas. Today, nearly one-quarter of Amherst’s students are Pell Grant recipients; 44 percent of our students are domestic students of color. Our expectation is that the successful candidate will excel at teaching and mentoring students who are broadly diverse with regard to race, ethnicity, socioeconomic status, gender, nationality, sexual orientation, and religion. The appointee will be expected to teach courses that engage a broad range of students. The successful candidate must have a Ph.D. in hand by the start of the appointment. Learn more about the department at www.amherst.edu/~history.

Amherst College is a private co-educational liberal arts college of 1,800 students and more than two hundred faculty located in the Connecticut River Valley of western Massachusetts and participates with Hampshire, Mount Holyoke, and Smith Colleges, and with the University of Massachusetts in the Five-College consortium. Candidates should submit an application letter, CV, short writing sample, sample syllabus, teaching statement, and three confidential letters of recommendation. Review of applications will begin on November 1, 2016, and continue until the position is filled.

Amherst College is an equal opportunity, affirmative action employer, and encourages women, minorities and persons with disabilities to apply. The college is committed to enriching its education experience and its culture through the diversity of its faculty, administration, and staff.

To apply, please visit: https://apply.interfolio.com/35764.

State Library of NSW – CH Currey Memorial, Nancy Keesing , and Australian Religious History Fellowships – Call For Applications

The State Library of NSW fellowships are prestigious and aim to support and foster writing, research and study. They provide money, a room and behind-the-scenes access to Library staff. Research topics have ranged from early colonisation of Australia through to investigations of contemporary life.

Applications for the following fellowships open 22 August, 2016 and will close 19 September, 2016.

For full information about heach fellowship, including how to apply, please visit: http://www.sl.nsw.gov.au/fellowships/fellowship-guidelines

CH Currey Memorial Fellowship

The CH Currey Memorial Fellowship is for the writing of Australian history from original sources, preferably making use of the resources of the State Library of NSW.

Nancy Keesing Fellowship

The Nancy Keesing Fellowship, is for research into any aspect of Australian life and culture using the resources of the State Library of NSW.

Australian Religious History Fellowship

The Australian Religious History Fellowship is for the study and research of any aspect of Australian religious history of any faith. The successful fellow will be based at the State Library of NSW, and is expected to be based there, although it is understood that it may be necessary to also work within other institutions and archives, and use resources outside the Library. With the Australian Religious History Fellowship, it is understood that the successful fellow will more than likely need to consult archives and records outside the Library. However it is expected that the fellow will use the Library’s resources to a significant degree.

University of California (Santa Barbara): Assistant Professor in History of Early Modern Western Europe, c. 1500-1700 – Call For Applications

The Department of History at the University of California, Santa Barbara invites applications for a tenure-track assistant professorship in Early Modern Western European history, c. 1500-1700, including Britain and the German-speaking Lands, excluding France.

Appointment begins July 1, 2017. PhD expected at time of appointment; prior teaching experience preferred. All research focuses will be considered. The department seeks candidates who can contribute to the diversity and excellence of the academic community through research, teaching, and service. The successful candidate will contribute to the department’s lower- and upper-division, and graduate history curriculum.

Applicants should apply at: https://recruit.ap.ucsb.edu/apply/.

Applications should include a cover letter including discussion of current and future research, curriculum vitae, writing sample, evidence of teaching excellence, and at least three letters of recommendation. Materials must be received by October 17, 2016. Address inquiries to Professor Hilary Bernstein, Early Modern European History Search Committee chair, at bernstein@history.ucsb.edu.

The University of California at Santa Barbara is an Equal Opportunity/Affirmative Action Employer and all qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, national origin, age, disability, protected veteran status, or any other characteristic protected by law.

For more information on the History Department, visit our website at: http://www.history.ucsb.edu