Shakespeare Association of America

Shakespeare Association of America
Name	Shakespeare Association of America
Formation	1972
Type	Nonprofit scholarly association
Headquarters	United States
Leader title	President

Shakespeare Association of America is a scholarly organization focused on the study and promotion of William Shakespeare and Renaissance-era literature, theater, and culture. Founded by academics and theater practitioners, the association convenes scholars, directors, actors, archivists, librarians, and students to advance research on Elizabethan and Jacobean texts, performance history, print culture, and global reception. Its activities intersect with university departments, museums, theaters, and cultural institutions.

History

The association emerged amid conversations in the 1970s among faculty at Harvard University, University of California, Berkeley, Yale University, and Columbia University about how to coordinate research on William Shakespeare, Christopher Marlowe, Ben Jonson, John Webster, and the wider milieu of the English Renaissance. Early meetings involved contributors from Folger Shakespeare Library, British Library, Bodleian Library, New York Public Library, and practitioners from Royal Shakespeare Company, Globe Theatre (London), Stratford-upon-Avon, and National Theatre (United Kingdom). Over time the association has intersected with projects at Oxford University, Cambridge University, Princeton University, University of Chicago, Brown University, University of Toronto, and University of Pennsylvania, while responding to developments in archival discoveries tied to collections at Folger Shakespeare Library, Bodleian Libraries, and British Library.

Mission and Activities

The association's mission highlights scholarly exchange among specialists in Early Modern English literature, textual studies of First Folio, performance studies involving productions such as those at Globe Theatre (London), and interdisciplinary work linking Shakespeare to global literatures like Spanish Golden Age literature, French Renaissance literature, Italian Renaissance, and early modern drama from Japan and India. Activities include panels on editorial practice related to the First Folio, seminars on actors such as David Garrick and Edmund Kean, and workshops engaging curators from Victoria and Albert Museum, Metropolitan Museum of Art, and archivists from Library of Congress. The association supports collaborations with institutions like Smithsonian Institution, British Museum, Royal Library, and university centers for renaissance studies.

Annual Conference

The annual conference draws presenters from departments of English literature at Harvard University, Yale University, Stanford University, Columbia University, University of California, Los Angeles, and international centers such as King's College London, University of Oxford, University of Cambridge, Trinity College Dublin, University of Melbourne, and University of Cape Town. Sessions cover performance case studies referencing productions at Royal Shakespeare Company, Shakespeare's Globe, Bristol Old Vic, and Globe Theatre (Regensburg), archival reports from Folger Shakespeare Library and Bodleian Library, and panels on adaptation involving filmmakers from BBC Films, Merchant Ivory Productions, and companies associated with directors like Peter Brook, Trevor Nunn, and Julie Taymor. Conference themes have engaged topics related to First Folio, Second Quarto, dramatic manuscripts such as the Marlowe manuscripts, and global reception in contexts like African-American theater, Caribbean literature, and postcolonial studies drawing on scholarship tied to Edward Said and Homi K. Bhabha.

Publications and Awards

The association sponsors proceedings and journals edited in collaboration with presses such as Cambridge University Press, Oxford University Press, Routledge, Palgrave Macmillan, and university presses at Princeton University Press and University of Chicago Press. It endorses bibliographies and monograph series on editors of the First Folio and studies of figures like Robert Greene, Thomas Kyd, John Donne, and Ben Jonson. Awards recognize contributions in scholarship, teaching, and performance—echoing honors associated with institutions like The British Academy, Modern Language Association, American Council of Learned Societies, and prizes similar in prestige to awards from British Theatre Awards and Tony Awards for theatrical realization of early modern plays. Prize committees have included scholars from Folger Institute, Renaissance Society of America, and centers for early modern studies at University of Michigan and University of Toronto.

Governance and Membership

Governance follows a model with an elected executive board including presidents, vice-presidents, treasurers, and program chairs drawn from institutions such as Yale University, Harvard University, University of California, Berkeley, University of Pennsylvania, Duke University, Columbia University, and University of Chicago. Membership categories accommodate faculty, independent scholars, graduate students, theater professionals, librarians, and curators affiliated with Folger Shakespeare Library, British Library, Bodleian Library, New York Public Library, Victoria and Albert Museum, and academic centers like King's College London and Trinity College Dublin. Committees coordinate peer review modeled after procedures used by Modern Language Association and grant administration akin to practices at National Endowment for the Humanities and Andrew W. Mellon Foundation.

Partnerships and Outreach

The association partners with professional bodies such as Royal Shakespeare Company, Shakespeare's Globe, Folger Shakespeare Library, Renaissance Society of America, Modern Language Association, and university centers for public humanities including Smithsonian Institution and British Museum. Outreach initiatives include collaborations with theaters like Old Vic, community programs in partnership with Kennedy Center, school curricula projects influenced by syllabi at University of Oxford and University of Cambridge, and digital humanities initiatives connected to projects at TEI Consortium, Digital Humanities Summer Institute, HathiTrust, and archives supported by Andrew W. Mellon Foundation and National Endowment for the Humanities. Such partnerships aim to disseminate research to museums, libraries, and cultural festivals such as Edinburgh Festival Fringe and Stratford Festival (Ontario).

Category:Literary societies Category:Organizations established in 1972