Call to Build SAA Archives

During his luncheon address in Bellevue, SAA President Russ McDonald called upon the membership to help build multiform archives on the SAA website. This is to flesh out the history of the organization as it approaches its fortieth anniversary and to document the scholarly activities of its members.

Because the SAA does not have a house journal, it is not recognized by the American Council of Learned Societies to be a scholarly organization. Professor McDonald stated that it is “vital that we undertake to record and make known the abundance, the excellence, and the availability of our members’ productions.”

The SAA seeks to build a bibliography of work published by SAA members that began life in SAA seminars or on SAA panels. We ask all members to send the full biographical citation for published work shared in an earlier incarnation at an SAA meeting. For seminar papers, we would be especially grateful to know the name of the seminar in which the paper was discussed, and the date of the seminar. Contributions are welcome at shakespeare@georgetown.edu.

The SAA website will also make space for personal documentation and observations, to preserve a sense of “the personal relations that the organization has fostered.” The SAA’s founder, Leeds Barroll, and early executive director, Ann Jennalie Cook, have already contributed memoirs about the organization’s first years.