Little Eyases: Early Modern Plays and Boy Players: 1525–1642 – Call For Papers

Little Eyases: Early Modern Plays and Boy Players: 1525–1642
The University of Western Austalia
13-14 November 2014

This two day symposium will provide an opportunity to reflect on some of the many and complex issues surrounding boy players and boys’ plays in the early modern theatre. The event is arranged to coincide with a fully staged production with boy actors from Guildford Grammar School, Perth, of Francis Beaumont’s The Knight of the Burning Pestle, directed by Professor Peter Reynolds (Newcastle University, UK). Professor Reynolds previously directed Ben Jonson’s Epicene or The Silent Woman with another group of local school boys as part of the 2012 ANZSA conference at UWA.

For many years scholars have been intrigued by the activities of companies of boy players who constituted a “rival tradition” to that of the adult players in early modern theatre. Yet, unless you happened to witness a school play in an all-boys school, the scrutiny of the small but significant canon of plays originally written for performance by children/young adults, has long been restricted to the study not the stage. Even today, plays performed in schools by single sex groups of children are, almost invariably by Shakespeare and not by contemporaries including Ben Jonson, Francis Beaumont, John Lyly and John Marston, who wrote specifically for companies of boy/adolescent actors.

A rare exception to this exists at King Edward’s School, Stratford upon Avon, where a company of boy actors under the direction of Perry Mills, have staged frequent public performances of boys’ as well as adult plays from this period including work by Lyly and Middleton. Moreover, the opening of the new intimate indoor theatre, the Sam Wanamaker playhouse at Shakespeare’s Globe, London (2014) has made available a performance space that is the kind of space in which boy players companies would have performed. In April this year, Edward’s Boys will perform John Lyly’s Galatea there, and later in the month a group of young actors (aged 12 – 16) of both sexes will perform Marston’s The Malcontent.

Confirmed participants (in person or by video link) include:

  • Perry Mills, Director of Edward’s Boys
  • Dr Shehzana Mamujee, Lecturer in Renaissance Literature, Newcastle University UK
  • Mike Pincombe, Professor of Professor of Tudor & Elizabethan Literature Newcastle University, UK
  • Peter Reynolds, Professor of Theatre Studies, Newcastle University, UK
  • Bob White, Professor of English Literature and Meanings Program Leader, CHE, University of Western Australia
  • Penelope Woods, Post-Doctoral Research Fellow (Performance) CHE, University of Western Australia.

Proposals are invited for papers on any topic from any discipline that increase understanding of how audiences, performers and playwrights made theatre using child/young adult performers in this period. Papers (20 MINUTES) may include a focus on boy players in adult companies; boys’ roles in Tudor masks and interludes; the role played by boys in academic drama (school and university) and civic pageantry of the period; early modern plays originally written for children’s companies; the training of boy players; child performers in early modern Europe.

Proposals to: peter.reynolds@ncl.ac.uk. Deadline for responses 29 August 2014.

There will be no charge for registration, but since it may be necessary to limit numbers, all who wish to attend in person at UWA should indicate this in advance.

Biennial London Chaucer Conference: Science, Magic and Technology – Call For Papers

Biennial London Chaucer Conference: Science, Magic and Technology
Institute of English Studies, Senate House, London
10-12 July 2015

Papers are sought on all aspects of ‘Science, Magic and Technology’ in late medieval literature and culture and particularly within Chaucer studies. Approaches might include:

  • The presentation of scientific ideas in myth and poetry
  • Observation and naturalism in literature and art
  • Experiment and experience in science and literature
  • The occult sciences (astrology, magic, alchemy) and their relationship to literature
  • Technology as magic, magic as a technology
  • Scientific literatures and the literariness of science
  • Epistemology and taxonomy in late medieval writing
  • Technologies of writing, parchment making and codicology
  • Concepts of the material and immaterial worlds, the environment, astrology, astronomy and cosmology
  • Cartography; deep-sea and space exploration
  • The science of the senses, optics, sound or scent
  • The representation of medicine in literature or the literary modes of medical writing
  • Trade technologies in literature
  • Science, magic and technology in medievalism

Papers are welcomed on the work of Geoffrey Chaucer or, more broadly, on late medieval writing and culture.

Please send 250 word abstracts to Dr Isabel Davis; Birkbeck, University of London. i.davis@bbk.ac.uk by 1 September 2014.

Saint Louis University: Post-Doctoral Fellowship in Digital Humanities – Call For Applications

Saint Louis University, a Jesuit Catholic institution dedicated to education, research, healthcare and service, seeks applicants for a one-year Post-Doctoral Fellowship in Digital Humanities, beginning 1 September 2014. The Fellow will reside in the University’s Center for Digital Humanities, where they will conduct his/her own research. They will also assist in the general tasks of the Center including workshops, seminars and lectures. Finally, the Fellow may teach one course in Digital Humanities in the spring semester.

The Center for Digital Humanities is a collaboration between the College of Arts and Sciences and the Pius XII Memorial Library. It supports the disciplines of English, History, Philosophy, Modern and Classical Languages, Theological Studies as well as Library and Information Studies.

The Center has a close connection to the Center for Medieval and Renaissance Studies, and also coordinates its activities with the Walter J Ong Center for Language, Media and Culture. For the last four years, the Center’s research focus has been pre-modern manuscript studies and is currently developing a number of image/text annotation systems.

The Center welcomes candidates who are pursuing research in this or commensurate fields. In addition to the general research resources of the University, the Fellow will have access to a software developer should the research project require it. The Center will also provide some limited research and travel funds throughout the year.

General enquiries about the position may be directed to Dr James Ginther (ginthej@slu.edu).

Review of Applications will begin 1 May 2014 until the position is filled.

Please submit a letter of application, a curriculum vitae, a description of the research project (2 pages maximum), and the names of three referees. All submissions must be sent as email attachments to Dr. James R. Ginther, Director, Center for Digital Humanities (digitalhumanities@slu.edu).

Saint Louis University is an Affirmative Action/Equal Opportunity Employer and strongly encourages applications from women and minority candidates.

Exploring Jesuit Distinctiveness – Call For Papers

First International Symposium On Jesuit Studies
“Exploring Jesuit Distinctiveness”
Boston College
10-14 June 2015

The Jesuit tradition is an intriguing prism through which to look at many aspects of the Society of Jesus¹s history and influence, whether explicitly through comparative studies, or by the grouping of studies around a given topical, chronological, or geographic focus. Scholarship on the Society of Jesus engages a staggering array of disciplines like art history, theology, literary studies, history of science, international law, military history, performing arts, and archeology. From another perspective, scholarship on Jesuits and their works intersects with many historical periods like the Renaissance, Reformation, Scientific Revolution, and the Enlightenment among others.

The aim of the International Symposium on Jesuit Studies, sponsored by Boston College¹s Institute for Advanced Jesuit Studies, is to establish a platform for academic exchange that will stimulate scholars to cross the thematic and chronological boundaries of their research fields in order to reflect this interdisciplinary development.

The symposium theme is the distinctiveness of Jesuits and their ministries. It will focus on the quidditas Jesuitica, the specifically Jesuit way of proceeding in which Jesuits and their colleagues operated from historical, geographical, social, and cultural perspectives. Is there an essential core of distinctive elements that characterize the way in which Jesuits live their religious vocation and conduct their various works? How was this way of proceeding lived out in the various epochs and cultures in which Jesuits worked over four and a half centuries? What changed and adapted itself to different times and situations? What remained constant transcending time and place, infusing the apostolic works and lives of Jesuits with the charism on which the Society of Jesus was founded and developed? These are just a few examples of questions that might be explored during the Symposium.

Proposals for individual papers and panels (max. 250 words) along with a narrative CV (max.150 words) must be submitted to the Institute for Advanced Jesuit Studies (iajs@bc.edu) before 31 May 2014.

The Early Drama at Oxford (EDOX) Project: Two Positions – Call For Applications

Professor Elisabeth Dutton invites applications for the following two positions at the University of Fribourg, Switzerland, to work on the Early Drama at Oxford (EDOX) project: for more information about this project see: http://edox.org.uk

The successful candidates will between them be expected to contribute to EDOX’s work of researching, translating, staging, editing, and creating online films and editions of plays originally written and performed in Oxford in the late-medieval and early modern periods.

The posts will be based at the University of Fribourg and will include research time in Oxford. (The salaries will be on the highly competitive Swiss academic scale). The doctoral assistant will be expected to write a doctoral thesis on some aspect of Early Drama at Oxford during the appointment.

For the doctoral assistant position, candidates must have an MA degree or equivalent in either medieval or early modern English, or Classics

For the post-doctoral position, candidates must have

  1. a completed and awarded doctorate in medieval /early modern literature
  2. an excellent research profile in some aspect of early theatre

For both positions, the following are also desirable:

  • experience in administration and conference organization
  • expertise in web page design and/or text encoding
  • experience in archival research
  • practical experience in theatre and/or film
  • excellent Latin

Although the English domain functions in English, a level of French and/or German which would facilitate communication with other domains might be an advantage (it is not essential, however).

Applications should include a CV, and a covering letter explaining interest in the positions, and should clearly indicate to which post they relate.

Please send applications by email to Prof. Elisabeth Dutton: elisabeth.dutton@unifr.ch

APPLICATION DEADLINE: May 10 2014

Local and Global Myths in Shakespearean Performance – Call For Papers

Local and Global Myths in Shakespearean Performance

Co-edited by:

  • Aneta Mancewicz (Senior Lecturer in Theatre, University of Bedfordshire, UK)
  • Alexa Huang (Professor of English, George Washington University, USA)

Heiner Müller observed that in Hamlet “The invasion of the times into the play constitutes myth” (“Shakespeare a Difference”, trans. Carl Weber, p. 120). Over the centuries, intrusions of history have invested Hamlet and other Shakespeare’s plays with a mythical status on stages in Europe and beyond. Shakespeare has been used to construct the sense of nationhood, to voice political anxieties, and to address social tensions. The mythical position of Shakespeare’s plays has encouraged the perpetuation of set images, ideas, and values originating in the works themselves but also reflecting the times and cultures, into which they have been appropriated. As Müller explained, “Myth is an aggregate, a machine to which always new and different machines can be connected” (p. 120). Having achieved a mythical status, Shakespeare’s plays have continued to generate myths that contribute to the development of contemporary performance and culture.

The topic encourages both case studies of performances of myths rooted in local contexts, as well as investigations of the global nature of Shakespeare’s myths. We welcome articles that critically examine specific productions or engage more broadly with global and local myths in Shakespearean performance. The following questions provide possible points of departure for the discussion in the essays:

  • What myths have been generated locally and globally around Shakespearean performance?
  • Can we trace common patterns across different regions of the world, comparing, for example, European, Asian or American myths generated by the intrusion of history into the staging of Shakespeare?
  • Do myths help us to comprehend the world and communicate with audiences across cultures, or do they impose patterns of interpretation onto Shakespeare’s plays and our experience of history?

Please contact Aneta Mancewicz if you are interested in submitting an article. Please submit your article of 6000 words with a short bio. of 150 words by October 1, 2014 to aneta.mancewicz@beds.ac.uk

Emotional Bodies Workshop – Call For Papers

Emotional Bodies. A Workshop on the Historical Performativity of Emotions
Louis Jeantet Auditorium
Route de Florissant, Geneva, Switzerland
20-22 October, 2014

The idea that the body is the site in which emotions are expressed is an old one in Western Culture. We manifest fear through trembling, embarrassment while blushing or demonstrate love by showing that the pulse quickens and breathing becomes irregular. However, we cannot take for granted the existence of a natural relationship between emotions and these bodily translations. For instance, while the passions were considered in the Early Modern period to be the expression of the movements of the soul, as well as powerful agents shaping bodies in health and disease, late nineteenth century and early twentieth century physiologists and psychologists would discover that the material body was an effect of “the immediate and local emotions produced in the laboratory” (Dror, 1998). From this historical perspective, the relationships between bodies and emotions seem to be far from being universal, as they are also socially and institutionally produced in specific historical contexts.

This three-day workshop seeks to challenge the idea that emotions invariably correspond to certain bodily expressions, by showing that they can alternatively be understood as cultural practices that have the affective power of transforming reality by creating emotional bodies. On the one hand, bodies will be interpreted as an expressive medium that allows us to “negotiate the boundaries and crossings of self and society” (Porter, 2001). These malleable boundaries of the body will be understood in connection with the changing meaning of social norms, cultural codes and institutions, but especially as the result of the work of emotions. On the other, we propose the understanding of emotions as cultural practices that do things. This performativity of emotions has been stressed by scholars working on the history of the French revolution (Reddy, 1997; 2001), the history of medicine (Bound-Alberti, 2006), political theory (Ahmed, 2004) and literary theory (Labanyi, 2010) as one of the most fruitful lines of research in emotion history.

Taking the metaphor of the body as starting point, this conference aims at discussing new possibilities to enhancing our understanding of the historical performativity of emotions as agents that have generated meaning to physical, social, political, artistic and literary bodies. Therefore, the expression “emotional bodies” may be regarded as an analytical category enabling us to explore how different historical conceptions of emotions (e.g. sentiments, passions, affects and feelings), as well as the practices and objects associated with them, had produced systems of symbolic and physical relations which we understood here as “bodies” with a multidisciplinary purpose. We invite scholars working in any historical period to focus on one of the following topics; each of them related to the creation of scientific, socio-political and artistic bodies.

Producing emotional bodies in the sciences. Observation, experimentation and diagnosis have been historically used as techniques of scientific standardisation for defining the body in love, pain or pleasure. For instance, passions have been identified since Aristotle as powerful agents shaping human and animal physiognomies. Particularly, the body in love has been defined by determining the state of the pulse and the redness of countenance in Ancient medicine or through its twentieth-century conceptualisation in terms of hormone adrenaline and excitement. In which ways have scientific practices normalized emotional expressions throughout history? Have scientists’ emotions affected their work in hospitals or laboratories? How have emotions of non-speaking bodies such as those of infants and animals been scientifically categorized? Have scientific approaches on emotions penetrated into popular culture through novels, theatre, photography or film? We are looking for proposals that can contribute to shedding light on what extent the scientific production of emotions has shaped bodies that are recognisable in everyday life.

Emotions as sites for social exchange and political change. From the politics of fear examined by Joanna Bourke, to Anne-Claude Ambroise-Rendu and Christian Delaporte’s analysis of indignation and Sara Ahmed’s study on happiness, the collective dimension of emotions has been stressed as a potential site for social activism and political change. Is there any connection between the emergence of emotional styles and the production of the revolutionary bodies? What kind of materials and sources do we need to explore in order to reconstruct the emotions of the crowd? Has the performance of different emotions contributed to defining new bodies such as those of the feminist, anti-racist and queer movements? In this panel, we would like to address the question about the possibility of creating new social and political bodies through the performance of collective emotions.

The affective power of literature, photography and film. Scholars working in literary and photographic studies have claimed an affective turn in order to look at texts and cultural productions from the point of view of what they can do, rather than what they mean (Labanyi, 2010; Edwards, 2012; Bouju and Gefen, 2012). Thus, for example, a great number of novels, photographs and films of war have mobilised our empathy towards a humanitarian sensibility (Taithe, 2006). It was not long ago that Stéphane Hessel’s Indignez-vous! reminded us that emotions could also be a call for social and political action. How should we understand the performativity of aesthetic emotions? What role have they played in the creation of broader emotional regimes (e.g. mobilization of empathy, compassion or pity in the actual rise of the victim figure)? Can books, photographs or works of art be considered as “affective objects” produced by our sensory, haptic engagements with them? We encourage scholars interested in discussing the affective power of literary texts, photographic and film documents or artistic creations to present a proposal exploring the ways in which these objects can be interpreted as emotional bodies.

If you are interested in participating in this workshop, please send us a proposal of no more than 300 words for a 20 minutes presentation via email (emotionalbodies@gmail.com) by the 1st July 2014.

New Post-Baccalaureate Program in Post-Classical Latin UCLA 2014-2015

The UCLA Division of Humanities, the Center for Medieval and Renaissance Studies (CMRS), and the Department of Classics are pleased to announce the award of a three-year grant by the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation to support the preparation and training of young scholars in post-classical Latin for graduate programs in Medieval and Renaissance Studies.

The post-baccalaureate program in Latin is intended for students who have completed B.A. degrees and who wish to pursue Ph.D. programs requiring study and proficiency in post-classical Latin. A cohort of up to five students will be chosen each year by an international application process. All fees and a stipend of $18,000 will be provided to allow the admitted students to spend a year at UCLA participating in the post-classical Latin curriculum as well as taking existing courses in Classical Latin and, more broadly, in Medieval and Renaissance Studies. The program is intended to prepare students for successful applications to top-ranked Ph.D. programs.

The Department intends to offer a full year of coursework in post-classical Latin at the undergraduate level in 2014-15, in addition to graduate seminars in related areas of Medieval and Renaissance Studies.

Inquiries should be addressed to Professor Robert Gurval, Director of the Mellon initiative ( gurval@humnet.ucla.edu).

Colloquy: Text, Theory, Critique – Call For Papers

Colloquy: Text, Theory, Critique is seeking submissions for its 28th issue, which will be a general issue and will be published in December 2014. Colloquy is a peer-reviewed online journal published twice annually by postgraduate students in the Literary and Cultural Studies Graduate Research Program at Monash University. It publishes material in the areas of critical theory, philosophy, cultural studies, film and television, communications and media studies, and performance. It also accepts translations, creative writing, and book reviews which can also be peer reviewed. Postgraduate students and early career researchers are strongly encouraged to submit. All work is double-blind refereed by experts in the field.

The deadline for submissions for Issue 28 is 30 June 2014. Articles should be between 6,000 and 10,000 words and should follow the Chicago Manual of Style with Australian spelling. Please forward your submissions to the Colloquy editors (arts-colloquy@monash.edu) and provide a short abstract, up to 5 keywords and your current affiliation in your email. Further submission guidelines can be found on the following link: http://artsonline.monash.edu.au/colloquy/submissions

If you have any further questions please don?t hesitate to visit our website or email us at arts-colloquy@monash.edu.

National University of Ireland: Five Postdoctoral Researcher Posts in the Early Modern Period – Call For Applications

The National University of Ireland, Galway is seeking to fill 5 full-time, fixed-term Postdoctoral Researcher positions for the ERC-funded project ‘The Reception and Circulation of Early Modern Women’s Writing, 1550-1700’ (RECIRC), led by Dr. Marie-Louise Coolahan, Principal Investigator.

Full details, including how to apply, may be found at: http://www.nuigalway.ie/about-us/jobs

Applications close on 14 May 2014.