International Shaw Society

Mid-Year Newsletter for 2008

Mission Statement

The International Shaw Society, Inc., a not-for-profit organization, provides a means for those interested in the study of the life, times, and career of Bernard Shaw and his circle to coordinate their activities, exchange information and ideas, and promote an interest in Shaw worldwide. It welcomes anyone with an interest in Shaw to with an interest in Shaw to join (see the end of this section for an application form). To encourage the study of Shaw and the performance of his works, the ISS arranges biennial or triennial conferences, annual symposia, and occasional special sessions and seminars around the world at which anyone interested in Shaw can find a gathering of kindred spirits and an occasion to speak on and discuss Shaw and to hear and see his works in performance. Because it particularly wishes to encourage the young, the ISS offers scholarships and travel grants to young people who wish to contribute to its goals.

Report on June 30, 2008, by R. F. Dietrich President of the International Shaw Society ISS Homepage: www.shawsociety.org Email: dietrich@shawsociety.org

Executive Committee	Advisory Committee
Richard F. Dietrich,	Charles Berst	Honorary Members
President	John Bertolini
Leonard Conolly,	Bernard Dukore	Sidney Albert
Vice President	Anthony Gibbs	Jacques Barzun
Lagretta Lenker,	Nicholas Grene	Eric Bentley
Treasurer	Denis Johnston	T. F. Evans
John McInerney,	Martin Meisel	Stanley Kaufmann
Recording Secretary	Rhoda Nathan	Frederick P. W. McDowell
Lori Dietrich,	Margot Peters	Barbara Smoker
Membership	Sally Peters
Secretary	Michel Pharand
Ann Saddlemyer
	Al Turco
	Stanley Weintraub
	Don Wilmeth

In Memoriam

The ISS was hit hard this year by the deaths of two of its preeminent members, Dan H. Laurence and Barry Morse. Their names are missing from the list above of "Honorary Members" for the first time since the inception of the ISS. They are greatly missed.

ISS Events & Actions of 2008

MLA Meetings: To qualify for affiliate status with the Modern Language Association, which would give the ISS a lot of free advertising if accomplished and might help to spur interest in Shaw in academia, the ISS has begun sponsoring sessions at MLA annual conventions, beginning in December of 2006 at Philadelphia and continuing in December of 2007 at Chicago and December of 2008 in San Francisco. These sessions have been arranged and are moderated by Charles Del Dotto of Duke University. Speakers for the 2008 session on "Shaw and His Contemporaries" will be Larry Switzky of Harvard University, Elizabeth C. Miller of Ohio University, and Christopher Rivers of Mount Holyoke College. As attendance at these sessions is also an important factor in receiving MLA affiliate status, we hope as many of you as possible will attend. See the ISS Homepage at www.shawsociety.org for a link that will announce the exact date and place, when that becomes available. You can attend these sessions without being an MLA member, but you must be an MLA member to be eligible to participate in the panel.

International Shaw Society

The 32nd Annual Comparative Drama Conference in March of 2008 sponsored by Loyola Marymount University in Los Angeles offered three special sessions on "Shaw and the Stage," "Comparative Pygmalion," and ""Postcolonial and Postmodern Shaw." As arranged by Tony Stafford of the University of Texas El Paso, scheduled papers were by Charles Del Dotto of Duke University, Christopher Innes of York University, Brigitte Bogar of Copenhagen University, Gulbun Onur and Dilek Zerenler of Selcuk University, Turkey, P. S. Sri of the Royal Military College of Canada, Amanda Cuellar of the University of Texas El Paso, Julie Sparks of San Jose State University, and Tony Stafford.

The fifth Annual ISS Shaw Symposium, co-sponsored by and meeting at the Shaw Festival in Niagara-on-the-Lake, Ontario, took place on July 25-27, 2008. Our thanks to Suzanne Merriman of the Shaw Festival and Leonard Conolly, the academic coordinator for the Symposium, for their invaluable assistance in setting this up. The scheduled speakers, in order of appearance, were Sharon Klassen of Redeemer University College in Canada, Robert Gaines of the University of North Carolina Charlotte, Keith Maton, a freelance writer from...