Ninth Annual Conference
Philadelphia, Pa
November 15-18, 2001
The Group for Early Modern Cultural Studies invites submissions for its ninth annual conference. Speakers should plan to speak for ten minutes and participate in a discussion period afterwards.
GEMCS was formed in 1993 to promote the study of culture from the Renaissance to the mid-nineteenth century (and sometimes later), in its various forms and across disciplinary boundaries. We are comprised of people working in a wide range of disciplines, including but not limited to literature, history, art history, music, and film, and we welcome a wide variety of disciplinary approaches, promoting and providing a forum for the exchange of ideas among junior as well as more senior scholars.
This year's conference theme is A Space Odyssey We seek proposals dealing with material, ideological, social, economic, aesthetic, sexual, philosophical, artistic, political, racial, and gendered manifestations of space. We are particularly interested in work that not only demonstrates the existence of such manifestations, but examines how they were expressed culturally and reveals how cross-disciplinary investigations can elicit a range of provisional and thought-provoking answers to questions of historical context and historiographical authenticity.
Possible topics might include:
- domestic space/public space; (in early modern texts, genre
paintings, etc.)
- theatrical space, staged space;
- interiority and subjectivity;
- the staging of 17th and 18th century opera;
- early modern etiquettes of space;
- early modern utopias and travel literature;
- liminal spaces;
- the gendering of early modern space;
... and so forth.
Not to mention astronomical and astrological topics!
We strongly encourage proposals for pre-constituted panels or workshops of no fewer than four and no more than five participants, and in order to allow the greatest possible amount of discussion, will ask that presenters in these panels limit their comments to ten minutes each.
In the interest of promoting alternative format panels and cross-disciplinary exchange of ideas, we will offer for the first time four open sessions designated as;works in progress; sessions for scholarship devoted to 16th-, 17th-, 18th-, and 19th-century topics relating to the conference theme.
In addition, we welcome proposals for individual presentations (10 minutes limit) in open sessions, pedagogical workshops, and other works-in-progress sessions. We will gladly arrange for links from our website to information pertinent to sessions with prepared readings or other materials for discussion. Panel chairs looking for panelists or workshop participants are encouraged to post calls for submissions to the GEMCS listserve (GEMCS-L@Hofstra.edu) 3-4 weeks before the submission deadline.
One-page abstracts for individual talks must include talk title, presenter's name, complete mailing address, institutional affiliation (if any), and email address; proposals for panels must include a designated panel chair, titles for each talk, and one-paragraph abstracts for each presenter along with his or her name, complete mailing address, institutional affiliation (if any), and email address. Again, panels or workshops of four or five participants will be given preference.
Address all submissions BY MAY 1, 2001 to:
Professor Chris Orchard
Department of English
Indiana University of Pennsylvania
Indiana, PA; 15705
Email: picturingwomen@earthlink.net
Please submit either postal OR email proposals (NOT both).
For further information - or to fill out a 2001 Pre-Conference Questionnaire - visit our website at:
http://www.english.fsu.edu/
SAMPLE PRE-CONSTITUTED PANEL
Session Title: Sequestered Spaces? The Etiquette of Cultural Space In 17th- and 18th-Century England
- Susan Shifrin (Independent Scholar), Chair
- Julia Marciari Alexander, Yale Center For British Art: As if through a Kaleidoscope: Viewing The Picture Gallery at Althorp
- Robert Bucholz, Loyola University, Chicago: Drawing Room Manners and Backstairs Influence: The Etiquette of Public and Private (?) Space at the Later Stuart Court
- Elizabeth Chew, Monticello: Purselin and Pantadoes: Spaces of Exoticism in Lady Arundel's Tart Hall
- Andrew Walkling (Independent Scholar): The Theatre of the Court and the Space of Theatre in Restoration England
SAMPLE WORKS-IN-PROGRESS SESSION
(This panel is composed of works still in progress-NOT completed papers. The presentation style will be rather informal, even by GEMCS standards. This panel is looking for one or two more participants working on similar topics.)
Session Title: Conceptualizing Performance Space(s)
- Meg Powers Livingston, Penn State Altoona, Chair
- Nova Myhill, Boston University: The Place of Execution: Locating and Dislocating Public Punishment on the London Stage
- Meg Powers Livingston, Penn State Altoona: Changing Spaces/ Changing Plays: Revising Early Jacobean Plays for Indoor Performance Venues
- Joanne Rochester, University of Toronto: The Conceptual Space of Performance in Caroline Drama
SUGGESTED PEDAGOGICAL WORKSHOPS
(These suggestions are ideas; no one has yet stepped forward to organize such workshops.)
- The Classroom as Space: How to make best use of a 'bad' classroom?
- Is Your Classroom a Performance Space? Performance Aspects - for both teachers and students - of Good Teaching