Shakespeare

A. Description

SHAKSPER: The Global Electronic Shakespeare Conference

SHAKSPER, now in its thirty-fifth year of serving the academic community, is an edited and moderated, international, e-mail distribution list for discussion among Shakespearean researchers, instructors, students, and anyone sharing their serious academic interests and concerns. The SHAKSPER Articles and Newsletters are delivered, archived, and managed by Joomla software. In addition to the regular mailings to subscribers, anyone can use the Internet to access the archives and the list’s other materials from the SHAKSPER web site <www.shaksper.net>. The list’s current approaching 900 subscribers and more than 900 Facebook followers have enrolled from approximately 70 countries; they include prominent Shakespearean textual scholars and bibliographers, editors and critics, as well as university, college, and community-college professors, high-school teachers, undergraduate and graduate students, actors, theatre professionals, authors, poets, playwrights, librarians, computer scientists, lawyers, doctors, retirees, and other interested participants. SHAKSPER endeavors to emphasize the scholarly by providing the opportunity for the formal exchange of ideas through queries and responses regarding literary, critical, textual, theoretical, and performative topics and issues. 

Announcements of conferences, calls for papers, seminars, lectures, symposia, job openings, the publication of books, the availability of online and print articles, Internet databases and resources, journal contents, and performances and festivals are regular features as are assessments of scholarly books, past and present theatrical productions, and Shakespeare and Shakespeare-inspired films as well as citations and discussions of “popular” culture references to Shakespeare and his works. SHAKSPER also provides occasion for spontaneous informal discussion, eavesdropping, peer review, and a sense of belonging to a worldwide scholarly community. 

For readers’ convenience, these messages are lightly edited and grouped in separate digests according to topic. Significant questions and comments from actors, directors, or any member of list are welcome. Nevertheless, the Editor only posts contributions that he believes are of interest to the academic Shakespearean community. The source of the post is not the issue; the issue is its relevance to the broad scope of academic interests in Shakespeare studies. For more information about this policy, see <http://shaksper.net/archive/2006/235-february/24081-shaksper-is- back-with-an-important-change>. Submissions that are clearly irresponsible, offensive, or apart from SHAKSPER’s purpose, including those concerning the so-called “Authorship Question,” are ignored.

The SHAKSPER web site has a number of special features, including Cook’s Tour of Internet Resources for Students and Scholars of the Early Modern Period; periodic Roundtable discussions, concentrating on significant topics derived from issues of current interest in the discipline; and the SHAKSPER Book Reviews (SBReviews), reviews overseen by a Moderator and the SHAKSPER Book Review Panel (SBRPanel) that selects the books for review and the peers to review them, and then vets these reviews prior to their distribution as regular digests, which are then archived on the SHAKSPER web site.  In addition to the archive of past discussions, the SHAKSPER web site includes “A Selected Guide to Shakespeare on the Internet,” an international directory of Shakespearean institutions, organizations, libraries, and journals; a bibliography of poems, novels, plays, and films inspired by Shakespeare and his works, and much more. 

In early 2011, Hardy Cook, the SHAKSPER editor, accepted the invitation of the multi-talented Ron Severdia to design and host the new SHAKSPER web site. Ron is an actor <http://rontheactor.com>, the founder of PlayShakespeare.com, the creator of the best Shakespeare iPhone/iPod/iPad app, the co-author of the O'Reilly publication Using Joomla: Building Powerful and Efficient Web Sites, the accomplished, award-winning web designer, and creative director of  Kontent Design.

Although SHAKSPER is an academic e-mail distribution list, there are no academic qualifications for or restrictions on membership to SHAKSPER; anyone interested in English Literature, the Renaissance, or drama is welcome to join. SHAKSPER is not open to automatic subscription. To receive further instructions on how to become a member of SHAKSPER go to How to Subscribe to SHAKSPER at this site or send an e-mail message to the Editor at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..

Bibliography

Cook, Hardy M.  "Behind the Scenes with SHAKSPER: The Global Electronic Shakespeare Conference."  College Literature 36, no. 1 (2009): 105-20. Available at Behind the Scenes with SHAKSPER.

---.  “Shakespeare on the Internet. ” Shakespeare in the Media: From the Globe Theatre to the World Wide Web. Second Edition.Eds. Stefani Brusberg-Kiermeier and Jörg Helbig. Berlin; Bern; Bruxelles; New York; Oxford; Wien: Peter Lang, 2009. (Second Edition online  Shakespeare on the Internet (331.27 kB)).

---.  “SHAKSPER: An Academic Discussion List.”Borrowers and Lenders: The Journal of Shakespeare and Appropriation. 2.2. Winter/Fall 2006.  <http://lachesis.english.uga.edu/cocoon/borrowers/> Available at SHAKSPER Academic List

B. How to Subscribe to SHAKSPER

Technically, SHAKSPER is a web-based "list" using Joomla. Stephanie Chamberlain, the list editor, can be reached at <This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.> .

SHAKSPER is NOT open to automatic subscription.

If you wish to join, please send a brief autobiography (under 500 words) to the editor <This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.>. Please be sure to include your full name, a biographical sketch, and an outline of your current interests and research topics. The biographical note is NOT part of an adjudication process; instead, it is an expression of your interest and is a part of a database to which only the editor has access.

For your convenience, you may use the form found at the How to Sign Up link.

C. Some Essays about SHAKSPER by the Editor Emeritus (Click on Essay to read)

     

     1. College English Essay: Behind the Scenes with SHAKSPER

     2. Borrowers and Lenders Essay: SHAKSPER Academic List

Subscribe to Our Feeds

Make a Gift to SHAKSPER

Consider making a gift to support SHAKSPER.