Professor of English Michael Saenger was selected to join 50 faculty members from around the country to represent the Academic Engagement Network (AEN) at the annual Israel on Campus Coalition National Leadership Summit in Washington, D.C. The AEN Delegation joined 750 students to learn about the Middle East and to form connections of solidarity to confront rising antisemitism at universities. This publicly engaged humanities project involved a serious engagement with politicians, authors, and community leaders, and culminated in an appearance by Ritchie Torres (D-NY).

Professor of English Michael Saenger delivered a paper titled “Unveiling Hermione and Other Deferrals” at the European Shakespeare Research Association Conference in Porto, Portugal. The paper addresses Shakespeare’s sense of time as a dramatic and poetic experience in The Winter’s Tale. This play includes an appearance of an old man dressed as Time midway through its performance, and it also includes very subtle and fascinating ways of hearing temporal change and stillness.

Professor of English Michael Saenger published “Faculty on Fifth Avenue” with The Times of Israel. The blog post argues for academic freedom and informed discussion about the Middle East. It can be read here.

Professor of English Michael Saenger presented a seminar paper titled “A Mouldy Tale Newly Set” at the Shakespeare Association of America conference in Boston on March 21. His paper discusses the path of Pericles, a play that Shakespeare co-authored, through its recent performance by the Royal Shakespeare Company. The play was once disdained because of its collaborative nature and sprawling geography, but now has become interesting for the same reasons.

Professor of English Michael Saenger was an invited member of the delegation representing Academic Engagement Network (AEN), an organization dedicated to fighting academic antisemitism, at the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) “Never is Now” conference in New York City from March 3-4. The conference featured both Jews and allies who are working to fight a tide of Jew-hate that is rising at college campuses nationwide, including David Schwimmer, Gal Gadot, Billie Jean King, and Van Jones, as well as the presidents of the University of Michigan and Washington University in St. Louis. AEN and ADL announced a new partnership to clearly articulate that debate and protest about the Middle East is good, but harassment of Jewish students and calls for genocide must be stopped. A photo including Saenger and Jonathan Greenblatt, CEO and National Director of the ADL, to promote the work they are doing together can be seen here, via X.