Othello's Island 2015
The 3rd Annual Multidisciplinary Conference of Medieval and Renaissance Studies

Organised in association with the Severis Foundation, Nicosia, Cyprus and the Cyprus College of Art

Convenors:
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James Fitzmaurice, Emeritus Professor of English (Northern Arizona University) and Director of Distance Learning in English (University of Sheffield)
Dr Sarah James, Senior Lecturer, University of Kent, School of English
Dr Michael Paraskos, Cornaro Institute, Cyprus
​Benedict Read FSA, Research Fellow, University of Leeds School of Fine Art

About the Conference:

Following its successful first two years this new annual conference aims to explore Medieval and Renaissance artistic, literary, social, religious and cultural history in a truly multidisciplinary way.
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Cyprus is a particularly appropriate location for the study of this period, as it was a time when the island what was arguably the zenith of its civilization and international influence. Under almost 400 years of French and Italian rule, Cyprus developed a unique courtly culture and trade links that extended throughout Europe, the Eastern and Western Mediterranean and the Near East. This had an immediate impact, but the legacy of this period lived on after the fall of Venetian Cyprus to the Turks in 1571, in literature, with Shakespeare producing his play Othello, and numerous operas and other theatrical productions stemming from the memory of Cyprus.

However, we are not simply interested in Medieval and Renaissance Cyprus. This multidisciplinary conference aims to bring together academics, researchers and research students covering a wide range of topics relating to the Medieval and Renaissance periods, including art historians, social and economic historians, museum curators, archaeologists, literary historians.
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We would also welcome suggestions from individuals or groups for parallel strands and semi-autonomous conferences which might share some of the plenary sessions and social elements of the event. For example, a strand dealing specifically with Shakespeare and the Mediterranean might be big enough to require its own semi-autonomous event alongside the one we are organising.

FIRST CALL FOR PAPERS

If you are interested in giving a talk at the conference please submit a proposal for a paper. Standard papers are 20 minutes long followed by 10 minutes for questions.
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We are very open minded on the topic of papers, so if you have an idea for a presentation that is not covered by the suggestions given here please feel free to submit a proposal, or contact us first to discuss the idea.
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Proposals for papers should comprise a cover sheet showing:
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1. Your title (eg. Mr, Ms, Dr, Prof. etc.) and full name
2. Your institutional affiliation (if any)
3. Your postal address, e'mail address and telephone number
4. The title of your proposed paper
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With this you should send a proposal/abstract for your paper of no more than 300 words and a copy of your CV/resume to michael@artcyprus.org with the subject line OTHELLO 2015.
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All papers must be delivered in English.

The deadline for submissions is 31 January 2015. Early submission is strongly advised.