Shakespeare Quarterly

Founded in 1950 by the Shakespeare Association of America, Shakespeare Quarterly is a refereed journal committed to publishing articles in the vanguard of Shakespeare studies, notes that bring to light new information on Shakespeare and his age, issue and exchange sections on the latest research and debates, theater reviews of significant Shakespeare productions, and book reviews to keep readers current with Shakespeare criticism and scholarship.

The journal is published quarterly in the spring, summer, fall, and winter and includes the World Shakespeare Bibliography Online. Compiled by Professor James Harner, the Bibliography attempts to record all important books, articles, book reviews, dissertations and dissertation abstracts, theatrical productions and theater reviews, and significant reprints of Shakespeare-related works issued during the year.

SQ's editor is Dr. David Schalkwyk, who is the director of research at the Folger Shakespeare Library.

Special issue of Shakespeare Quarterly, "Shakespeare and New Media," edited by Katherine Rowe, Bryn Mawr College

Shakespeare's works have provided launch content for new media technologies since the seventeenth century, as Peter Donaldson has observed. At the turn of the 21st century, we are experiencing particularly rapid transformation of our basic tools for studying, teaching, learning, reading, performing, editing, archiving, and adapting Shakespeare.

Shakespeare Quarterly invites submissions of essays on the impact of media change, now, in all these arenas of Shakespeare studies. Submissions that make innovative use of new media publication modes, such as hyperlinks to the Folger Shakespeare Library's digitized collections, are particularly welcome.

Some examples of possible approaches:

• formalist analysis of Shakespeare's works in new media formats (games, mash-ups, hypertext editions);
• readings of specific works (virtual performances of Shakespeare online; multimedia theater; "60-Second Shakespeare");
• theoretical engagements with the costs and benefits of remediation and media convergence in the classroom, in performance, reading, archiving, and/or research;
• reviews of multimediated performances;
• accounts of the cultural values accruing to Shakespeare in new media, of Shakespeare's changing (or timeless) "brand," Bardolatry and media change.

For instructions on formatting your submission, please see our Contributor Guidelines.

UPDATE—OPEN REVIEW

For Shakespeare critics and scholars, among the most significant consequences of media change will be transformations in how we communicate about our work and publish new research. In keeping with the topic of its special issue, “Shakespeare and New Media,” Shakespeare Quarterly is conducting an experiment in open peer review which will apply only to the special issue. After the initial editorial evaluation, authors will be invited to opt into the open review process. For those who do, their essays will be posted online for public commentary and feedback by the journal’s readers. Authors may respond to this feedback before submitting their revised essays for final selection by the editors. (Authors who decline the open review and opt for a traditional review will not be penalized in the selection process.)

The open-review period will be conducted in partnership with MediaCommons, a digital network dedicated to promoting scholarly discourse about media studies and the digital humanities (http://mediacommons.futureofthebook.org/mcpress/). To learn more about their open-review platform and to read an assessment of the possibilities of peer review in a digital age, go to http://mediacommons.futureofthebook.org/mcpress/plannedobsolescence/. The open-review period will open 1 March 2010 and close 5 May 2010. For more information about the special issue “Shakespeare and New Media” or about Shakespeare Quarterly, contact Katherine Rowe, krowe@brynmawr.edu.