BSA Conference

School of Arts and Creative Technologies, University of York

Wednesday 25th – Saturday 28th June 2025

Follow us at @BSA_Conference

The next BSA conference will focus on ‘Practising Shakespeare: new collaborations, expanding horizons’.

The conference is organised by Ollie Jones, Tom Cantrell, Mark Love-Smith, Helen Smith, Brian Cummings, Freya Sierhuis, Jane Raisch and Anouska Lester.

The organisers are supported by the BSA’s Conference Team (José Pérez Díez, Maria Shmygol, Coen Heijes, Miranda Fay Thomas, Katherine Hipkiss and Andrea Smith).

Overview

The complex relationship between text and performance is uniquely felt in Shakespeare Studies, and has been continuously reconstituted and reframed. Meanwhile, academic study and practice (both professional and amateur) often run in parallel but separate streams – a phenomenon often reinforced by handbooks on how to ‘do’ Shakespeare. These advocate resisting ‘academic analysis’ in favour of ‘exercises and approaches that can aid the acting and directing process’, a position which risks placing the two into an antagonistic relationship. Yet despite this apparent impasse, explorations which move across and between the spheres of research, practice and pedagogy have demonstrated the rich potential of collaboration and sharing approaches to early modern drama. As Shakespeare and his contemporaries continue to be explored and reinvented on stage, screen and new media, we ask what new horizons might Shakespeare Studies look towards in performance and practice? What challenges, by placing practice and performance as a central focus, must we confront, problematise, or solve when working with Shakespeare and his contemporaries? How might we continue and develop productive conversations and collaborations between teaching, practice and research?

For more information, see the Conference Site.

You can now register for the conference here:

The British Shakespeare Association welcomes applications from institutions to host future British Shakespeare Association conferences. This is the largest regular Shakespeare conference in the United Kingdom, bringing together researchers, teachers and creative practitioners to share the latest work on Shakespeare and his contemporaries.

Further details and proposal form are here:

Typical session formats at BSA conferences:

• Paper panels (normally consisting of three papers of c.20 minutes in length)
• Seminars, which are led by one or more organisers and centre around a particular theme, invite participants to write short papers that are then pre-circulated within the group. It is customary for seminar leaders to invite their participants to share feedback on one another’s work, in order to facilitate a rich set of conversations and exchanges when the group meets during their session at the conference.
• Workshops are focused more on active or hands-on engagement with a given topic and normally do not require participants to write papers in advance. Some workshop leaders might invite their group to undertake other forms of preparation, such as reading, preparing (for) physical exercises, or watching clips.
• Roundtables, which address a particular topic or theme, normally bring together a group of speakers and take the form of a conversation or series of related short papers followed by dialogue between the speakers.