‘What legacy shall I bequeath to thee?’ - Shakespeare in the Context of his Time
An Interdisciplinary Graduate and Early Career Symposium - Call for Papers

Both universal and a product of his time Shakespeare remains an enigmatic writer. The celebration of the 400th anniversary of his death demonstrates his continued impact on scholarly thought and popular culture. Investigating Shakespeare among his contemporaries in a period of transformations will help to understand his enduring popularity. The symposium ‘Shakespeare in the Context of his Time’ invites proposals which consider the cultural transfer and translation of Shakespearean ideas on his time, but also the influence of the cultural context of the intellectual and cultural world of the sixteenth century on Shakespeare himself. This includes the intellectual exchange between Shakespeare and his contemporaries examined through all aspects of cultural, literary and theatrical influence. Papers are invited from early career scholars and graduate students in all disciplines which touch on Shakespeare’s work. ‘Shakespeare in the Context of his Time’ is organised by the Centre for Early Modern Studies at the University of Aberdeen and supported by the Scottish Renaissance Society .

Please email 250-word abstracts by Sunday 15 May to Alison Passe and Julia Kotzur at
shakespeareincontext@gmail.com. Papers should be a maximum of 20 minutes in length. Please include a brief biography (no more than 150 words). Possible topics could include:
- Shakespeare and Europe
- Contemporaneous intellectual sources of Shakespeare’s ideas
- The transfer of ideas between playwrights
- Shakespearean linguistics
- English History Plays
- Influences across multiple genres
- Performance history including Shakespearean theatre and use of his stage