Seminars and Workshops

How They Work

Seminar and workshop participation is open only to SAA members in good standing who are college and university faculty, independent scholars, or graduate students working in the field and in their second year onward of their doctoral work. If you are a student, your status must be verified by your advisor. Seminar and workshop leaders, as well as those appearing on panels and roundtables, are ineligible to enroll. If you are found to have violated SAA policies and guidelines, you may also be found ineligible to enroll in an SAA seminar or workshop.

To enroll, you should begin by reviewing the descriptions of seminars and workshops in the June Bulletin.  The online enrollment form requires you to make four selections from the total list, in rank order of preference. If you make fewer choices than four, you will be bumped and your enrollment will be delayed. If you revise your choices, you lose your initial place in the enrollment queue, the date and time of revision serving as the date and time of enrollment. First-choice placements cannot be guaranteed, and spaces are filled on a first-received, first-enrolled basis. You may not take more than one seminar or workshop place, and panel presenters may not enroll for places. The closing deadline for seminar and workshop enrollments is 15 September, after which a no-switch policy obtains.

Placement notifications are issued in early October. You will receive your invitation via e-mail. We have found that formal letters of invitation help SAA members secure conference travel funds from their home universities.

The work of each seminar or workshop is set by its leader(s). By late October you will receive guidelines, directions, and deadlines for work to be completed in advance of the conference.

By mid-February or the deadline assigned by seminar and workshop leaders, you should send your work to other members of your group and receive theirs in return. You should assimilate this work thoroughly so that discussion at the conference can take place at an advanced level. The seminar enrollment cap of sixteen is designed to make this manageable. If you happen to be enrolled in a double-session seminar, you are responsible only for the work of one session. (You are of course welcome to audit the companion session.)

Seminar and workshop leader(s) confirm to the SAA office the names of those who have completed all advance assignments by 15 February. Only with this confirmation are you eligible to be listed in the printed conference program. The schedule of seminars and workshops is announced in the SAA’s January Bulletin. Unfortunately, it is not possible to take into account the scheduling requests of individual seminar and workshop members.

Accepting a place in a seminar or workshop, you agree to produce original work, to engage directly with the topic and scholarly objectives announced by the seminar or workshop leader(s), to attend the seminar or workshop meeting at the annual conference, and to engage with other seminar or workshop members in a professional and respectful way both in advance correspondence and during the meeting.

Guidelines

Purpose: Each seminar and workshop is designed to serve as a forum for fresh research, mutual criticism, and pedagogical experimentation among members with specialized academic interests.

Leader: The work of each seminar or workshop is to be determined and directed by a Leader or Leaders who are responsible to the Shakespeare Association’s Trustees and Executive Director. A Leader who has accepted a place on the program has undertaken a responsibility to attend the Association’s Annual Meeting. If attendance is in question, the Leader should contact the Executive Director immediately.

Enrollment: Membership of the Shakespeare Association of America is required for participation in any SAA seminar or workshop. Enrollment in seminars and workshops is open only to postdoctoral college faculty, independent scholars, and graduate students who are working in the field and in their second year onward of their doctoral study. The Leader(s) of each seminar and workshop may invite up to four participants to join in the work of the group. Remaining places in each seminar are filled through the Association’s open enrollment process. No one may participate in more than one seminar or workshop. No paper presenter may participate also in a seminar or workshop.

Advance Work: As director(s) of the seminar or workshop, Leader(s) determine the extent and nature of work to be done in preparation for these sessions. This may involve common readings, papers (on either a voluntary or an assigned basis), critiques, bibliographies, or any other exercise or project devised by the Leader(s). All written materials used in a session are to be circulated to the full membership of the session and read in advance of the Meeting.

Protocols for Seminar and Workshop Members: Acceptance of a place in a seminar or workshop represents a commitment to complete the work of the seminar or workshop and to attend the Annual Meeting. No member, even if registered in the seminar or workshop, may participate in the session at the Annual Meeting without completing the advance preparation set by the Leader(s). Seminar or workshop members should follow procedures established by their Leader(s), particularly regarding paper length and circulation deadlines. Any seminar or workshop member who has not completed the assigned work by the deadlines specified by the Leader(s) will not be listed as a seminar or workshop member in the Conference Program and may not join in discussion at the meeting. A seminar or workshop member who will not be in attendance should notify the Leader(s) immediately.

Seminar and Workshop Sessions: Seminar and workshop meetings should be devoted to a discussion of major issues raised by work already completed. The sessions are not to involve either reading or summarizing papers. It is assumed that all participants are already familiar with one another’s work by the time the meeting begins. The Leader(s) assume responsibility for the direction and content of the discussion. Workshop sessions may be devoted to exercises organized by the Leader(s) as well as to discussion of major issues.

Auditors: In advance of the Meeting, Seminar Leaders should submit abstracts for seminar papers to the SAA office, for posting on the SAA website. On the day of their session, they should also make available to auditors hard copies of abstracts. At the discretion of the session’s Leader(s), auditors will be permitted to join in the discussion during the final portion of the seminar or workshop.

Academic Integrity: It is assumed that each paper or project submitted to a Shakespeare Association seminar or workshop represents original work that addresses the topic and agenda set out by the Leader(s). Work-in-progress is to be treated with the utmost respect, and members should follow established citation and copyright guidelines in handling the intellectual property of others, including all abstracts, papers, and talks presented at the SAA. No paper should be recirculated in any form or any venue without the author’s permission, and seminar abstracts should be treated in the same way as papers read or circulated. Permission must be obtained before citing unpublished work heard or read at the conference. Also to be observed are the SAA’s Social Media Guidelines for digital distribution, in real time or in retrospect, of the content of panels or seminars.

Professional Behavior: All seminar and workshop members are entitled to be treated with respect and are expected themselves to engage with their fellow enrollees in a respectful manner. This applies to correspondence exchanged in advance of the conference and to participation in the seminar or workshop session. Unprofessional conduct may include disrespectful, dismissive, bullying, patronizing, and harassing behavior.