Doctoral Workshop in Medieval and Early Modern Studies (6/12)

23 September 2026

Lukas Erne

Dr. Devani Singh, UNIGE

Prof. Lukas Erne, UNIGE

Prof. Elisabeth Dutton (UNIFR)

Dr Lucy Deacon (UNIFR) 

The fortnightly Geneva workshops, which have been in existence for some time and are attended and regularly contributed to by PhD students and staff from all CUSO universities and CUSO associated universities, respond to the need, expressed by PhD students, for regular, short bursts of training and a structure to which they belong. They cover practical topics such as using digital resources in medieval and early modern English studies; focused discussion of key medieval and early modern texts (e.g., Chaucer, Shakespeare) or scholarly issues (e.g., codicology, bibliography); and work-in-progress papers. The workshops usually last two-to-three hours.

23 September: Prof. Elisabeth Dutton and Dr Lucy Deacon (University of Fribourg), Translation, Comparison, and An-‘other’ Role: Researching Religious Drama of the Abrahamic Traditions (FNS project WOMARD) 

Our research project examines the early drama of Judaism, Christianity, and Shiʿi Islam from a comparative perspective. To facilitate comparison across a wide historical and geographical span, we focus on figures and themes that recur in the three traditions and consider the ways in which the traditions portray each other. In this workshop, we will discuss our experience of the possibilities and the limitations of comparative study, and reflect on the challenges of conducting our research sensitively and responsibly. We will then invite group discussion of some examples of plays that feature religious ‘others’, focusing our discussion on our draft translation of a Persian taʿziyeh play-within-a-play. 

UNIGE

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