AI and Shakespeare: A British Shakespeare Association Virtual Conference
27th January 2026
In the interests of economy and inclusivity, the BSA will be meeting virtually in 2026 over two half days (26 – 27 February 2026, afternoon, GMT). This conference is organised by Professor Deborah Cartmell and Professor Lisa Hopkins.
The conference will be a chance to reflect upon and take stock of the explosive impact of AI on the Shakespeare community, from the perspective of research, performance, and education. The conference will be structured around opportunities and threats, or briefs and griefs. The conference will also include short roundtables on AI and editing (with editors of Shakespeare, Shakespeare Quarterly and Adaptation), forthcoming research on Shakespeare and AI, and Shakespeare, AI and pedagogy. The keynote will be given by Jonathan Bate, ‘Love’s Labour’s Won: An Intelligent Artifice?’.
To attend, membership of the BSA is a requirement, otherwise, there are no conference fees.
To join the BSA, please click here
To register for the conference, please click here
The conference programme is available here:
Image generated using Midjourney by Brett Greatley-Hirsch.
BSA 2024 Conference Announcement
30th October 2023
We are delighted to announce the details of the 2024 British Shakespeare Association conference:
Conference Theme
Shakespeare’s Writing Lives, commemorating the 20th anniversary of the BSA’s journal, Shakespeare
Location
De Montfort University (DMU), Leicester
Date
26th – 28th June 2024
Organisers
Deborah Cartmell (DMU)
Gabriel Egan (DMU)
Siobhan Keenan (DMU)
Lisa Hopkins (Sheffield Hallam)
Pete Smith (Nottingham Trent)
The organisers will be supported by the BSA’s Conference Team (José Pérez Díez, Maria Shmygol, Coen Heijes, Miranda Fay Thomas, Kat Hipkiss and Andrea Smith).
Overview
Commemorating 20 years of the journal, Shakespeare, this conference will be held where the journal began and will anticipate a diverse range of papers on the topic of Shakespeare’s Writing Lives which includes but is not limited to Shakespeare’s, his company’s and collaborator’s biographies, Shakespeare’s biographers, Shakespeare as biographer (encompassing his representation of historical figures), adaptations of Shakespeare’s characters, the ‘authentic’ Shakespeare and authenticating Shakespeare, candidates for the Dark Lady, playing William Shakespeare, fictional biographies (Hamnet on page and stage), and Shakespeare’s biographical legacies.
A call for papers will be published on our ‘conference’ page and circulated via the BSA Bulletin in due course.
