RENAISSANCE CONFERENCE OF SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA
68th Annual Conference
“Making the Renaissance Political Body”
We are pleased to announce a call for papers for our 68th Annual Conference, to be held at California State University, Fullerton on Saturday, September 26th, 2026
CALL FOR PAPERS
The RCSC, a regional affiliate of the Renaissance Society of America, welcomes proposals for individual papers as well as complete panels on the full range of Renaissance disciplines (Art, Architecture, History, Literature, Music, Philosophy, Religion, Science). Papers and panels that attend to cross-cultural concerns are especially encouraged, but proposals on any topic pertaining to the Renaissance are welcome. The RCSC promotes the study of the period c. 1300–1800, broadly interpreting the Renaissance within a global framework. We especially welcome papers focusing on non-European contexts, the Global South, and/or public engagement.
The theme of the 68th Annual Conference is “Making the Renaissance Political Body.” We invite proposals for individual papers and panels that examine how bodies in the Renaissance were visualized, materialized, regulated, and contested across artistic, architectural, cultural and material practices. Contributions may address the processes through which bodies were produced, sustained, transformed, dismantled, or imaginatively constructed, with particular attention to how images, objects, spaces, and technologies shaped political meaning within and across cultures. We welcome work from across disciplines, including literature, languages, history, art history, theater, digital humanities, etc., as well as research that foregrounds cross-cultural exchange, colonial encounter, and the circulation of bodies, images, and objects across imperial, mercantile, and missionary networks. Approaches may understand “the body” expansively, including—but not limited to—human bodies, political bodies, bodies of images and texts, archival and curatorial formations, crowds and publics, automata, affective and sensory bodies, dead or fragmented bodies, imagined and allegorical bodies, celestial and cosmological bodies, and spiritual or devotional bodies.
Individual paper submissions should include, as a single PDF (last name_RCSC 2026):
● an abstract of approximately 250 words
● contact information and one-page CV
Panel Submissions are welcome and should include, as a single PDF (last name_RCSC 2026):
● contact information and one-page CV for organizer / chair
● names and abstracts (c. 250 words each) for all presenters
● one-page CVs of all presenters
● title and short description (c. 150 words) of the panel itself
Please submit all application materials on our website (http://rcsconline.org/), using the conference submission survey (https://forms.gle/Qm361E2vEiJF54MaA).
Deadline for submissions: June 15, 2026 by 11:59PM (PST).
Please note: A $45 RCSC membership is required for conference participation. Membership details are available on our website (http://rcsconline.org/).
If you have any questions, please contact the RCSC president, Sam Kolodezh (skolodezh@ucsd.edu).
For a downloadable version of the CFP, please click here.