Conferences & Funding

We recommend that if plan to apply for this conference, you also apply for funding from Villanova. Information regarding travel funding is linked here . Please also note that you must apply for funding before attending the conference.

4-6 June 2015 The Shakespeare Institute, University of Birmingham We invite graduate students with interests in Shakespeare, Renaissance, and Early Modern Studies to join us in June for the Seventeenth Annual British Graduate Shakespeare Conference. This interdisciplinary conference, celebrating its seventeenth anniversary in 2015, provides a friendly and stimulating academic forum in which graduate students from all over the world can present their research on Shakespeare, the Early Modern period, or the Renaissance. In accordance with the Shakespeare Institute’s emerging reputation as a place for creative criticism, we also encourage creative responses. The conference takes place in an active centre of Shakespeare and Early Modern scholarship in Shakespeare’s home town, Stratford-upon-Avon. Undergraduate students in their final two years of study are also invited to attend the conference as auditors. Plenary speakers include Chris Laoutaris (University of Birmingham), Laurie Maguire...

On April 10-11, 2015, the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill will host a conference on "Consequences of 'the Fall': Growth and Decline in Medieval and Early Modern Literary Culture" Very few aspects of late medieval and early modern literature and culture remain untouched by the Fall, concepts of original sin, and considerations of man’s place in a postlapsarian world. Concerns over the state of the soul, right governance and maintenance of the commonweal, and engagement with the natural world were shaded by a need to recoup the loss incurred by the expulsion from Eden. From drama to religious tracts to treatises on government and society, concern over the Fall led to an overwhelming production of texts attempting to cope and contend with its perceived consequences. This conference hopes to investigate these various representations and responses to The Fall. We hope to take a broad approach to exploring late medieval and early modern experiences of the ...

Villanova's Irish Studies Program is hosting a conference of the American Edmund Burke Society on "Edmund Burke and Patriotism." Limited spaces are available for Villanova faculty and graduate students to attend the conference. The conference will take place on Saturday, 28 February 2015, 9am to 5pm, in the St. Augustine Center, Room 300. Keynote speakers include Dr. David Bromwich (Yale) and Dr. Michael Brown (Aberdeen). Faculty and Graduate Students may register for the event here before 14 February. For further details contact Craig Bailey ( craig.bailey@villanova.edu ).

The Lehigh University English graduate program is organizing our first annual conference on "Literature and Social Justice" for March 7th, 2015, to be held at Lehigh University in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania. We welcome proposals for 15-20 minute presentations by MA and Doctoral students on all aspects of literature and social justice across any specialties within the discipline of English, comparative literature, or modern languages. Scholars working in all time periods, genres, and theoretical methodologies are welcome to submit abstracts. Potential topics could include, but are not restricted to: -questions on whether literature should be socially or morally "useful" -the current state of didactic literature -issues of aesthetics and ethics -questions on the status of "art for art’s sake" -the place of biographical criticism when evaluating a given text -the place of race, class, gender, and religion when reading a text -pedagogical concerns -the s...

As you may know, we are quickly approaching the Villanova Theatre Department’s Philadelphia Theatre Research Symposium event on Thursday, May 1st. This year’s event is particularly exciting as we will be hosting a conversation with our guest speaker Emily Mann, playwright, director, and artistic director of the McCarter Theatre in Princeton, NJ. The goal of PTRS is to provide a forum for theatre scholars and practitioners to share their research and enter into a dialogue about current trends in theatrical practice and scholarship. Every year, PTRS features a panel of Emerging Scholars, giving Villanova students an opportunity to present conference-style papers for a gathering of prominent theatre scholars. Papers presented at the conference will also be eligible for blind review publishing in Praxis: The Journal for Theatre, Performance Studies and Criticism. CALL FOR PAPERS PTRS is currently seeking papers to present for the Emerging Scholars panel for theatre research. The subject of...

The Graduate Liberal Studies program will co-host along with the MLA Program at the University of Pennsylvania the annual Association for Graduate Liberal Studies Programs (AGLSP) Conference October 9-11, 2014. The topic this year will be “Revolutions! Past, Present, and Future.” This is an interdisciplinary conference. Here are the details: CALL FOR PAPERS/PANELS The Association of Graduate Liberal Studies Programs 2014 Conference October 9-11, 2014—Philadelphia, Pennsylvania The University of Pennsylvania and Villanova University Revolutions! Philadelphia has long been home to revolutionary thought. Its most famous son, Benjamin Franklin—inventor, scientist, newspaper mogul, diplomat, political philosopher, educational reformer, signer of the Declaration of Independence, statesman—is the embodiment of the myriad revolutions that continue to shape human history, especially in modern times. For the 2014 AGLSP conference, we will explore the theme of Revolutions . ...

Villanova University Gender and Women’s Studies Program Call for Papers 25th Annual Elizabeth Cady Stanton Student Research Conference Deadline for Submission: Friday, February 14, 2014   To Be Presented on: Friday, April 4, 2014 Each year, Villanova University’s Gender and Women’s Studies program hosts the annual Elizabeth Cady Stanton Conference. This year, in honor of its 25th anniversary, GWS is joining forces with the Greater Philadelphia Women’s Studies Consortium to expand the conference and open it to students at area schools including the University of Delaware, Haverford College, Ursinus College, Temple University, and others. This is an exciting opportunity to showcase your work, discuss your interests with students and faculty from the area, and see the broad range of intellectual disciplines that Gender and Women’s Studies encompasses! Submit your paper to compete for a CASH AWARD in one of the following three categories:  papers or c...

“Making Knowledge in Medieval and Early Modern Literary Culture” The literature and culture of the late medieval and early modern periods were profoundly affected by the expansion of new artisanal and scientific technologies—innovations and ideas that would lead to the production and consumption of new forms of knowledge. In both periods, knowledge was conceptualized across a range of intersecting disciplines, including natural philosophy, astrology, mathematics, medicine, art, mechanics, and cartography, among others. Literature embraced, criticized, or participated in these fields in diverse ways, often examining how these new forms or categories of knowledge influenced the locus and ontology of the individual and social self. Collectively, we will investigate the ways in which medieval and early modern literature engages with scientific, technological and textual processes of making and disseminating knowledge. In addition, we are interested in discussing the...