After four exhilarating and stimulating days and nights in my almost-hometown New Orleans, members of the Marvell Society, with heavy hearts and somewhat lighter wallets, bid a reluctant farewell to the Crescent City and to another successful South-Central Renaissance Conference, this year hosted by the College of Liberal Arts of The University of New Orleans. Besides the elegant accommodations offered by the historic Monteleone Hotel, the location of the conference hotel site in the heart of the French Quarter added to the ambiance of the event.
The Conference expanded traditional sessions, beginning with early-afternoon sessions on Thursday, March 8, before the William Hunter Lecture featuring Sabine Mödershiem from University of Wisconsin-Madison, and extending to sessions after the traditional Saturday Luncheon and Keynote Lecture featuring Sharon O’Dair from the University of Alabama. The lengthened conference times permitted even more excellent papers for our society, as well as for other SCRC associated organizations, The Queen Elizabeth Society and The Society for Renaissance Art History.
The Marvell Society sponsored sixteen papers in six well-attended sessions: “Marvell, Mowers, Nymphs, and Gardens”; “’The Gallery’: A Discussion”; “Marvell in the 1670s”; “Marvell’s Influences: University Logic, Catholic Lyric”;”Marvell and the Dutch Wars”; and “Marvell and Genre: Ode, Epitaph, and Masque.” Another treat of this year’s conference was the special Marvell Society Plenary Address, graciously given by Professor Lynn Enterline of Vanderbilt University, author of well-known works like The Tears of Narcissus: Melancholia and Masculinity in Early Modern Writing (Stanford University Press, 1995) and her just-released Shakespeare’s Schoolroom: Rhetoric, Discipline, Emotion (University of Pennsylvania Press, 2011). Lynn joined right in with fellow Marvellians, particularly evident in our group photo after her address.

Besides the usual SCRC receptions and meetings, local chair Catherine Loomis from the University of New Orleans and program chair Debora Barrett-Graves of California State University, East Bay, arranged for a plethora of additional activities for conference attendees, including a UNO Jazz Ensemble concert, a literary walking tour of the French Quarter, a tour of Mardi Gras World, and directions to several fascinating museums including the National World War II Museum, the UNO-Ogden Museum of Southern Art, and the Historic New Orleans Collection. Any Marvellians who wanted to join us also enjoyed a Friday-evening dinner at Muriel’s, an authentic and popular French Quarter restaurant. Seafood and Sazeracs abounded.
So now we anticipate the 2013 SCRC Convention in Omaha, NE—a bit of a different venue, but all the same ingredients to promise another memorable and enjoyable conference. At the Saturday morning Business Meeting of the Andrew Marvell Society, we anticipated sessions on topics including the following: a poem session on “Bermudas” with George Klawitter, Tim Raylor, and Joan Faust agreeing to participate; a possible session on the chronology of Marvell’s poems; digitizing Marvell; and a session on Lord Fairfax. And since the Marvell Society will sponsor the Martz Lecture, to be delivered by Nicholas von Maltzahn, the event is sure to be superb.
Do join us in 2013!