VMI Undergraduate Research Shakespeare Conference 2008-2009

Fifth Conference, April 17-19, 2009

For the fifth annual conference, our keynote speaker is Kate Eastwood Norris. Ms. Norris is an alumna of Shenandoah Shakespeare (now the The American Shakespeare Center) and has gone on to a distinguished career in plays all over the country, especially in Washington, D.C., where she has won two Helen Hayes Awards. Most recently, she played Lady Macbeth at the Folger Shakespeare Library Theater and is currently performing in Tom Stoppard's newest play, Rock 'n' Roll in Philadelphia. The title of her address is "Behind the Scenes on the Front Line."

FOR THE COMPLETE PROGRAM OF THE 2008-2009 CONFERENCE, CLICK HERE.

Prizewinners for "Best Paper in Session" each receive a copy of Stanley Wells' Shakespeare and Co.: Christopher Marlowe, Thomas Dekker, Ben Jonson, Thomas Middleton, John Fletcher and the Other Players in His Story. The prizewinner for "Best Paper in Conference" receives a copy of David Bevington's This Wide and Universal Theater: Shakespeare in Performance, Then and Now.

• Best Paper in Session 1: Dorothy R. Todd, Washington & Lee University: “'Much virtue in If': Rosalind as Conjurer of Possibility in As You Like It" 
  
  
• Best Paper in Session 2:  Alicia Wendt, James Madison University: "The Elizabethan Stage as a Platform for Shakespeare’s Rejection of Astrology" 
  
  
• Best Paper in Session 3:  Charles Nuckols, Christopher Newport University: 
  "Macbeth’s Figure: Shakespeare Seen through Francis Bacon" 
  
  
• Best Paper in Session 4:  Whitney Graham, Miami University-Ohio: "Shakespeare’s 'Social Order Paradox' in King Lear and Twelfth Night" 
  
  
• Best Paper in Conference:  Dorothy R. Todd, Washington & Lee University: “'Much virtue in If': Rosalind as Conjurer of Possibility in As You Like It" 

Other presenters and papers: 

• Rick Barron, Washington & Lee University: “The Savage and the Civilized: Shakespeare’s Titus”
  
  
• Alexander C. Brush, VMI: “Justice, Deceit, and Language in the Eyes of Shakespeare—The Darker Side of Rhetoric” 
  
  
• Rebekah Butz, Miami University-Ohio: “The Art of Biblical Allusion in Shakespeare’s Measure for Measure” 
  
  
• Brooke Elliott, Bridgewater College: "Uniting Imperfection in Hamlet and Macbeth"
  
  
• Abbie Fisher, Hollins University: "Manipulating the Male: Lady Macbeth’s Quest for Power"
  
  
• Anna Hermesmann, Washington & Lee University: “Nothing From Nothing: Concepts of Justice in King Lear” 
  
  
• Jessica Kirsche, Roanoke College: “Margaret’s no Hero…”
  
  
• Laura McGrath, Christopher Newport University: "Shakespeare: The Tragic Fool, The Comic Fool, Or Both?" 
  
  
• Alexander J. Snyder, VMI: “The Merchant of Venice: Shylock—An Analysis of the Influence of/on Culture during the 17th, 18th and 19th Century on Performances in England and Germany”
  
  
• Alison Thomas, James Madison University, “Hands on Shakespeare: Classroom Approaches for Engagement in Shakespeare’s Hamlet”
  
  
• Sarah Woody, Hollins University; “Perception vs. Reality in the Case of Shakespeare’s Shrew”