1 (a) The Society will draw together scholars engaged on Festivals research across Europe, the United States and globally, together with others with an interest in this subject. It will call on both traditional and electronic means in order to promote shared activities, including publication and the exchange of knowledge, and disseminate awareness of research developments and future plans. It will encourage cross-disciplinary and cross-national interchange and cooperation, together with an appreciation of national identities and the languages, verbal, visual and aural through which they are expressed.

 

2 (a) Membership of the society will be open to all students and established scholars with an interest in Festivals research, including those engaged on relevant practical work, together with doctoral and post-doctoral researchers in the field and senior undergraduates.

 

2 (b) The Society will have at its core a limited number of Fellows appointed in recognition of published and/ or practical work of distinction in the field of Festival Studies. The work of librarians, archivists, curators, musicians and IT specialists will be recognised equally with that of scholars from a wide range of academic disciplines.

 

2 (c) Fellows will be appointed on the recommendation of those already in post. The first group of Fellows will be appointed on the recommendation of members of the ESF Exploratory Workshop (Venice, March 2010), and will include scholars and practitioners outside the Workshop who have made distinguished contributions to Festivals research.

 

2 (d) Early-career scholars who have embarked on Festivals research but who have not yet published widely will be invited on the recommendation of Fellows to become Associates of the Society.

 

 

3 (a) The Society will be managed initially by two or three Workshop members, ideally living in proximity to each other, so that face-to-face meeting and discussion is facilitated. After a period of two years commencing 1 September 2010, organisational responsibility will pass to a second group of two or three Fellows, again ideally based close to each other.

 

3 (b) The organising group will be known as co-Convenors of the Society. They should ideally be supported by a doctoral or post-doctoral research assistant, who would receive training in the relevant discipline(s). The initial co-Convenors will be Margaret McGowan, Ronnie Mulryne and Margaret Shewring.

 

3 (c) The second group of co-Convenors will be from a country other than the UK. Continuity should be ensured by one member of the incoming group of co-Convenors working closely with existing co-Convenors during their second year in office.

 

 

4 (a) Ashgate Publishers Ltd will publish an annual volume of studies related to Festivals research, subject to the publisher’s assessment of academic quality. A first volume in the series will be Waterborne Pageants and Festivities in the Renaissance, edited by Margaret Shewring, with publication expected in Autumn 2011. A second volume will be edited by Margaret McGowan on the French/ Spanish dynastic weddings of 1612/ 15, with contributions by invited scholars. This volume is scheduled for Autumn 2012. Further volumes, including a volume edited by Mårten Snickare provisionally entitled New Approaches to European Festival, are under consideration.

 

4 (b) Ashgate’s Research Companions series will include a volume called the Ashgate Research Companion to European Festivals, 1480-1720, edited by Margaret McGowan, Ronnie Mulryne and Margaret Shewring, with contributions from a wide range of colleagues.

 

4 (c) An Editorial Board drawn from Fellows of the Society will peer-review proposed publications. All volumes will be issued in simultaneous print and e-book form.

 

4 (d) An annual series of conferences is envisaged with, normally, a published volume based on each. Exhibitions, media events and podcasts will be stimulated by the Society’s publications and conferences.

 

4 (e) A website, initially hosted by the University of Warwick, will provide Members, Associates and Fellows of the Society with opportunities to confer, ask and answer questions related to Festivals research, and keep fellow members informed about publications and material collections in the field.

 

5 (a) Membership of the Society will not entail an annual or initial subscription. Efforts will be made to secure national and trans-European funding in support of the Society’s activities.

 

5 (b) Benefits of membership will include access to the Society’s website, together with opportunities to attend the Society’s conferences and contribute as appropriate to its publications. A generous discount will apply to purchases of Ashgate books by members of the Society who contribute to the Society’s publications.