Teaching Early Modern Women and Gender

Submissions are now open for the Society for the Study of Early Modern Women and Gender sponsored roundtable at the annual meeting of the Modern Language Association to be held January 7-10, 2027, in Los Angeles.  The session approved by the SSEMWG (as an Affiliated Organization) is automatically accepted for the MLA convention. All participants must be members of both MLA and SSEMWG by April 1, 2026.

Teaching Early Modern Women and Gender

We invite submissions for a roundtable on teaching early modern women and gender. How do we continue to secure this evolving and diverse field when gender studies faces growing precarity? How does our research on these writers benefit from teaching their work? What does this generation of students need to know about early modern women and gender, and how do we effectively teach it to them? We welcome your insight and experience on any of the following topics: course design on early modern women writers and gender, access to early modern women’s writing, how to select course readings, decisions on course levels (general education or within the minor/major), digital tools and archives, enrollment concerns, marketing your course, cross-listing, departments and disciplines, syllabus design, and effective assignments.

The roundtable will consist of four to five speakers who each have around seven minutes for prepared remarks followed by unscripted discussion.  Discussants will pre-circulate a draft of their work in advance of our meeting. Please send 150-word abstracts and short bios to Shannon Kelley (skelley@fairfield.edu) by March 27, 2026. For more information on the 2027 convention, visit www.mla.org.