Sunday, August 31, 2014

2015 Multidisciplinary Graduate Student Conference (Newberry Library, Chicago/Deadline: Oct.15)

2015 Multidisciplinary Graduate Student Conference

Renaissance Graduate Programs
Thursday, January 22, 2015 to Saturday, January 24, 2015
CFP deadline: October 15

The Center for Renaissance Studies’ annual graduate student conference, organized and run by advanced doctoral students, has become a premier opportunity for emerging scholars to present papers, participate in discussions, and develop collaborations across the field of medieval, Renaissance, and early modern studies.

Participants from a wide variety of disciplines find a supportive and collegial forum for their work, meet future colleagues from other institutions and disciplines, and become familiar with the Newberry Library and its resources.

This year’s conference will comprise twenty-four sessions with three twenty-minute papers each, for a total of seventy-two presenters.

Each year since 2007, selected papers have been published in a peer-edited online conference proceedings.

Call for Papers

We invite abstracts for 20-minute papers from master’s or PhD students from any discipline on any medieval, Renaissance, or early modern topic in Europe, the Americas, or the Mediterranean world. We encourage submissions from disciplines as varied as the literature of any language, history, classics, anthropology, art history, music, comparative literature, theater arts, philosophy, political science, religious studies, transatlantic studies, disability studies, and manuscript studies. Because of the conference’s multidisciplinary nature, all papers must be in English.

Eligibility: Proposals are accepted only from students at member institutions of the Center for Renaissance Studies consortium. Students who presented a paper at the previous year’s conference are given lower priority, though they are still eligible to submit a proposal.

Proposals must be submitted online, by midnight CDT Wednesday, October 15. Complete this online submission form. The organizing committee will meet November 2 to select presenters to invite; we will notify everyone who submits an abstract of their decisions within a week of that meeting.

Download a PDF Call for Papers flyer to post and distribute.

Conference organizers

Eight advanced graduate students from consortium schools will organize the conference and chair sessions. Selection is currently under way; more names will be added in the coming weeks.

Caroline Carpenter, English, Claremont Graduate University
Patrick McGrath, English, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Sarah Morris, English, Miami University
James Seth, English, Oklahoma State University
Amanda Taylor, English, University of Minnesota

Preliminary schedule

Thursday January 22
1:30-3: Concurrent sessions 1 through 4
3-3:30: Coffee break
3:30-5: Plenary session
5-6:30: Opening reception

Friday, January 23
9: Coffee and continental breakfast
9:30-11: Concurrent sessions 5 through 8
11-11:30: Coffee break
11:30-1: Concurrent sessions 9 through 12
1-2:30: Lunch break
2:30-4: Concurrent sessions 13 through 16

Saturday, January 24
9: Coffee and continental breakfast
9:30-11: Concurrent sessions 17 through 20
11-11:30: Coffee break
11:30-1: Concurrent sessions 21 through 24
1:30: Organizer’s luncheon/editorial meeting

Faculty and graduate students of Center for Renaissance Studies consortium institutions may be eligible to apply for travel funds to attend CRS programs or to do research at the Newberry Library. Each member university sets its own policies and deadlines and some may limit eligibility to certain colleges or departments. Be sure to contact your Representative Council member in advance, as early as possible, for details.

Cost and registration information:
Online conference registration will open in December 2014.

The early conference registration fee will be $30 for students from consortium member universities and their guests and $40 for those from other institutions. Late registration (after January 10) will be $45 and $55, respectively.