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Cervantes in Transit explores how Cervantes’s texts embody movement, transformation, and boundary-crossing across multiple dimensions. Theorizing Cervantes as a figure at once of transit and in transit, the volume argues that the diverse and often disparate array of Cervantine interpretations is not simply a byproduct of modernity, but an inherent component of the author’s own writing. Cervantes transgressed boundaries of all sorts—mixing genres, blurring fiction and reality, and moving characters into paratextual spaces. The concept of transit encompasses both physical movement between places and fundamental change or metamorphosis, reflecting how Cervantes’s writing has traveled through temporal, geographical, and conceptual spaces while continuously transforming. The volume’s thirteen chapters explore five thematic clusters: “Impressions” examines material book history and paratextual borders; “Identities” analyzes racial, religious, gender, and class transgressions; “Ironies” considers humor as a boundary-crossing mode; “Influences” traces Cervantes’s engagement with literary traditions; and “Itineraries” maps geographical circulation and global networks.

Cervantine Futures places the writings of Miguel de Cervantes into conversation with some of the most pressing issues in cultural studies, critical theory, and sociopolitical discourse of the last decade. Assembling a diverse range of prominent and emerging scholars in the field, this volume stakes a claim for Hispanism’s place in the growing scholarly movement to vindicate pre- and early modernity for its incisive and often singular perspective on race, gender, ability, the body, affect, materialism, and other axes of timely debate.

To date, the writings of Miguel de Cervantes have been oddly sidelined from larger, ongoing scholarly projects to link premodern literature with the most recent analytics of critical theory and cultural studies. Cervantine Futures addresses this conspicuous gap by highlighting creative, forward-looking, and rigorous approaches that situate Cervantes in recent theoretical developments in critical cultural studies. Conceived under the rubric of “futures”—collective and capacious, yet also subjunctive and transtemporal—this book tasks the fields of early modern Iberian and Cervantine studies with adopting a more global approach to the early modern period that surveys the current and historical landscapes while charting new horizons. Crucially, Cervantine Futures reflects upon how early modern texts, cultural modes of expression, and visual ideations from Cervantes’s life and legacy resonate with contemporary debates on gender, race, ability, and other issues. The volume thus includes scholarly provocations that deploy feminist, queer, critical race, disability studies, and new materialist approaches to Cervantes’s oeuvre—tendentiously positioned as “canonical”—with the purpose not only of scrutinizing its sociopolitical meanings, but also of creating new archives that productively reframe and rethink early modernity.

A peer-reviewed journal of theatre history and scholarship published annually since 1981 by the Mid-America Theatre Conference

Theatre History Studies 2021, Vol. 40, edited by Lisa Jackson-Schebetta, marks the fortieth volume of the respected, peer-reviewed journal published by the Mid-America Theatre Conference, a leading forum for innovative scholarship in theatre and performance studies. Bringing together a diverse collection of essays from established and emerging scholars, this volume examines the intersections of theatre history, cultural memory, performance, identity, race, gender, and social change across a wide range of historical and contemporary contexts.

The volume opens with a series of studies that challenge conventional narratives of theatre history and performance. Contributors explore topics including Voltaire and Enlightenment thought, the contributions and erasure of African American artists within the Federal Theatre Project's Negro Unit, questions of empathy and historical consciousness in contemporary drama, and the influence of Asian aesthetics on the work of modern dance innovator Alwin Nikolais. Together, these essays demonstrate the ongoing importance of theatre history as a lens through which to understand cultural power, representation, and artistic expression.

A special section,"Witch Characters and Witchy Performance," investigates the enduring cultural fascination with witches on stage and in popular performance. Essays examine witchcraft in the works of Joanna Baillie and Shakespeare, representations of female bodies and power in Caryl Churchill's Vinegar Tom, the feminist dimensions of Wicked, and the immersive theatrical worlds of productions such as Sleep No More and Then She Fell. Through these studies, the collection highlights how witch figures continue to serve as powerful symbols for exploring gender, authority, resistance, and cultural imagination.

The volume also features the recipient of the Robert A. Schanke Award, recognizing outstanding scholarship presented at the Mid-America Theatre Conference. This essay examines the evolving relationship between Broadway and high school musical theatre in the 2010s, offering valuable insight into theatre education, performance culture, and the transmission of theatrical traditions to new generations.

In addition to original research articles, Theatre History Studies 2021, Vol. 40 includes scholarly book reviews, contributor notes, and discussions of recent publications in the field, making it an essential resource for researchers, educators, students, and theatre practitioners. By bringing together rigorous historical inquiry and contemporary critical perspectives, this landmark volume showcases the breadth, vitality, and continuing relevance of theatre and performance scholarship in the twenty-first century.

New perspectives and rigorous scholarship shaping the histories of theatre and performance.

Theatre History Studies 2022, Vol. 41 presents a dynamic collection of peer‑reviewed essays that exemplify current directions in theatre and performance historiography. Edited by Lisa Jackson‑Schebetta, this volume brings together scholars whose work spans diverse periods, geographies, and performance traditions, demonstrating the field’s continued expansion in scope and methodology. As the official journal of the Mid‑America Theatre Conference, Theatre History Studies remains a vital venue for rigorous historical inquiry grounded in archival research, critical theory, and historiographic reflection.

Volume 41 engages pressing questions about how theatre histories are constructed, narrated, and mobilized in relation to social, political, and cultural contexts. Contributors explore performance as a site of embodied knowledge, identity formation, resistance, and memory, with essays that address race, gender, sexuality, labor, migration, and transnational exchange. The volume reflects a historiographic turn toward interdisciplinary approaches, drawing from dance studies, performance studies, critical race theory, and cultural history to reconsider established narratives and recover overlooked voices.

Together, the essays in this volume demonstrate the continued relevance of theatre history as both a scholarly practice and a critical framework for understanding performance’s role in shaping—and being shaped by—broader historical forces. Theatre History Studies 2022, Vol. 41 will be of particular value to scholars, educators, and graduate students in theatre and performance studies, as well as researchers in related fields who are interested in innovative historical methods and the evolving contours of performance scholarship.

CONTRIBUTORS
Angela K. Ahlgren / Samer Al-Saber / Kelly I. Aliano / Gordon Alley-Young / Melissa Blanco Borelli / Trevor Boffone / Jay Buchanan / Matthieu Chapman / Joanna Dee Das / Ryan J. Douglas / Victoria Fortuna / Christiana Molldrem Harkulich / Alani Hicks-Bartlett / Jeanmarie Higgins / Lisa Jackson-Schebetta / Erin Rachel Kaplan / Heather Kelley / Patrick Maley / Karin Maresh / Lisa Milner / Courtney Elkin Mohler / Heather S. Nathans / Heidi L. Nees / Sebastian Samur / Michael Schweikardt / Teresa Simone / Dennis Sloan / Guilia Taddeo / Kyle A. Thomas / Alex Vermillion / Bethany Wood