London Shakespeare Centre

The Arden Shakespeare is launching a new series:
Arden Shakespeare Intersections

Series Editors: Farah Karim Cooper, Gordon McMullan, Lucy Munro & Sonia Massai

Published in association with the London Shakespeare Centre at King's College London, Arden Shakespeare Intersections sets the future agenda for Shakespeare research and criticism, with each volume exploring a Shakespearean intersection which encourages inventive reflections, suggestions for future directions and critical engagements.

For more information go to the website: www.bloomsbury.com

Final 2 seminars for the London Shakespeare Seminar Series 2019/20 now confirmed as follows:

Senate Room, Senate House
Malet Street | LONDON WC1E 7HU
17.15-19.00

10 February 2020
Andrew Murphy (TCD), 'Shakespeare Beyond Print: The Beginnings of Digital Shakespeare'
Liza Blake (Toronto), ‘Margaret Cavendish's Books and Some Alternate Histories of Textual Bibliography’

2 March 2020
Jennifer Richards (Newcastle), ‘Editing an oral writer: Thomas Nashe’
Andrea Stevens (Illinois), ‘Classifying, Editing, and Performing William Heminge’s The Fatal Contract’

London Shakespeare Seminar 20 Jan 2020

Where: Court Room Senate House, Malet Street, London WC1E 7HU,
When: Monday 20 Jan; 5.15-7pm

Decolonising Shakespeare: a round table featuring Sarah Pett (SOAS), Susan Bennett (Calgary), Neka de Costa (Witwatersrand)
Chaired by Koel Chatterjee (Trinity Laban)

The speakers have requested that attendees read Susan Young's introduction to Shakespeare and the Global South (2019) as a starting / talking point for the seminar. You can find a copy of the text in a dropbox folder here: https://www.dropbox.com/home/Sandra%20Young .
If you cannot open this file please email [email protected] to request a copy.

As usual, you are invited to join us for a bite to eat after the seminar.

“Shakespeare and the Jews: A Global Exploration” - Call for Papers Special Issue Shakespeare

In 1992, James Shapiro discussed ‘Shakespeare and the Jews’ in the James Parkes Lecture at the University of Southampton, a lecture that would form one of the cornerstones of his ground-breaking book of the same title. Thirty years later, in 2022, the journal Shakespeare pays homage to his research, both by looking back and reflecting on the issues Shapiro raised, and by looking around us in today’s world where the topic is as relevant as ever. Shakespeare and the accusation of anti-Semitism have long been intertwined, with The Merchant of Venice being central in this discourse. Today, the evidence of rising anti-Semitism has become almost impossible to ignore. There is a growing sense of urgency, as an increase in incidents is reported across the world, while in Europe, the continent most directly confronted with the horrors of the Shoah, anti-Semitism is no longer an issue confined to extremist parties but seems to have entered the political and cultural mainstream.
This special issue of Shakespeare invites submissions that analyse the topic ‘Shakespeare and the Jews’ in local and/or global contexts and a wide spectrum of thematic, methodological and disciplinary approaches. We are interested in representing a broad geographical range, and invite essays from both academics and practitioners in Asia, Africa, Australia, Europe, and the Americas. While the topic is of obvious interest to Shakespeare scholars, we also encourage essays from other disciplines (or inter- and transdisciplinary essays), including Theatre Studies, Film Studies, Philosophy, Political and Historical Science, Ethics, Judaism, Middle Eastern Studies, Religious Studies and Anthropology.

Possible areas of interest include:
1. Dressing Jews: costuming in contemporary productions
2. Depicting Jews: representations in movie/performance posters, book covers or program notes
3. The ghetto in Shakespeare’s text and/or Shakespearean productions
4. Shakespeare, Jews and performance in the local (national or regional) context
5. Shakespeare and the Jews in amateur productions
6. Shakespeare, Jews and (de)constructing stereotypes
7. Shakespeare and the Jews in a multicultural society
8. Shakespeare, Jews and acting: movement and gestures on stage
9. Shakespeare’s Jews and religious encounters: Judaism, Christianity, and Islam
10. Shakespeare and anti-Semitism on/off stage: local, national or transnational perspectives
11. Shakespeare and the Jews: a political perspective
12. Shakespeare, Jews and propaganda
13. Shakespeare, Jews and props on stage
14. Jewish themes in Shakespeare’s plays
15. Representing Jews in Shakespeare translations
16. The reception and/or adaptation of Shakespeare in Jewish communities across the world
17. The reception and/or adaptation of Shakespeare’s Jews in Israel and neighbouring countries
18. Jewish directors/actors responding to Shakespeare
19. A view from the classroom: on teaching Shakespeare and the Jews
20. A view at the screen: Shakespeare and Jews in films and on tv
21. Audience responses to Shakespeare’s Jews
22. Shaming Shakespeare: bans and censorship
23. The Merchant of Venice and the conflict in the Middle East
24. Shakespeare, Jews and pogroms
25. Affecting change through Shakespeare’s Jews
26. Money(lending) and anti-Semitic myths
27. Shakespeare, ethics and Jews
28. Shakespeare’s Jews, Gender and Sexuality
29. The impact of modern appropriations and adaptations of The Merchant of Venice
Guest editors: Coen Heijes (University of Groningen) & Sabine Schülting (Freie Universität Berlin)
Afterword: James Shapiro

Lengths of submissions: 6,000 – 7,000

Deadline for abstracts: April 15, 2020

Deadline for submissions: January 15, 2021

For further information, please contact [email protected] or [email protected]

Thank you to all who have expressed an interest in the London Shakespeare Centre at King's College London Shakespeare for Teachers day.
I’m afraid we have now allocated all places. If you would like to be placed on the reserve list, please contact Gemma Miller at [email protected]

Join our free study day for those teaching Shakespeare at A-Level. It is organised by the London Shakespeare Centre at King's College London on Saturday 1 February 2020. Final few places are going fast so email [email protected] to reserve your place.

Publication of Measure for Measure in January 2020 completes the Arden Shakespeare Third Series after 25 years of world-leading scholarship. With 44 volumes of plays and poems – including editions of Shakespeare's three 'apocryphal' plays Sir Thomas More, King Edward III and the 'lost' Double Falsehood, as well as the three texts of Hamlet – the series offers an unparalleled collection of Shakespeare’s works. Valued by students, teachers and theatre-makers for on-page commentary notes and in-depth illustrated introductions, it remains the last work in Shakespeare studies.

The Arden Shakespeare and the London Shakespeare Centre invite you to celebrate this moment with us. Chaired by Gordon McMullan (Director of the London Shakespeare Centre), the panellists include Richard Proudfoot, H. R. Woudhuysen and Ann Thompson, (three of the general editors of the Third Series), along with Sonia Massai (Professor of Shakespeare Studies at King’s College London) and Lucy Munro (Professor of Early Modern English Literature at King’s College London).

Nearest station: Temple (Circle and District lines)

Tickets: free
Click to register: https://www.kcl.ac.uk/events/celebrating-the-completion-of-the-arden-shakespeare-third-series

This event is hosted by the Arden Shakespeare, an imprint of Bloomsbury Publishing, in conjunction with the London Shakespeare Centre.

WOMEN & POWER ON THE EARLY MODERN STAGE
SATURDAY 7TH DECEMBER
10.00 am – 5.30 pm
NANCY KNOWLES LECTURE THEATRE,
SHAKESPEARE’S GLOBE
We continue our exploration of the relationship between women and power with a day of discussion and debate on the issues of gender, s*xuality and power.

From Queen Margaret to Queen Elizabeth I our indoor season will feature representations of female leadership and the power structures that attempt to contain it. We examine how early modern and modern writers grappled with the topic: How did early modern society seek to accommodate or oppress female assertiveness? How did the drama of the time contain or enable powerful women? To what extent did – and do – women in leadership have to mask their s*x?

This day of talks and panel discussions features speakers from British Columbia to Bristol discussing plays such as Macbeth, King John and As You Like It and topics including the gendering of power and language and wilful women and transgression.

Link to book tickets:
https://www.shakespearesglobe.com/whats-on/women-power/

PDF Schedule here:
https://cdn.shakespearesglobe.com/uploads/2019/11/women__power_on_the_early_modern_stage_symposium_final-1.pdf

Women & Power On The Early Modern Stage | Shakespeare's Globe From Queen Margaret to Queen Elizabeth I our indoor season will feature representations of female leadership and the power structures that attempt to contain it.

Funding opportunity for postgraduate study: Re-reading Plowden’s Political Theology

Deadline to apply: 10 January 2020

University of Oxford

https://www.humanities.ox.ac.uk/re-reading-plowdens-political-theology

The successful applicant to this programme would, under the supervision of Professors Hutson and Kewes in English, and Professor Garnett in History, produce a first printed and digital scholarly edition of the ‘Treatise’, as well as a study of its argument and an assessment of its role in the Elizabethan debate about royal succession and its reconfiguration of the medieval notion of the ‘King’s Two Bodies’ (Kantorowicz 1957). We envisage this opportunity to be appealing to students of English Literature, History, Law, Politics, and Theology. Some familiarity with palaeography is essential; some knowledge of Latin and French is desirable. Applicants should apply for the DPhil in English by 10 January 2020. Applicants should ideally have a first class or good 2.1 degree, and a Master’s, in English, History, Politics, Law, or Theology. The scholarships will cover course fees and provide a living allowance at Research Council rates.

Re-reading Plowden’s Political Theology | Humanities Division

Fully-funded PhD studentship in early modern drama

Closing date 8 January 2020

The Open University invites applications for a 3-year fully-funded full-time PhD Studentship in Gender and Otherness in the Humanities. Applications to the English Department, relating to Drama 1500-1800, are particularly encouraged. The closing date is 8 January 2020. Details are available at

http://www.open.ac.uk/about/employment/vacancies/phd-studentships-gender-and-otherness-humanities-open-universitygoth-phd-studentships

PhD Studentships in Gender and Otherness in the Humanities | Employment

London Shakespeare Seminar Series Update:
4 Nov:
Matthew Dimmock (Suss*x): ‘Performing Elizabethan globalism’
Koel Chatterjee (Trinity Laban): ‘”What doth your speech import?”: the implication of accents in
Indian Shakespeare Cinema’
18 Nov:
Callan Davies (Kent): ‘Rights of play: Elizabethan London’s leisure Industry and urban movement’
Tracey Hill (Bath Spa): ‘Separate spheres? City dramatists from Peele to Middleton’
spring
20 Jan:
Decolonising Shakespeare: a round table featuring Sarah Pett (SOAS), Susan Bennett (Calgary),
Neka de Costa (Witwatersrand)
and others tbc
10 Feb:
Andrew Murphy (Trinity College Dublin) on Shakespeare in print
Liza Blake (Toronto) on Shakespeare, Cavendish and book history
2 Mar:
Jennifer Richards (Newcastle) on editing
tbc
For more info. or to subscribe to the London Shakespeare Centre see https://www.kcl.ac.uk/research/london-shakespeare-centre

London Shakespeare Centre