Tenth Anniversary Shakespeare Conference in Szeged
JÁGÓNAK
2007 – 2026
"Shakespeare Studies: Which Way Forward?"
Department of English Studies,
Faculty of Humanities and
Social Sciences, University of Szeged
1–3 October 2026
Continuing the tradition established by previous conferences, this event aims to foster dialogue among the diverse discourses surrounding Shakespeare's work. We seek to create a meeting point where scholars, translators, theatre theorists, and practitioners of theatre and other arts can engage in collective reflection. A particular focus of the conference will be the questions of education and higher education.
We offer the following questions as initial prompts for discussion:
- What do we wish to communicate through Shakespeare—as teachers, researchers, and artists?
- What are we actually teaching when we teach Shakespeare?
- What do we find inspiring and worthy of preservation as part of the tradition—and why?
- Which elements of the tradition do we consider outdated or in need of reconsideration?
This year's conference seeks a shared sense of direction: let us collectively discuss how, as a scholarly and artistic community, we might best shape Shakespeare's cultural role in the years ahead.
In addressing these questions, participants may also wish to reflect on an observation made several years ago by Péter Dávidházi at a meeting of the Hungarian Shakespeare Committee: historically, Shakespeare studies have served as the flagship of English Studies in Hungary. If the course of the fleet is partly ours to determine, where should it sail?
We consider it important to preserve the original project-based character of the conference. Written papers will be shared with participants before the event, and we ask panel and section members to read one another's work in advance. Accordingly, rather than traditional twenty-minute conference papers, we primarily invite:
- position papers and discussion-opening presentations, delivered individually or jointly with co-authors;
- presentations of ongoing research projects and artistic initiatives.
Depending on the number and nature of submissions, we also plan to organise thematic panels (in addition to the traditional Saturday morning State of the Field discussion), to which participants may contribute in the formats outlined above. Planned themes include:
- In Memory of István Géher, Géza Kállay and Ádám Nádasdy
- Shakespeare minden időkre by Natália Pikli
- Shakespeare in the Context of Hungarian English Studies: Possible Directions for Teaching and Research
Invitations to some of our plenary speakers are still pending, but we are delighted to announce that Betty Stróbl (KRE) and Remedios Perni Llorente (University of Alicante) have accepted our invitation.
Submission Guidelines
Please submit applications / abstracts in English or Hungarian via the conference submission form by 20 July 2026. Applicants should feel free to contribute to more than one topic – please describe your plans in your application.
Written versions of papers and project descriptions should be uploaded to our password-protected repository by 15 September 2026.
Submission link to be provided.
Looking forward to your application and meeting you in Szeged: Attila Kiss and Ágnes Matuska, organizers.