The Future of Literary Study, 1500-1800

heveliusMarch 11-12, 2011
Annual EMC Conference
McCune Conference Room (HSSB 6020)

The idea of “the new” has been powerful in early modern literary studies, mobilizing critical innovation and reshaping research practices. The question we propose for this conference is simple: where is early modern studies headed? What’s next? Does the future lie in advancing or revisiting existing approaches, such as still newer historicism, or in something different altogether?

Sponsored by

Interdisciplinary Humanities Center, Geographies of Place series  Department of Feminist Studies
Comparative Literature
Department of French and Italian
Arnhold Undergraduate Research Fellows Program

“The Future of Literary Study” Flyer | “The Future of Literary Study” Program


Call for Papers

In recent decades, scholars working in the early modern period have been at the vanguard of literary studies. To cite just one example, some of the earliest practitioners of New Historicism, such as Stephen Greenblatt and the late Richard Helgerson, worked in the early modern period. The question we are contemplating this year is simple: where is early modern studies headed? What’s next? Does the future lie in advancing or revisiting existing approaches, such as still newer historicism, or something different altogether? In addition to exploring this question theoretically, we are also interested in new pedagogical and critical practices

This two-day conference will consist of keynote talks and panel discussions that will encourage all participants to engage the issues raised throughout the conference.

Please send abstracts, 250-500 words in length, to EMCConference@gmail.com by December 12, 2011. Feel free to contact Theresa Russ at emcfellow@gmail.com with specific questions.


Conference Schedule

Friday, March 11th

8:30-9:00 | Registration and Coffee

9:00-9:15 | Welcome Address: Ken Hiltner, Early Modern Center Director and Professor of English, University of California, Santa Barbara

9:15-11:30 | Keynote Talks

Stephen Orgel, “The Discipline of English”
Jackson Eli Reynolds Professor of Humanities, English Department, Stanford University

Helen Deutsch, “Problems for the Future”
Professor, English Department, University of California, Los Angeles

Jean Howard, “Thinking Craft, not Art: Making Early Modern Tragedy”
George Delacorte Professor in the Humanities; Chair of the Department of English and Comparative Literature, Columbia University

Heather James, “Bison Hamlet”
Associate Professor of English and Comparative Literature, University of Southern California

11:30-11:45 | Break

11:45-12:30 | Roundtable Discussion
Moderator: Michael Wyatt, Associate Director, Stanford Center for Medieval and early Modern Studies; English Department, Stanford UniversitySponsored by the Arnhold Undergraduate Research Fellows Program

12:30-1:30 | Lunch

1:30-1:45 | Presentation: The King James Bible, 1611-2011
Sharon Farmer, Professor, History Department, University of California, Santa Barbara

1:45-2:45 | Panel: In the Medium of Things: New and Old Media in Early Modern Literature
Moderator: Paxton Hehmeyer (English, UC Santa Barbara)

Pavneet Aulakh, “Jonson’s ‘Court hieroglyphics’: Marrying Soul and Body, Word and Image”
English, UC Santa Barbara

Katharine Zimolzac, “Propogation & Preservation of Popular Media In the Late Early Modern Era”
English, University of Southern California

Megan Palmer Browne, “Broadside Ballads in Word & Image”
English, UC Santa Barbara

2:45-3:30 | Panel: Circulating Gender
Moderator: Michael Grafals (Comparative Literature, UC Santa Barbara)

Jessica James, “Virtunomics: Class, Virtue, and Moral Authority in Henrietta
English, CSU Long Beach

Edward Kozaczka, “Counterintuitive Feminism and the Eighteenth-Century Novel”
English, University of Southern California

3:30-3:45 | Break

3:45-4:00 | A Brief Report from the Front: The Medievalists are Coming

Heather Blurton (Associate Professor, English, UC Santa Barbara)

James Kearney (Associate Professor, English, UC Santa Barbara)

4:00-5:00 | The English Broadside Ballad Archive: Back to the Future

Patricia Fumerton (Director, EBBA)
Eric Nebeker (Assistant Director, EBBA)
Charlotte Becker (Project Manager, EBBA)
Andrew Riggin (Music Lead, EBBA)
Maria Baruxis (Undergraduate Research Assistant, EBBA)

5:00 | Closing Remarks: E. Heckendorn Cook, Associate Professor, English, University of California, Santa Barbara

Ssaturday, March 12

9:00-9:30 | Coffee

9:30-9:45 | Opening Remarks and Introduction: Patricia Fumerton, Professor of English, University of California, Santa Barbara

9:45-11:30 | Keynote Talks

Leah Marcus, “Provincializing the Reformation”
Edwin Mims Professor of English, Vanderbilt University

Clifford Siskin, “The Business of English Departments: Culture/Genre/Mediation”
Henry W. and Albert A. Berg Professor of English and American Literature
Director, the Re:Enlightenment Project at New York University and the New York Public Library

William B. Warner, “The Crisis”
Professor of English, University of California, Santa Barbara

11:30-11:45 | Break

11:45-12:30 | Roundtable Discussion
Moderator: James Kearney, Associate Professor of English, University of California, Santa Barbara
Sponsored by the Arnhold Undergraduate Research Fellows Program

12:30-1:30 | Lunch

1:30-1:45 | Presentation: The Spectator No. 10, March 12, 1711-2011
Michael Grafals, Spectator300 Team; Comparative Literature, University of California, Santa Barbara

1:45-2:45 | Panel: The Transatlantic Early Modern: New Worlds and Ecologies
Moderator: Megan Palmer Browne (English, UC Santa Barbara)

Edward Test, “Alter-Colonial Shakespeare: Julius Caesar and Mexica Sacrifice”
English, Boise State University

Jacob Sider Jost, “Darwinian Romance: The Tempest and Evolutionary Ecogeography”
English, Harvard University

Tobias Menely, “Early Modern Literary Studies in the Anthropocene: Climate Change and the Time of the Present”
English, Miami University of Ohio

2:45-3:00 | Break

3:00-3:45 | Panel: Prophetic and Political Futures in Early Modern Drama
Moderator: Danielle Davey (English, UC Santa Barbara)

Judy Park, “Philaster and the Politics of Tragicomedy”
English, Loyola Marymount University

Daniel Keegan, “Living with Prophecy: More Life on the Shakespearean Stage”
Drama, University of California, Irvine

3:45-4:00 | Break

4:00-5:00 | Performance: Director: Irwin Appel, Professor and Director of the UCSB BFA Actor Training Program, Theatre Department, University of California Santa Barbara

Angelo Brian Bock and Isabella Hasmik Saakien
“Performing Literary Criticism: Measure for Measure 2.4”

5:00 | Closing Remarks: Andrew Griffin, Assistant Professor, English, University of California, Santa Barbara


Conference Planning Committee

Theresa Marie Russ (Chair)
Pavneet Aulakh
Charlotte Becker
Danielle Davey
Michael Grafals
Paxton Hehmeyer
Lauren Horn Griffin
Megan Palmer Browne
Bethany Wong
Catherine Zusky