VMI Undergraduate Research Shakespeare Conference 2007-2008

Fourth Conference, November 9-11, 2007 

For the fourth annual conference, our keynote speaker is Dr. Alan Dessen, professor of English at the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill. Dr. Dessen has published widely on Shakespeare and on Elizabethan and Jacobean drama and is a pioneer in the study of original performance practices. He is the author of, among other books, Elizabethan Stage Conventions and Modern Interpreters; Rescripting Shakespeare: The Text, the Director, and Modern Productions; Recovering Shakespeare's Theatrical Vocabulary; and is the co-author of A Dictionary of Stage Directions in English Drama, 1580-1642. Dr. Dessen's keynote address is entitled "Eavesdropping on a Conversation: Stage Directions and Theatre History."
 

Schools taking part this year are Bridgewater College, Furman University, Hollins University, James Madison University, Roanoke College, Virginia Military Institute, and Washington and Lee University.

FOR THE COMPLETE PROGRAM OF THE 2007 CONFERENCE, CLICK here.

Prizewinners for "Best Paper in Session" each receive an autographed copy of Alan Dessen's Rescripting Shakespeare: The Text, the Director, and Modern Productions. The prize for "Best Paper in Conference" receives a copy of The Theatergoer's Guide to Shakespeare, by Robert Thomas Fallon, and an autographed copy of Dr. Dessen's Elizabethan Stage Conventions and Modern Interpreters. The winners in 2007 will be listed below. All papers will be made available here, as well.

• Best Paper in Session 1:  Allison Rogers, Washington & Lee University: "Gower as a Moral Figure in Pericles"
  
   
• Best Paper in Session 2:  Lindsay Little, Hollins University: "Shakespeare's Macbeth: What Becomes a Man?"
  
   
• Best Paper in Session 3:  Lauran Paten Hughes, Washington & Lee University: "Performing Desdemona: A Modern Woman's Obedience"
  
   
• Best Paper in Session 4:  Jennifer Greenholt, Bridgewater College: "Recreating the Restoration Woman: Tate's A History of King Lear"
  
   
• Best Paper in Conference:  Jennifer Greenholt, Bridgewater College: "Recreating the Restoration Woman: Tate's A History of King Lear"

Other presenters and papers: 

• Lexi Brackett, Roanoke College: "An Entanglement of Affairs: A Midsummer Night's Dream, Act III, Scene 2"
  
   
• Erin Brummett, Bridgewater College: "Moral Lessons within Macbeth and Othello: The Individual vs. Society"
  
   
• Carly Levin, Washington and Lee University: "'Life is a Gamble at Terrible Odds': The Re-establishment of Identity within the Confines of Tragic Law"
  
   
• Amanda Nelson, Hollins University: "A Tragedy of Failed Perception: The Art of Deception and Dramatization of Race in Othello"
  
   
• Alex Norcross, James Madison University: "Broken Bodies as Tools of Tragedy in Shakespeare's Titus Andronicus"
  
   
• Even Rogers, Virginia Military Institute: "Henry V: Pragmatic Motivation Behind Inspirational Leadership"
  
   
• Ashley Simpson, James Madison University: "Shakespeare's Use of Ovid's Metamorphoses in Titus Andronicus"
  
   
• Brittany Stepniak, Roanoke College: "Love and Peace Versus War and Death in Richard III"