Call for Papers: Renaissance In-Betweenness

Pacific Northwest Renaissance Society Annual Conference
Vancouver, BC
3-5 April 2008

The Annual Conference of the Pacific Northwest Renaissance Society (PNRS) will be held from April 3-5, 2008 in downtown Vancouver at the Hyatt Regency (room rates: $141.00 CDN per night, single or double). The theme for this year's conference is 'Renaissance In-Betweenness', and our plenary speakers will be Fran Dolan (University of California, Davis) and Elizabeth Harvey (University of Toronto).

We invite papers, panels, discussion groups, and workshops that examine Renaissance engagements with various transitional figures and cultural artifacts. The PNRS program coincides with the annual convention of the Medieval Academy at the Hyatt Regency, and both organizations hope that conference participants will engage in fruitful conversation across a range of historical fields and disciplines.

We invite proposals in the following areas for the 2008 conference:
Liminal Spaces: urban liberties, walls, doors, thresholds, docks, rivers and hedges
Figures of the In-Between: stage devils, panders, bawds, pages, hermaphrodites, messengers, angels, scribes, the noble savage, typesetters, publishers, usurers, translators and children
Religious via media
Generic Conventions and Hybrid Genres: in medias res, interludes, scene changes (jigs and dumbshows) and tragicomedy
Species Boundaries: integuments (skin, bark, pelt) and hybrid creatures
Mixed governments and interregna
Arcane Knowledge: zodiacal cusps, equinoxes and alchemy
Suspended States: sleep, trances and exorcisms
Objects of Exchange: letters, coins, gifts, rings, jewelry, potions, clothes and fabric
Places of Exchange: The Royal Exchange and pawnshops
Periodization and Historiography

Please email individual abstracts (250-words) or panel / workshop proposals to Tiffany Alkan (talkan@sfu.ca) and Vin Nardizzi (nardizzi@interchange.ubc.ca) by September 1, 2007.