2024

Shakespeare and Play

When: Saturday, April 27, 2024, 8am-6pm
Where: Clark University, Worcester, MA

Eligibility: currently enrolled undergraduate students are welcome
Deadline for Proposals: 29 February 2024
Distinguished Keynote Speaker: Dr. David Sterling Brown (Associate Professor of English, Trinity College, Hartford, CT)
Special Interactive Presentation: Shakespeare SwordPLAY with Clark’s Theater Program

Submission Details:
“The play’s the thing.” (Hamlet, 2.2. 633)
The theme of this year’s conference is “Shakespeare and Play,” broadly defined. We invite short essays that engage (playfully) with the works of Shakespeare, his contemporaries, and his modern adapters using a variety of topics and critical approaches. These might include, but are not limited to:  Playing in Shakespeare; Playing and Shakespeare, Playing with Shakespeare; and, especially, Play and Identity.

Please submit a paper title and 250-300 word proposal to the portal below in one PDF file (named as such: DoeJanet_ShaxCon_Proposal). Conference presentations will be limited to 15 minutes each, followed by 20-25 minutes of discussion. Review of submissions will begin on February 29, 2024. We will consider proposals after that date but cannot guarantee their inclusion in the one-day program.

Submission Portal

We will inform you of your acceptance status within 2-3 weeks of the deadline. At that point, we will supply further details about registration and travel, and offer some general suggestions for drafting or revising essays for your conference presentation. In the registration process, we will also ask for any access and dietary needs you require.

All conference papers and presentations are eligible for essay prizes!
We welcome proposals from undergraduate students at colleges and universities across New England and beyond! Families and friends of participants are welcome to come and watch as well.
Questions? Visit our conference website (https://shakespeareconference.com/) or email us:
ClarkShaxConference2024@gmail.com .