Massachusetts Center for Renaissance Studies

 Graduate Conference

  Saturday, October 6, 2012

 2012 MCRS Graduate Conference Schedule

8:30-9:00            REGISTRATION

Coffee and Pastries

9:05-10:45            PANEL ONE

The Early Modern Stage in Practice and Performance

“’This black cur. that barks and bites’: Dog and the Illegibility of Sin in The Witch of Edmonton”

David Katz (University of Massachusetts, Amherst)

 ” ‘The Fashion of Woman’s Belly’: Staging Early Modern Maternity, 1590-1635″

Emma Katherine Atwood (Boston College)

“Bussy D’Ambois to Men”

Anna-Claire Simpson (University of Massachusetts, Amherst)

“Blood Baths and Blood Bonds: Thinking Broadly about Blood in Shakespeare’s Titus Andronicus.”

David Sterling Brown (New York University)

10:50-12:15            PANEL TWO

National Identities: Communicating Englishness, Expressing Imperialism

“Censorship and the Politics of Punishment: Mercilla and Irenius Silence the Bards.”

Jeffrey Griswold (University of Virginia)

“1613: A Year in the Letters of John Chamberlain.”

Thomas Hopper (University of Massachusetts, Amherst)

“’That which is above us pertains nothing to us’: The Lessons of Spanish Imperialism in Robert Greene’s Friar Bacon and Friar Bungay”

Lauren Rollins (University of Massachusetts, Amherst)

 12:15-1:00            LUNCH

 1:05-2:20            KEYNOTE ADDRESS

Prof. Mario DiGangi, The Graduate Center at the City University of New York

“Affective Agency and Embodied Knowledge in Shakespeare’s Richard III and King John.”

2:25-3:45            PANEL THREE

Love, Sexuality, and the Body in Early Modern Drama and Poetry

“One Virgin to Dote on Another”: Representations of Female Same-Sex Desire in Gallathea and The Convent of Pleasure.

Danielle Sanfilippo (University of Rhode Island)

“Art, Truth and Love: Relationships of Love and Artistic Expression In Shakespeare’s Sonnet 48.”

William Kroeger (State University of New York, New Paltz)

“In amorous Pastoral verse we did not Woo”: Revising Monarchy and Marriage in The Convent of Pleasure. 

Lauren Petrino (University of Miami)

3:45-4:00            CLOSING REMARKS

We are delighted to welcome Mario DiGangi of The Graduate Center at CUNY to give the keynote address at this year’s conference. He will give a talk entitled ”Affective Agency and Embodied Knowledge in Shakespeare’s Richard III and King John.”

Read more about Professor DiGangi here.

Graduate students are invited to submit abstracts for a ten to fifteen minute paper on any range of topics or approaches to literature and history, including textual studies, performance history, philosophy, print culture, religious studies, gender studies, post-colonial interpretations, and other new theoretical perspectives. The purpose of the conference is to provide graduate students with an opportunity to share their work and place it in a greater context of interests and concerns. The conference is designed to foster conversation among students who share similar challenges and construct a space where participants may expect serious feedback on their work.

Please send an abstract of 250-300 words by email or email attachment to April Genung or Meghan Conine (MArenaissanceconference@gmail.com) by Saturday, September 15, 2012.

We are organizing the conference to bring graduate students with similar interests together to share their work. Last year’s conference had an intimate feel with all participants able to view the other presentations.  As before, we intend to divide the conference into several small panels, with ample time for discussion among peers, and we welcome the attendance of faculty from your department as well.

The address is 650 East Pleasant Street, and our driveway is marked by a white sign.

Nigel Smith of Princeton University will join us for the conference, and will give a paper entitled ‘The State of Imitation: Literature and International Politics in Early Modern Europe.’ This paper will discuss the interaction of Dutch, English, French, Spanish and German literature from c. 1580 to c. 1680.

Read more about Professor Smith here.

Graduate students are invited to submit abstracts for a ten to fifteen minute paper on any range of topics or approaches to literature and history, including textual studies, performance history, philosophy, print culture, religious studies, gender studies, post-colonial interpretations, and other new theoretical perspectives. The purpose of the conference is to provide graduate students with an opportunity to share their work and place it in a greater context of interests and concerns. The conference is designed to foster conversation among students who share similar challenges and construct a space where participants may expect serious feedback on their work.

Please send an abstract of 250-300 words by email or email attachment to April Genung or Meghan Conine (MArenaissanceconference@gmail.com) by Thursday, September 15, 2011.

We are organizing the conference to bring graduate students with similar interests together to share their work. Last year’s conference had an intimate feel with all participants able to view the other presentations.  As before, we intend to divide the conference into several small panels, with ample time for discussion among peers, and we welcome the attendance of faculty from your department as well.