This year, we turn our attention to the intricate, invisible, but often tangible webs that bound the early modern world together. The sixteenth and seventeenth centuries were defined by a profound density of connection - a world of intense social binding, material circulation, and intellectual exchange. From the “knot intrinsicate” of Cleopatra’s demise to the conspiracy of rumours that entraps Othello, early modern drama is obsessed with the architecture of entanglement. Yet these networks extend far beyond the stage: they encompass the collaborative workshops of playwrights, the clandestine circulation of manuscript poetry, the global trade routes that brought Venice to London, and the ‘Republic of Letters’ that knitted together the diverse intellects of Europe. At the same time, our own world is increasingly shaped by new networks. Digital platforms, intercultural collaborations, and global pedagogies create new circuits through which Shakespeare and early modern texts move, transform, and acquire meaning within expanded fields of relation. We invite abstract submissions for 15-minute papers and MA roundtable topics that interrogate the structures of and ideas behind these systems. We welcome papers that explore critical developments and emerging research in the areas of: technology and digitization, feminism, queer theory, and post-colonialism. This two-day conference, hosted jointly by King’s College London and Shakespeare’s Globe, continues our twenty-five-year tradition of collaborative research. As we gather at the intersection of the academic and the theatrical, we ask how does the study of networks (a term historically rooted in the meshwork of lace or chainmail) reshape our understanding ofauthorship, authority, and agency in the early modern period and indeed in our reception of it now.

We invite submission on topics including, but not limited to:

- Transculturality - race, colonialism, travel writing, language, and translation

- Family, friendship, and gossip networks - genealogy, private correspondence, and intimate spaces

- Playmaking networks - playhouses, travelling companies, printing and publishing

- Material networks - textiles, landscapes, trade

- Publishing network, texts, and paratexts

- Financial networks and patronage

- Cultures of Knowledge - public exchanges, lectures, epistolary systems, pamphlets, etc.

- Cross-disciplinary networks - exploring connections within and between astronomers, natural philosophers, philologists, classical scholars, antiquaries, artists, etc.

- Extended & embodied cognitive networks

Please follow copy link for the submission form: https://forms.cloud.microsoft/pages/responsepage.aspx?id=FM9wg_MWFky4PHJ...

We are seeking abstracts of 250 words for a maximum 15- minute presentation. Submissions close on February 17 th by 11:59 GMT

Any questions or to flag accessibility needs, please email sclpostgrad2026@gmail.com