With that her angels face, vnseene afore,

Like to the ruddie morne appeard in sight,

Deawed with siluer drops, through sweating sore;

But somewhat redder, then beseem'd aright,

Through toylesome heate and labour of her weary fight. 

Edmund Spenser, The Faerie Queene, IV.vi.19

When Artegall first glimpses Britomart’s face in book 4 of The Faerie Queene, the Knight of Chastity is red and sweating with exertion. What kind of work is chastity, and how is it put to work in early modern English texts? Taking the outward signs of Britomart’s “labour” as a starting place, this panel invites papers that consider representations of the effortful performance or maintenance of chastity in order to explore its figurative and discursive work across religious, political, social, and cultural spheres. 

Topics might include:

• chastity and practices of husbandry and resource management;

• chastity and textual/poetic labor;

• chastity as it shapes and organizes bodies, especially as related to race, class, and gender; 

• how chastity as a form of labor links it to or distinguishes it from virginity and other kinds of sexual identity. 

Please send paper proposals with a title (15-word maximum) and abstract (200-word maximum) together with a 2-page CV, PhD completion year (past or expected), and full name, current affiliation, and email address to Asher Courtemanche (ac2457@cornell.edu) and Margaux Delaney (mrd239@cornell.edu) by July 24, 2026.