MORE PARTICIPANTS AT SAA DENVER 2026
My previous post named members in my seminar (Shakespeare and the Forms of Religion), but I met many other wonderful scholars in Denver for The Shakespeare Association of America 2026 conference. Here are six more:
TOP (L-R):
EVELYN GAJOWSKI is an author and one of the most prolific Shakespeare essay collection editors today. [1]
ARNIE PERLSTEIN has long been a strong supporter of my work, and was presenting in a workshop on the afterlives of The Taming the Shrew. His focus was on Shakespeare’s influence on Jane Austen in works like Pride and Prejudice and he has a blog about Jane Austen’s works. [2]
RICHARD STRIER (emeritus, U. of Chicago) has written a number of books that have had a profound effect on my thinking [3]. Strier nicely distinguishes between common scholarly assumptions and facts related to texts:
“Interpretive conclusions, even widely held ones, do not become facts. That Hamlet delays in killing Claudius is a fact. That Hamlet is neurotic (or whatever) in doing so is not.” [3]
BOTTOM LEFT:
LYDIA VALENTINE is a third-year PhD candidate at King's College London and Research Fellow and Lecturer at Shakespeare's Globe in London. She is also “blog editor for the Early Modern Scholars of Colour Network (EMSOC) and one of the organisers of ‘The Abstract’ research seminar series at KCL.” [5]
WILL TOSH is “Director of Education (Higher Education and Research)” at the Globe, and author of a book about Shakespeare called Straight Acting, which I mentioned in a recent LinkedIn post [6].
ALEXA ALICE JOUBIN, scholar, author, and editor, [7], uses the metaphor of “multiverse” [8] to describe modern Shakespeare adaptations in various cultures. Others have used “mulitiverse” to describe Shakespeare’s generous use of allusions [9] even for his own time, which are like windows or doors to other worlds whose plots and themes and ideas he draws upon, as if by literary magic.
NOTES:
[1] Gajowski is the author of The Art of Loving. Female Subjectivity and Male Discursive Traditions in Shakespeare's Tragedies (U. Delaware Press, 1994), and has edited collections of essays, and series of them, on a wide range of topics representing various popular scholarly lenses (“theories”) through which Shakespeare can be viewed:
She was the editor of The Arden Research Handbook of Contemporary Shakespeare Criticism (The Arden Shakespeare Handbooks), 2022, and series editor for a list of Arden “Shakespeare and…” (theory) collections:
…Psychoanalytic Theory (2015);
…Economic Theory (2015);
…Ecocritical Theory (2015);
…Ecofeminist Theory (2017);
…Cultural Materialist Theory (2017);
…Posthumanist Theory (2018);
…Postcolonial Theory (2019);
…Disability Theory (2025);
…Trauma Theory (2026);
and other works.
[2] Arnie admits he is the equivalent of a kind of literary conspiracist, with what some consider wild fan-fiction theories. But he has been kind and generous with me, and it was a pleasure to meet him in person for the first time. Arnie Perlstein’s Austen blog: https://sharpelvessociety.blogspot.com/
[3] Strier’s books include Shakespearean Issues: Agency, Skepticism, and Other Puzzles (U. Pennsylvania Press, 2022), and Resistant Structures: Particularity, Radicalism, and Renaissance Texts (U California Press, 1995). Quote is from Resistant Structures, pp. 2-3.
“Differing interpretations of a text generally share a large number of particular agreements before they part company. And when they part company, they are still responsible to the features—I would call them facts—that they share. Interpretive conclusions, even widely held ones, do not become facts. That Hamlet delays in killing Claudius is a fact. That Hamlet is neurotic (or whatever) in doing so is not.”
[4] “Humanities Day 2012 Keynote: Shakespeare's Prejudices: Shrews & Jews - Richard Strier” https://youtu.be/sJ_Mwie6KU0?si=PniZob6Li2fkZKCt
For an article from U. Chicago about the video, see this link:
Humanities Day
Shakespeare’s Prejudices: Shrews and Jews
Scholar Richard Strier takes a closer look at two difficult plays.
https://tableau.uchicago.edu/articles/2013/04/shakespeare%E2%80%99s-prejudices-shrews-and-jews
[5] On Lydia Valentine: https://www.kcl.ac.uk/people/lydia-valentine
[6] Previous LinkedIn post about Will Tosh (and other things): https://www.linkedin.com/posts/pauladrianfried_shakespeare-history-geography-activity-7450925773932171264-XMCZ?utm_source=share&utm_medium=member_desktop&rcm=ACoAAAJPBv0BegWdjCwW-nY1A7ww6lMdDlLcAgk
[7] Joubin’s website can be found here:
https://ajoubin.org/
[8] The idea of the existence of a multiverse (various universes existing simultaneously in the same space, representing many possible outcomes) was perhaps first proposed by physicist Hugh Everett III in a 1957 Princeton doctoral thesis on quantum mechanics. The first Star Trek (Original Series) episode to explore this theme was in 1967, titled "Mirror, Mirror." More recently, Dr. Strange (2022), Spiderman (2028), and Everything Everywhere All at Once (2022) have also utilized the theme.
[9] 2023 SAA conference in Minneapolis, MN, 9 a.m. panel, “The Early Modern Multiverse: Worlds beyond Worlds in Shakespeare (and Beyond),” Session Organizer: Jane Hwang Degenhardt; Chair: Alice Dailey.
“Wild Cosmologies and Multiple Worlds
in Shakespeare and His Contemporaries,” Henry S. Turner;
Theater as Portal, Wendy Beth Hyman;
Fiction and World-Making in The Tempest, Jane Hwang Degenhardt;
Worlds upon Worlds: Encyclopedic Shakespeare, Helen Smith.
IMAGES:
TOP (L-R):
EVELYN GAJOWSKI (author photo).
ARNIE PERLSTEIN (author photo).
RICHARD STRIER - U of Chicago photo, fair use, via https://tableau.uchicago.edu/sites/default/files/styles/feature-2x/public/field/image/DSC_1706.JPG?itok=x236xT0z
BOTTOM LEFT:
LYDIA VALENTINE (author photo).
WILL TOSH (author photo).
ALEXA ALICE JOUBIN - photo via Folger Shakespeare Library, fair use via
https://images.folger.edu/uploads/2024/11/thumbnail_Joubin-e1731449774404.jpg?fit=300%2C300
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Disclaimer: If and when I quote or paraphrase bible passages or mention religion in many of my blog posts, I do not intend to promote any religion over another, nor am I attempting to promote religious belief in general; only to explore how the Bible and religion influenced Shakespeare, his plays, and his age.
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