Dear Graduate Program Directors and Administrators:

Following is an announcement for the Seventh Annual Massachusetts Center for Interdisciplinary Renaissance Studies Graduate Conference. Please distribute this and the following CFP to any students who may be interested in submitting an abstract.

The Massachusetts Center for Interdisciplinary Renaissance Studies at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst will host its annual graduate student conference on Saturday, October 24, 2009. Graduate students are invited to submit abstracts for a ten to fifteen minute paper on any range of topics or approaches to literature and history, including textual studies, performance history, philosophy, print culture, religious studies, gender studies, post-colonial interpretations, and other new theoretical perspectives. The purpose of the conference is to provide graduate students with an opportunity to share their work and place it in a greater context of interests and concerns. The conference is designed to foster conversation among students who share similar challenges and construct a space where participants may expect serious feedback on their work.

Please send an abstract of 250-300 words by email or email attachment to Gregory Sargent (gsargent@english.umass.edu) by Saturday, September 19, 2009. For more information on the conference, you can visit the website http://people.umass.edu/ppalmer/Site/MCRSGC.html.

We are pleased to announce that Prof. William Carroll of Boston University will be giving the keynote address. In addition to numerous awards and publications, Prof. Carroll is the Co-General Editor of the New Mermaid Drama series, serves on the editorial board of Shakespeare Quarterly, and was a member of the MLA Shakespeare Variorum Edition Committe (2003-06).

We are organizing the conference to bring graduate students with similar interests together to share their work. Last year's conference had an impressive turnout with a range of interests and it was instructive to see new approaches to the profession. As before, we intend to divide the conference into several small panels, with ample time for discussion among peers, and we welcome the attendance of faculty from your department as well.

Thank you for your assistance and please feel free to contact me with any questions or comments.

Best,
Katey Roden
Gregory Sargent

Conference Organizers