The British Shakespeare Association Conference: "Shakespeare's Writing Lives"

26-28 June 2024 at De Montfort University

Commemorating 20 years of the Association's journal Shakespeare, this conference will be held where the journal began, at De Montfort University, and will contain a diverse range of papers and other talks and presentations on the topic of Shakespeare's Writing Lives which includes but is not limited to Shakespeare's, his company's and collaborators' biographies, Shakespeare's biographers, Shakespeare as biographer (encompassing his representation of historical figures), adaptations of Shakespeare's characters, the authentic Shakespeare and authenticating Shakespeare, candidates for the Dark Lady, playing William Shakespeare, fictional biographies (Hamnet on page and stage), and Shakespeare's biographical legacies.

Venue

The conference will take place at De Montfort University, which is the middle of the city of Leicester in the middle of England. Fly in using a London airport (we're 100 miles north-west of it) or Birmingham airport (we're 35 north-east of it) or the regional East Midlands Airport (we're 20 miles south of it). Fast trains to/from central London take 65 minutes and sensible driving (100 miles straight up or down the M1 motorway) takes about 120-150 minutes (mainly in getting in/out of London).

On campus, head for the Hugh Aston Building (codename HU in the programme). The Hugh Aston Building also contains an area called The Yard (codename TY in the programme). The map below shows where the Hugh Aston Building is, and it will have a reception desk in its main entrance on the days of the conference.

Accommodation

De Monfort University has no commercial connexion with any hotel and does not endorse or recommend any. But the following are, in alphabetical order, some hotels we know of that are near the site of the conference on the De Montfort University campus:

Belmont Hotel
https://www.belmonthotel.co.uk/

Gresham Aparthotel
https://www.thegreshamaparthotel.com

Holiday Inn, St Nicholas Circle
https://www.ihg.com/holidayinn/hotels/gb
/en/leicester/lctuk/hoteldetail

Hotel Brooklyn
https://hotelbrooklynlei.co.uk

Ibis Leicester City
https://all.accor.com/hotel/3061/index.en.shtml

Novotel Leicester
https://all.accor.com/hotel/A9P4/index.en.shtml

Premier Inn Leicester City Centre. https://www.premierinn.com/gb/en/hotels/
england/leicestershire/leicester/leicester-city-centre.html

Ramada Encore by Wyndham Leicester City Centre
https://www.wyndhamhotels.com/en-uk/ramada/leicester-united-kingdom/ramada-encore-leicester-city-centre/overview

St Martin's Lodge Leicester
https://www.stmartinslodge.co.uk

Travelodge Leicester City
https://all.accor.com/hotel/3061/index.en.shtml

Bursaries

Applications are now open for conference fee-waiver bursaries funded by the British Shakespeare Association. The deadline for applications is noon (British Summer Time) on 15 April 2024. These bursaries are intended for anyone who would normally qualify for the discounted conference registration fee, namely students, old people, trainee teachers, teaching assistants, precariously employed scholars, and scholars without institutional support. Applicants should be presenting work at the conference (on a panel or in a seminar), and not have access to other sources of funding (institutional conference support, grants, scholarships, or fellowships). The bursary application form is available from the link on the left of this page.: We aim to communicate the outcome of bursary applications by the end of April.

Programme

Wednesday 26 June 2024

12:00-1:00pm Registration (HU Atrium)

1-3pm Edward's Boys Open Rehearsal (HU 0.08)

3-3.30pm Afternoon Tea (HU Atrium)

3.30-4.30pm Welcome and Opening Keynote Address by Lois Potter (University of Delaware): 'Writing Shakespeare, Shakespeare Writing' (HU 0.08)

4.30-5.30pm Rewriting Richard III, Richard, My Richard: Philippa Gregory interviewed by Alison Findlay (HU 0.08)

5.30-6.30pm Drinks Reception courtesy of De Montfort University (HU Atrium)

Thursday 27 June 2024

9-9.30am Tea & Coffee (HU Atrium)

9.30-11am Parallel Sessions:

PANEL 1: Authenticating Shakespeare – What did Shakespeare really write? (Chair: Brett Greatley-Hirsch) TY 1.01

Kirk Dodd (University of Sydney) 'Bigrams and discontinuous bigrams as markers of authorship in 1 Henry VI'

Heejin Kim (Kyungpook National University), 'Artificial Intelligence in Shakespeare Studies: Experiments in Early Modern Text Classification'

Gabriel Egan (De Montfort University), 'What we will never know about authorship: Limits to the art of attribution'

SEMINAR 1: Shakespeare and Europe – the writer and his continent (Convenor: José A. Pérez Díez) TY 1.02

Ann-Sophie Bosshard (University of Zurich)

Diana Henderson (MIT / Massachusetts Institute of Technology)

Anna Kowalcze-Pawlik (University of Lodz)

Natália Pikli (Eötvös Loránd University, Budapest)

Eilis Smyth (Trinity College Dublin)

Alexander Thom (University of Leeds)

SEMINAR 2: Picturing Shakespeare and Shakespeare's Fictional Afterlives (Convenors: Pete Smith and Katie Knowles) TY 1.05

Delilah Bermudez Brataas (Norwegian University of Science and Technology)

Brandon Christopher (University of Winnipeg)

Helen Hopkins (Birmingham City University)

Christa Jansohn (University of Bamberg)

Sabina Laskowska-Hinz (University of Gdańsk)

Taarini Mookherjee (Queen's University Belfast)

Ivona Misterova (University of West Bohemia)

Anna Myers (University of Edinburgh)

Shuo (Jasmine) Niu (University of York)

Carlos Pons Guerra (University of Leeds)

Eliso Pantskhava (Akaki Tsereteli State University)

Guy Young (The Shakespeare Institute, University of Birmingham)

PANEL 2: Shakespeare's Hidden Histories/Biographies (Chair: Lisa Hopkins) TY2.01

Martin Dodwell (Independent Scholar), 'Recusant Silhouettes in Romeo and Juliet'

Joseph Maddocks (Sheffield Hallam University), '"The Very Staff of My Age, My Very Prop": Care-Relationships as Prosthesis in Shakespeare'

Scott Shepherd (Chongshin University, Seoul), 'The circumcised dog': Rereading Othello's Death in Light of Mosaic Allusion'

Caroline Taylor (St Hugh's College, University of Oxford), 'No-one's ever going to believe we've just cut it off, it's gone green': Prostitution, Piracy and Walter Raleigh's Head in Measure for Measure'

11-11.15am Tea & Coffee (HU Atrium)

11.15-12.30pm Parallel Sessions:

Q&A Session with Mark Dudgeon (The Arden Shakespeare) on 'Getting Published' (Chair: Elinor Parsons) HU 0.08

ROUNDTABLE: 'Editing Shakespeare in the Twenty-First Century', (Chair: José A. Pérez Díez) TY 1.01

Peter Holland (University of Notre Dame)

Gary Taylor (Florida State University)

Gabriel Egan (De Montfort University)

Suzanne Gossett (Loyola University Chicago)

Gordon McMullan (King's College London)

PANEL 3: Failures in Shakespeare's Biography (Chair: Kate Loveman) TY 2.01

Sophie Duncan (Magdalene College, University of Oxford), 'The Actor Shakespeare'

Anouska Lester (Independent Researcher) 'Biographical impressions: authenticity and "Shakespeare's" seal ring in Stratford-upon-Avon'

Beth Sharrock (University of Warwick), 'Malone, Frustration, and Biographical Failures'

12.30-1.30pm Lunch (HU Atrium)

1.30-3pm Parallel Sessions:

SEMINAR 3: Shakespeare's Players: Lives, Legacies and Afterlives (Convenors: Anna Blackwell, Siobhan Keenan and Tom Rutter), TY 1.01

Gemma Allred (University of Neuchâtel)

Crystal Biggin (University of Leicester)

Ben Blyth (University of Calgary)

Benjamin Broadribb (Independent Scholar)

Amy Bromilow (University of Nottingham)

Neslihan Ekmekçioğlu (Çankaya University)

Sally Goodspeed (Independent Scholar)

Ronan Hatfull (University of Warwick)

Sae Kitamura (Musashi University)

Andrea Smith (University of Suffolk)

SEMINAR 4: Lives of Shakespeare's Contemporaries and Communities (Convenors: Lisa Hopkins and Geoffrey Marsh), TY 1.02

Annaliese Connolly (Sheffield Hallam University)

Eva Griffith (Independent Scholar)

Benjamin Humphrey (University of York)

Thomas Kullmann (University of Osnabrueck, Germany)

Domenico Lovascio (University of Genoa)

Michelle Michel (The Shakespeare Institute, University of Birmingham)

Bailey Sincox (Princeton University)

PANEL 4: Shakespeare and Religion / Shakespeare's Religious Afterlives (Chair: José A. Pérez Díez), HU 0.08

Luis Javier Conejero Magro (Universidad de Extremadura, Spain), 'Religious Iconography and Biblical Intertexts in Shakespeare's Plays with a Spanish Presence (Shakespeare's Religious Afterlives Project)'

John Jowett (Shakespeare Institute, University of Birmingham, 'The Protestant Shakespeare of 1623'

Jonathan Sell (Universidad de Alcalá), 'Charles Gildon's The Life of Mr. Thomas Betterton and Shakespeare as pulpit divine'

PANEL 5: The Translingual Lives of Words in Shakespeare's Works (Chair: Sarah Knight), TY 1.05

Laetitia Sansonetti (Université Paris Nanterre) 'Shakespeare's "armada"'

Ladan Niayesh (Université Paris Cité) 'Estranging by Degrees: The "carbonado" example in Coriolanus'

Iolanda Plescia (Sapienza University of Rome) 'Strange roots' in Shakespeare's Roman plays'

3-3.30pm Tea & Coffee (HU Atrium)

3.30-5pm Parallel Sessions:

Tour of Medieval Leicester with Steven Peachey and Elizabeth Wheelband. Meet at Hugh Aston Reception at 3.25pm, from where Elizabeth and Steven will collect you.

• Castle Mound/Motte

• Castle Great Hall

• St Mary de Castro

• Turret Gateway

• Trinity Chapel

• DMU Museum, site of the Church of the Annunciation

SEMINAR 5: The Parallel Lives of Stock Characters, or The Shakespearean Multiverse (Convenor: Miranda Fay Thomas) TY 1.01

Todd Borlik (University of Huddersfield)

Koel Chatterjee (Trinity Laban Conservatoire of Dance and Music)

Bethan Davies (University of Roehampton)

Emma de Beus (Queen's University Belfast)

Yuliya Kazanova (University of Groningen)

Richard Meek (University of Hull)

Yuki Nakamora (Kanto Gakuin University)

Emily C. A. Snyder (Shakespeare Institute, University of Birmingham)

Valentine Vetri (University of Siena, Italy)

Ana Weinberg (Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México)

Yueqi Wu (Shakespeare Institute, University of Birmingham)

ROUNDTABLE: Shakespeare, with the editors of the journal HU 0.08

PANEL 6: Shakespeare and Pedagogy (Chair: Siobhan Keenan), TY 1.05

Kohei Uchimaru (Osaka Metropolitan University), 'The Global Reach of the English Cult of Shakespeare in Schools: The Case of Modern Japan'

Rebecca Yearling (Keele University), 'Teaching Shakespeare's Violence: Beyond the Content Warning'

Rob Myles (Creative Practitioner & BSA 2023 Innovation Award Winner), 'Original Parallels, or looking back to leap forward'

6:30pm Conference Dinner – Wygston's House, Leicester (booking via online link circulated to participants)

Friday 28 June

9-9.30am Coffee & Tea (HU Atrium)

9.30 -10.30 Paul Edmondson (Shakespeare Birthplace Trust) and Russell Jackson (University of Birmingham), 'Advising Shakespeare on Screen' (HU 0.08)

10.30-11am Coffee & Tea (HU Atrium)

11am-12.30pm ROUNDTABLE & Q&A: (Chair) Lynsey McCulloch (RSC) with Erica Whyman and a company member Tom Varey (Shakespeare in Hamnet), 'Staging Shakespeare: Maggie O'Farrell's Hamnet at the RSC' (HU 0.08)

12.30-1.30pm Lunch (HU Atrium)

1.30-3pm Parallel Sessions:

SEMINAR 6: Shakespeare's Lives in Performance (Convenor: Ollie Jones), TY 1.01

Sally Barnden (Swansea University)

Lizzie Conrad Hughes (University of Birmingham & Shake-Scene Shakespeare) and ValentinaVinci (Independent Scholar)

Alys Daroy (Murdoch University)

Hyo Sik Hwang (Chungbuk National University)

Shuyu Liu (University of Nottingham)

Elinor Parsons (De Montfort University)

Gerit Quealy (Independent Scholar) and Nick Bombicino (Actor)

Kelsey Ridge (Alvernia University)

Edel Semple (University College Cork)

Danielle Skinner (The University of the West Indies)

Joseph Stephenson (Abilene Christian University)

Roweena Yip (National University of Singapore)

Katherine Young (Independent Scholar)

SEMINAR 7: Shakespeare's Historical Biographies (Convenor: Alison Findlay), TY 1.02

Deborah Cartmell (De Montfort University)

Jiamiao Chen (University of Bristol)

Rowland Cotterill (Independent Scholar)

Louise Fang (Université Sorbonne Paris Nord)

Alison Findlay (Lancaster University)

Sarah Hodgson (Shakespeare Institute, University of Birmingham)

Neslihan Koroglu (Izmir Katip Celebi University)

Enyue Ouyang (University of Leeds)

ROUNDTABLE: Teaching Shakespeare with Shakespeare (supported by the English Association) (Organiser & moderator: Harvey Wiltshire), TY 1.05

Heidi Drake (Colchester Royal Grammar School)

Madeleine Champagnie (Thames Christian School)

Cassie Martin (The King's School, Gloucester)

Natasha O'Hear (North Oxfordshire Academy)

Hetty Steele (Lady Eleanor Holles School)

PANEL 8: The Quiney Family's Copy of Erasmus's Apothethegmata: its ownership, uses and implications (Chair: Ben Parsons), HU 0.08

Marlin E. Blaine (California State University, Fullerton), "Sum Richardi Quiney": The Quiney Apophthegmata and Humanist Culture in the Shakespeare Circle'

Alan H. Nelson (University of California, Berkeley), 'Two Books from the Quiney Family of Stratford-upon-Avon'

Lena Orlin (Georgetown University), 'Books and their Biographies in Stratford-upon-Avon'

Robert Bearman (Independent Scholar), 'The Younger Quineys, the Apophthegmata, and the St John's College Copy of Giulio Pace's Commentary on Porphyry and Aristotle'

3-30pm Tea & Coffee (HU Atrium)

3.30-4.45pm PANEL 9 Unwriting Lives: The Shakespeare Women (Chair: Maria Shmygol) HU 0.08

Ailsa Grant Ferguson (University of Brighton), 'Unwriting Susanna'

Laurie Maguire (University of Oxford) 'Unwriting Judith'

Katherine Scheil (University of Minnesota), 'Unwriting Anne'

4:45-5:00pm Closing remarks, HU 0.08

The Organizers

The conference is organised by Deborah Cartmell (De Montfort University), Gabriel Egan (De Montfort University, Siobhan Keenan (De Montfort University, Lisa Hopkins (Sheffield Hallam University), and Pete Smith (Nottingham Trent University), in coordination with the British Shakespeare Association's Conference Team of José Pérez Díez, Maria Shmygol, Coen Heijes, Miranda Fay Thomas, Kat Hipkiss and Andrea Smith. De Montfort University is kindly paying for the time of undergraduate student helpers Isabella Summerfield-Jones and Neeve Billimore, and De Montfort University PhD student helper Alice Payne is kindly donating her time.