News

NVS Seminar: Prof. Nataliya Torkut, 29 January 2026

Our first NVS Seminar of the Spring Semester 2026 will be given by Prof. Nataliya Torkut, the Director of the Ukrainian Shakespeare Centre, under the title 'Shakespeare in Ukraine: from translating to re/imagining'. As well as her role directing the USC, Prof. Torkut is a Professor at Zaporizhzhia National University, an Honorary Senior Research Fellow at the Shakespeare Institute, a Research Fellow of the Shevchenko Institute of Literature (part of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine), and a Visiting Scholar at King's College London.

The seminar will take place over Zoom on 29 January 2026 at 12 noon CT. The Zoom link can be found here: https://tamu.zoom.us/j/91408085573?pwd=uD7pnjbgUdqxab8RWW97W1tnJiNNbh.1 (passcode, if needed: 551576).

We hope to see you on this important occasion.

NVS announces Spring 2026 events

The New Variorum Shakespeare is delighted to announce its events schedule for the Spring Semester 2026.

We begin with a NVS Seminar by Prof. Nataliya Torkut, Director of the Ukrainian Shakespeare Centre, on 29 January. On 10-11 February the NVS will be hosting a two-day international conference about the two texts we have recently published in variorum format online, A Midsummer Night's Dream and The Winter's Tale -- further details can be found below on our 'News' page. In March we will open an exhibition about the history of the NVS at Texas A&M's Cushing Memorial Library, which has been generously sponsored by one of our volume editors Prof. Marvin Hunt. Finally, Dr. Dorothy Todd and Dr. Robert Stagg will be co-chairing a seminar about 'Variorum Shakespeare' at the Shakespeare Association of America conference in Denver on 2 April.

Further details of all our events will be forthcoming very soon. Please send any questions to our Director, Dr. Robert Stagg: rstagg@tamu.edu

NVS to host two-day international conference on 'Dream' and 'Tale'

The New Variorum Shakespeare is excited to announce that we will be hosting a two-day international conference about the two plays we have recently published in variorum format online, A Midsummer Night's Dream and The Winter's Tale. This conference will bring together scholars from around the world for open discussion of the two plays in their various aspects. Taking place at Texas A&M University on 10-11 February 2026, the event will also be livestreamed and recorded on Zoom.

Speakers from outside Texas A&M will include: Roberta Barker (Dalhousie), Katherine Steele Brokaw (UT Austin), Urvashi Chakravarty (Toronto), Jessica Chiba (Shakespeare Institute), Mario DiGangi (CUNY), Ruben Espinosa (ASU), Peter Holland (Notre Dame), Sujata Iyengar (Georgia), Peter Kirwan (MBU), Rory Loughnane (Kent), Gordon McMullan (KCL), David Nicol (Dalhousie), Lena Orlin (Georgetown), Eric Rasmussen (Nevada), Melissa Sanchez (UPenn), Goran Stanivukovic (SMU), Tiffany Stern (Shakespeare Institute), Valerie Traub (Michigan), and Paul Werstine (UWO).

Full details, including a Zoom link and a schedule, will be coming soon.

NVS Seminar: Prof. Steven Urkowitz, 4 December 2025

Our final NVS Seminar of the Fall Semester 2025 was given by Prof. Steven Urkowitz (CUNY) in conversation with our General Editor Prof. Eric Rasmussen on Thursday 4 December 2025.

Prof. Steven Urkowitz is Professor Emeritus of English and Theater at the City College of New York (CUNY). Most notably for this NVS Seminar, he is the author of Shakespeare's Revision of King Lear (Princeton University Press, 1980). He has been a trustee of the Shakespeare Association of America and the American Shakespeare Center, and has directed and dramaturged around the world.

The New Variorum Shakespeare took the occasion of Prof. Urkowitz's NVS Seminar to announce that we will publish the digital variorum text of King Lear in the first few months of 2026. A further announcement will take place when the edition is available on our website.

A recording of Prof. Urkowitz's NVS Seminar is available here: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1VqmTZa7iHDKtD_5-dKTjxvpB8xf7jYzs/view?usp=sharing

NVS Seminar: Prof. Eric Rasmussen, 18 November 2025

Our November NVS Seminar was given by Prof. Eric Rasmussen under the title 'The Fifth Folio: Shakespeare Without Rules' on 18 November 2025 at 1pm (Central Time).

Prof. Rasmussen is one of the two General Editors of the NVS and one of the editors of the NVS 'Hamlet'. He is Foundation Professor Emeritus of the University of Nevada, Reno, where he also served as Chair of the English Department. Prof. Rasmussen is one of the world's leading experts on the First Folio and his work to authenticate copies has led to him being described as "the Robert Langdon of the Shakespeare world" by 'The Washington Post'. He is the author of 'The Shakespeare Thefts: In Search of the First Folio' (2011) and he is the co-editor of the Royal Shakespeare Company's 'Complete Works', of the definitive catalogue of Shakespeare First Folios, and of 'The Norton Anthology of English Renaissance Drama' (2002). His editorial work extends to editions for Oxford World's Classics, the Arden Shakespeare, the Revels Plays, and the Malone Society. Both his research and his teaching have received numerous distinguished awards.

A recording of Prof. Rasmussen's NVS Seminar can now be found here: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1veJXOFW9T71UjLRmDpiSvXb31gLuq8Ly/view

NVS at Shakespeare Society of Japan conference

The New Variorum Shakespeare hosted a tea reception at the Shakespeare Society of Japan's annual conference in Tokyo on Sunday 12 October. Our Director Dr. Robert Stagg was present to talk to SSJ delegates about how the NVS can be used in their teaching and scholarship, and the newly digital format of the variorum was warmly received by all. Thanks are due to the Texas A&M English Department for funding the reception, which further enhances the NVS's global reach.

More information about the Shakespeare Society of Japan can be found on their website, here: https://en.s-sj.org/page/about

NVS cover story in Texas A&M English Department newsletter

The New Variorum Shakespeare is thrilled to be the cover story of this month's instalment of 'The English Aggie', the Texas A&M English Department's newsletter which is written and designed by undergraduate students. The newsletter features more details about the history, present, and future of the NVS, profiles of its staff, and information about how undergraduate students can get involved in the project. A copy of the newsletter can be found here: https://artsci.tamu.edu/english/academics/undergraduate/opportunities/revised-2-september-edition-of-english-aggie-2.pdf#September 2025

Our thanks to Maia Kumar for featuring us in this issue.