The last decade has seen a return to religion in early modern studies. A previous generation of scholarship had sublimated questions of theology and religious identification in favor of the cultural studies "holy trinity" of race, class, and gender. However New Historicist criticism began to embrace and understand Renaissance texts through the lens of Reformation theological disputation and the religious environment in which individual texts were created. Shakespeare, the most towering figure of English Renaissance writing is no exception. As a case in point Stephen Greenblatt's popular biography of the author Will in the World spends ample time investigating the evidence for possible recusant sensibilities in that most English writer.

We invite proposals on the topic of Interdisciplinary Studies in the Humanities for presentation at the 70th annual South Central Modern Language Association conference at the Hotel Monteleone in New Orleans, Louisiana on October 3-5, 2013.

Please send abstracts of 500 words, your name and affiliation and a statement identifying any A/V needs to the session chair and secretary by March 31, 2013:
Carol Bunch Davis (davisc@tamug.edu)
Dustin Morrow (dustin_morrow@baylor.edu)

Abstracts on all topics are welcome and will receive full consideration, but we are particularly interested in receiving abstracts on interdisciplinary projects.

CFP: Shakespeare

Popular Culture/American Culture Association in the South Conference
October 3-5, 2013 Savannah, Georgia

Deadline: May 31, 2013

New Book Series: Shakespeare and the Stage

Fairleigh Dickinson University Press has established a new Series on Shakespeare and the Stage, devoted to the publication of scholarly works on the theatrical dimensions of the plays of Shakespeare and his contemporaries. Both individual studies and collections of previously unpublished essays are welcome.

The Series Editors are Peter Kanelos, Valparaiso University (peter.kanelos@valpo.edu) and Matthew Kozusko, Ursinus College (mkozusko@ursinus.edu). Proposals should be addressed directly to the editors.

The Midwest Popular Association / American Culture Association conference will be held at the St. Louis Union Station in St. Louis, MO, this October 11-13, 2013.

From the classical period to today, the virtues have served as a means of self-examination, a guide for self-reflection, a pattern for living a good life, and an inspiration for literary composition. For Christians, the virtues have the added dimension of being rooted in the revelation of God's character. This re-orientation of the understanding of virtue means that pursuing virtue can be a spiritual discipline as well as a form of witness.
Literature provides a powerful means of reflecting on what virtue is, how the expression of particular virtues shapes actions and character, and what a virtuous life looks like in various times, places, and cultures.