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CALL FOR PAPERS: Sessions Sponsored by Medieval and Renaissance Drama Society 1. International Congress for Medieval Studies, Leeds: 12-15 July 2010 Beastly Drama: Animals in Early Modern Theatre Deadline: 15 September 2009 2009, which marks the sesquicentennial of Charles Darwinıs Origin of Species, has set off a flurry of investigations into evolution and animal studies in various disciplines. How do we define ourselves in relationship to the animal/human binary, and has that definition changed since the early modern period? This session will consider how we might interpret the interactions of animals and humans in theatre from the 14th to 17th centuries. Possible topics include: staging with animals in theatres (from bear-baitings to the sheep in The Second Shepherdıs Play to Crab in Two Gentlemen); animals as symbolic ³others² (from ³the beast with two backs² to Ferdinandıs lycanthropia); representations/constructions of animals in entertainments; anthropomorphization and hierarchical ideologies. Please send abstracts (300-word maximum) to: Suzanne Westfall, Department of English/Theatre, Lafayette College, Easton PA 18042 USA. 2. Modern Language Association, Philadelphia: 27-30 December 2009 Early Modern Theatre in the Contact Zone Deadline: 15 September 2009 Drawing on Mary Louise Prattıs concept of ³contact zones², this session will examine how early modern plays present situations where cultures meet to negotiate power and to express, in rhetorical and theatrical structures, the various tensions that inform relationships between genders, between generations, between nationalities, between religions, and between ethnicities. We might consider how such differences are costumed, how contemporary productions address problematic cultural contexts such occur in The Taming of the Shrew, The Croxton Play of the Sacrement, and The Jew of Malta. Possible topics include dramatic representations of: postcolonial negotiations, racism, anti-semitism, international relations, sexism, ageism/jeunism. Approaches might include queer, feminist, psychoanalytic, anthropological, and cultural theories. Please send abstracts (300-word maximum) to: Suzanne Westfall, Department of English/Theatre, Lafayette College, Easton PA 18042 USA.