We are soliciting proposals for papers to fill out an RSA panel titled Women and Public Liturgy, which will consider English women’s engagement with the transformation of communal or public worship between 1500–1660. To date, women’s responses to public worship have been much less studied than their engagement with private worship, yet communal worship was a vital part of the lives of early modern women of all confessional stripes. While women were generally barred from leading the liturgy itself, they nonetheless participated actively in public worship and helped shape communal devotion of all kinds, whether at the level of the local congregation or the national church.

We seek papers on: literary works that depict women participating in liturgical rituals (baptisms, Churching, Processions, funerals, the Mass/Supper); nuns who sang the Divine Office and participated in feast day rituals; women who wrote or recited liturgical or para-liturgical texts; women who sponsored or owned liturgical books; women who created literary works that reflect concepts central to the liturgical calendar and liturgical Offices; and women who created and paid for liturgical vestments or objects.

Interested participants should send the following items by Friday, 8/9 to Jaime Goodrich (goodrija@wayne.edu) and Micheline White (michelinewhite@cunet.carleton.ca):

• paper title (15-word maximum)
• abstract (150-word maximum)
• curriculum vitae (.pdf or .doc upload, no longer than 5 pages)
• PhD completion date (past or expected)
• full name, current affiliation, and email address