News

2022 PMRG Conference – Registration and Programme

Registration is now open for the 2022 PMRG conference ‘Colonialism: Subaltern Voices, Contested Histories, Subverted Spaces’ at https://www.eventbrite.com.au/e/pmrg-annual-conference-2022-tickets-424727851437.

The conference will be  held on Friday 14 and Saturday 15 October at the UWA EZone Building (North) in Fairway, Nedlands.

The full programme with abstracts is available here. (All times are AWST which is eight hours ahead of UTC/GMT) 

The hybrid conference can be attended in-person or online with full facilities available for each session via Zoom.

2022 PMRG Conference – Call for papers extended

The 2022 PMRG Conference will be held on 15 October 2022 as a hybrid event at the University of Western Australia and online. The theme of the conference is Colonialism: Subaltern Voices, Contested Histories, Subverted Spaces.

The call for papers has been extended to Monday, 22 August.

Please send proposals (150–200 words per paper), along with author’s name, paper/panel/round table title, and academic affiliation (if any) to [email protected].  Proposals from third year and Honours students are welcomed.

Perth time is GMT+8hrs. We will try to accommodate different time zones for virtual presentations where possible.

Read more about the conference here.

Vale Dr Anne M. Scott

It was with great sadness that we learned of the death in September 2021 of our esteemed colleague Dr Anne M. Scott (UWA). Anne was the Convenor of the Australian Research Council Network for Early European Research (2006–2010), editor of Parergon (2006–2016), former President and long standing committee member of the Perth Medieval and Renaissance Group (PMRG), and honorary researcher in the School of Humanities at The University of Western Australia. Anne made an extraordinary contribution as a researcher and academic leader of the first order, and will be greatly missed.

‘Adaptation in the Humanities’ conference: registration now open!

Registration is now open to those who are attending the ‘Adaptation in the Humanities: Reimagining the Past, Present, and Future’ conference either in person or online.

The conference fee is $10 AUD for virtual attendance, and $30 AUD for in person (booking fees apply).

Register for the conference: https://www.eventbrite.com.au/e/adaptation-in-the-humanities-reimagining-the-past-present-and-future-tickets-156041041957.

Download a copy of the conference programme.

Online public lecture: ‘The Tree of Life and Arboreal Aesthetics in Renaissance culture’ (Speaker: Dr. Victoria Bladen, UQ)

PMRG’s first event of the year will be the first of two lectures by Dr. Victoria Bladen, who teaches in literary studies and adaptation at the University of Queensland.

The first talk will be Zoomed live from Brisbane on Wednesday March 10 at 4:30pm (AWST), but will be recorded for ease of access for all PMRG members. This is an event organised by the Sydney group (SMRG) and the first of PMRG’s Guest Speaker events for 2021. There will be a second lecture in April/May for PMRG (details to be announced).

Here are the details for the first talk on March 10:

The Tree of Life and Arboreal Aesthetics in Renaissance culture

Across early modern European culture grew a rich and complex language of trees that surrounded the concept of the tree of life. It was articulated in a variety of media and forms: illuminated manuscripts, woodcuts, paintings, mosaic, fresco, sculpture, and pageantry.  Arboreal motifs and metaphors were a significant vehicle for expressing ideas of spiritual knowledge and articulating religious ideology. The sources for arboreal iconography lay in biblical text however the meanings that were read from these images extended beyond the textual metaphors to intersect with social ritual, folklore, and the cult of the cross.  We will also see how unsettling forces of otherness lay embedded within such arboreal iconography, particularly apparent in the figure of the Green Man. This paper maps key ideas surrounding the tree of life and its arboreal aesthetics in Renaissance culture, highlighting recurring motifs and ideas, and demonstrating its double nature whereby orthodoxy was shadowed by the Other.


Dr Victoria Bladen teaches in literary studies and adaptation at The University of Queensland, Australia and has twice received a Faculty award for teaching excellence. Her publications include six Shakespearean text guides in the Insight (Melbourne) series, including The Merchant of Venice (2020) and Much Ado About Nothing (2019), and five co-edited volumes, including Shakespeare on Screen: King Lear (Cambridge UP 2019), and Shakespeare and the Supernatural (Manchester UP 2020). Her forthcoming monograph The Tree of Life and Arboreal Aesthetics in Early Modern Literature will be published by Routledge in their World Literature and the Environment series.

Victoria’s presentation will be at 4:30pm Perth time, 6:30pm Brisbane time and 7:30pm Sydney time.

For Zoom details please contact the PMRG Secretary: [email protected].

PMRG AGM 2021

The 2021 Annual General Meeting of the Perth Medieval and Renaissance Group Incorporated will be held on Monday, 15 March 2021, at 6:30pm at The University of Western Australia (Arts Building, ALR 8). The formal part of the meeting should conclude by 7pm.  We will then have a presentation from one of our founding members, Emeritus Professor Chris Wortham. Chris’s topic is ‘Shakespeare and the Forest of Arden’. 

Nominations are now open for people who wish to become a member of the PMRG Committee or wish to nominate for the positions of President, Vice-President, Secretary and Treasurer.  The final date for nominations is Monday, 15 February 2021. Nominations should be sent to the PMRG Secretary: [email protected].

PMRG Annual Quiz Night postponed until 2021

Due to current circumstances, PMRG’s fundraiser, the Annual Quiz Night has unfortunately had to be postponed until 2021. 

Full details about next year’s Quiz Night will be posted on the PMRG website and Facebook account in 2021.

Should you wish to donate to PMRG, please contact the Secretary for more details. Donations are used to fund travel bursaries to allow postgraduate students and early career  scholars to attend the PMRG Conference.

‘Adaptation in the Humanities’ conference – postponed until September 2021

The conference has been postponed until September 2021. Our primary concern is the health and safety of all involved in the conference, and we are aware of the need to ensure the conference is as safe an environment as possible for all.

The conference will now take place at The University of Western Australia, Thursday 30 September – Saturday 2 October 2021.

Digital registration to the conference will be possible to make attendance as open as possible to interstate and international attendees.

Call for Papers close on Monday 12 April 2021.

The Call for Papers for article submissions in the Limina Journal ‘Adaptations’ Special Edition remains open. Limina welcomes article submissions on the conference theme for the special issue to be launched at the 2021 Conference.

We look forward to seeing you in Perth in 2021!

Updates about the conference will be posted on this website as details are confirmed.