Submission Guidelines

Adapting, Translating, and Performing Shakespeare in the U.S.–Mexico Borderlands

March 7-9, 2024 in San Antonio, Texas

Submissions due October 20, 2023

The Borderlands Shakespeare Colectiva is pleased to invite submissions for an upcoming conference, “Adapting, Translating, and Performing Shakespeare in the U.S.–Mexico Borderlands,” taking place on March 7–9, 2024. In keeping with our emphasis on knowledge produced in the Borderlands, the conference will be rooted in our community, in San Antonio, Texas at the campuses of Texas A&M University–San Antonio and Trinity University. The conference will explore the place and potential of Shakespeare in the cultural production of the U.S.–Mexico Borderlands and, more broadly, the ways in which canonical Western texts are adapted, resisted, transformed, and appropriated in the Borderlands and in other spaces with complex colonial histories.

For several decades, Chicanx and Indigenous artists have been appropriating Shakespeare to reflect the multilayered histories and present concerns of the U.S.–Mexico Borderlands. They repurpose Shakespeare’s plays and poems to meet the needs of their communities, and they incorporate them into the hybrid histories, cultures, and languages of the region, creating space in which to negotiate colonial power and tell stories of and for La Frontera. Their works expose the material violence of colonization and its linguistic, epistemological, and spiritual consequences, but they also emphasize the value, beauty, and restorative power of Indigenous and Mexican languages, mythologies, and rituals.

Borderlands Shakespeare sits at the intersection of many fields. We therefore invite submissions from scholars situated in Chicanx, Latinx, and Indigenous Studies, Theater Studies, History, Folklore Studies, and Translation, Adaptation and Appropriation Studies, as well as theater artists who are also active scholars. We invite scholarly papers, visual arts, creative pieces, workshops, panels, and performances. Virtual accommodations available by request in advance of the event.

Interested contributors should submit an abstract with title, brief biography, and contact information to the conference portal by October 20, 2023.

Possible topics include but are not limited to:

  • Chicana/o/x/e, Latina/o/x/e, and Indigenous approaches to Shakespeare
  • Shakespeare and Indigenous histories
  • Borderlands Shakespeare for young adults
  • Decolonial/Borderlands performance and praxis
  • Borderlands poetics and cultural production
  • Folklore, culture, and tradition
  • Labor rights and social movements
  • Music, arts, and aesthetics
  • Antiracist, decolonial, culturally sustaining pedagogy
  • Curriculum (re)design
  • Teaching Borderlands Shakespeare
  • Pedagogical and performance resources
  • Gender and sexuality; queer and trans Borderlands
  • Coloniality and decoloniality
  • Decolonizing the Western canon
  • Language and translation
  • Migration and militarization
  • Adaptation, appropriation, and tradaptation
  • Race and racialization in the Borderlands and in Shakespeare
  • Community-engaged art and scholarship
  • Playwriting and theatermaking
  • Epistemology
  • Public arts and humanities work
  • Autohistoria-teoria/life writing
  • Publishing Borderlands texts
  • Oral histories
  • Environmental justice
  • Histories of Shakespeare in the Borderlands

Early Career Cohort

The BSC supports BIPOC scholars in a range of fields and seek opportunities to foster decolonial, antiracist, and interdisciplinary work. We therefore invite applications for a Mellon-funded cohort of Early Career Fellows who will be supported in their efforts to generate scholarship related to the growing field of Borderlands Shakespeare studies. Each fellow will receive a $5000 stipend that they can use to support their research and to travel to the conference,“Adapting, Translating, and Performing Shakespeare in the U.S.–Mexico Borderlands.".

Scholars in the Early Career Cohort will:

– Develop a project to be presented at the conference; participate in professional development and mentoring sessions at the conference focused on publishing, community-engaged humanities, and issues tailored to the interests of the Fellows;

– Attend a networking reception with the invited speakers from the conference, which will give Fellows an opportunity to meet a wide range of scholars working in fields that intersect with the study of Borderlands Shakespeare;

– Receive ongoing support after the conference to prepare their project for publication, either as part of our special issue Shakespeare and Borderlands Cultura or in another suitable venue.

Eligibility

– We are seeking applicants who are PhD students or who have been out of graduate school for fewer than five years. Scholars in contingent positions are encouraged to apply.

– Applicants may work in a range of fields, including but not limited to Chicanx, Latinx, and Indigenous Studies, Early Modern Studies, Theater and Performance Studies, History, Folklore Studies, and Translation, Adaptation and Appropriation Studies.

Materials

– A 750-word proposal outlining the project related to Borderlands Shakespeare that you would like to undertake during the fellowship period and explaining, briefly, how joining the Early Career Cohort will support your career goals.

– A CV

NOTE: To submit to the conference and early career cohort, you must create a digital commons account. Click the "Submit Proposal" button below to proceed.

Feel free to contact us directly at borderlandsshakespeare@gmail.com with any questions or comments.