Hi Abigail,

Could you run the following on list-serve please?  Thanks so much!

Last call for submissions to the MRDS session at the International Congress for Medieval Studies, Leeds, 12-15 July 2010.

Beastly Drama: Animals in Early Modern Theatre

2009, which marks the sesquicentennial of Charles Darwin's 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 Shepherd's Play/ to Crab in /Two Gentlemen/); animals as symbolic "others" (from "the beast
with two backs" to Ferdinand's lycanthropia); representations/constructions of animals in entertainments; anthropomorphization and hierarchical ideologies.

If you have previously sent an abstract, please re-send (computer crashes have temporarily wiped my laptop.  Ah, technology!).

Please send abstracts and title to: Suzanne Westfall,
Department of English/Theatre, Lafayette College, Easton PA 18042  USA.