Shakespeare’s Queens – Call for Papers

We are seeking essay proposals for an edited volume focused on queens and queenship in the plays of William Shakespeare. Although there have been many individual studies of how queens in early modern drama reflect and refract the image of Elizabeth I, this volume will primarily concern queens as characters and as theatrical constructs. The collection will be submitted to the “Queenship and Power” series (Palgrave Macmillan) edited by Charles Beem and Carole Levin, with planned publication for late 2017/early 2018.

This volume seeks proposals from graduate students and scholars. We are especially interested in essays focused on Shakespeare’s adaptation of historical source material, how the plays depict queens regnant versus queens consort, comedic and tragic treatments of queenship, the mechanics of “playing” queens on early modern stages using boy actors, and comparative studies with other early modern playwrights, but essays on any aspect of queens or queenship in Shakespeare’s works are welcomed. For purposes of this collection, essays focused on princesses (e.g. the Princess of France in Love’s Labours Lost) will also be considered.

Chapter proposals should be 250-300 words, accompanied by a brief biography, for essays of 5000-7000 words. Please email proposals and bios to both veschutte@gmail.com and kvmudan@gmail.com before 1 June, 2016. Accepted authors will be notified by July 2016, and complete essays will be due by 15 January, 2017.


Kavita Mudan Finn just finished a year as Visiting Assistant Professor of English at Southern New Hampshire University, and taught previously at Georgetown University, Simmons College, and the University of Maryland, College Park. She received her Ph.D. from the University of Oxford in 2010, and published her first book, The Last Plantagenet Consorts: Gender, Genre, and Historiography 1440-1627, in 2012. Forthcoming publications include an article on fifteenth-century de casibus tragedies in Viator (2016), on paratexts in fanfiction in the Journal of Fandom Studies (2017), and a chapter on queens in Game of Thrones vs. History (Wiley, 2016).

Valerie Schutte earned her Ph.D. in History from the University of Akron. She is author of Mary I and the Art of Book Dedications: Royal Women, Power, and Persuasion (2015) and co-editor of The Birth of a Queen: Essays on the Quincentenary of Mary I (2016), both in the Palgrave Macmillan “Queenship and Power” series. She has published articles on Shakespeare, royal Tudor women, and print. Forthcoming publications include an article on counsel given to Katherine Howard and nine entries in A Bibliographical Encyclopedia of Early Modern Englishwomen, Exemplary Lives and Memorable Acts, 1500-1650 (Ashgate).