The Ninth World Shakespeare Congress of the International Shakespeare Association in Prague will mark the next phase in a journey through four continents. Beginning in Vancouver, this international conference has travelled every five years since 1971 to share Shakespearian scholarship, performance, and pedagogy at another great site: Washington D.C., Stratford-upon-Avon, Berlin, Tokyo, Los Angeles, Valencia and Brisbane. The culturally rich city of Prague, a new setting for the Congress in central Europe, offers a wonderful opportunity to engage in dialogue about Shakespearian reception both here and throughout the world.

The location of the Congress in Prague, where Shakespeare's plays were most probably performed during his lifetime, provides the opportunity to approach Shakespeare's theatre in the context of cultural and political relations between Elizabethan and Jacobean England and Central Europe under the Habsburg Emperor Rudolph II and later on the eve of the Thirty Years' War. Delegates will be able to trace the steps of Dr. John Dee, Edward Kelley, Edmund Campion, and Elizabeth Weston as they tour the Baroque theatres and Rosenberg castles of South Bohemia.

The Congress theme 'Renaissance Shakespeare / Shakespeare Renaissances' speaks to current debates about 'Shakespeare as Cultural Catalyst' and 'Global Shakespeare'.

· Proposals should be as detailed as possible and include a rationale as well as a list of problems or questions that the seminar, workshop or short paper (panel) session seeks to explore. They should include brief academic biographies of the proposed leaders and contributors of short papers.

· Preference will be given to proposals which, in their subject matter, reflect the international nature of the Congress. Geographical diversity in group leadership is actively encouraged so that the two leaders of a seminar, for example, may come from different countries or continents.

All proposals will be reviewed by members of the ISA Programme Committee.

· Proposals of 500 words should be sent to Dr. Nick Walton, ISA Secretary, preferably by email at: <isa@shakespeare.org.uk>
or to The Shakespeare Centre, Henley Street, Stratford-Upon-Avon, Warwickshire, CV37 6QW, United Kingdom, to arrive by 28th February 2009.
Those submitting proposals should ensure that their membership of the ISA is current.

(posted 23 Sep '08)

The definition of a literary canon in medieval and early modern Scotland is closely connected with the definition of the Scottish nation. Attempting an assessment of medieval and early modern Scottish literature means above all dealing with a definition of this literature within a strongly defined national context: literature and nation grow together, and each contributes to the other’s definition.

Following these suggestions, we welcome papers addressing (but not necessarily restricted to) the following topics:

-    Redefining the canonical in early Scottish literature
-    One nation, many languages: issues of language and time range
-    New canons of neo-Latin and Gaelic poetry
-    Defining Older Scots
-    The ongoing circulation and adaptation of Older Scots literature
-    A tale of two nations: Scotland and England
-    Scottish-Italian relations
-    Local cultural centres: the influence of religious, educational, and legal institutions
-    The invention of literary tradition in seventeenth-century Scotland
-    Literary and linguistic theories and practices in seventeenth-century Scotland
-    Building a national epic
-    Poetry deriving from strands of Protestantism
-    Personal and political satire
-    The poetry of quietism

-    Medieval universities and the progress of learning

Alessandra Petrina
Dipartimento di Lingue e Lett. Anglo-Germaniche e Slave
Via Beato Pellegrino, 26
35100 Padova - Italy

(posted 9 February)