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CALL FOR PAPERSRenaissance Society of America Annual MeetingBerlin, 26-28 March 2015Street Singers in Renaissance Europe (and beyond)This panel(s) shall focus upon a central figure of the oral world of Renaissance culture: the singer of tales or the street singer (known as cantimbanco or cantastorie in Italy, ballad singers or mountebanks in England, Bänkelsänger in Germany, ciegos copleros in Spain, chanteurs de rue in France, or Meddah in the Ottoman world). Heirs of medieval minstrels and jesters, ballad singers were poets, musicians, and performers who entertained, educated, and informed their audiences with a vast and various catalogue of narrative, lyrical, political, didactic, and dramatic works.At least since Peter Burke’s seminal work on early modern popular culture, cantastorie and their equivalents in other parts of Europe have been identified as crucial mediators in the dynamic continuum of learned and popular cultures, orality and literacy. These elusive performers held a place at the epicenter of Renaissance society and culture: they epitomize the ‘hybridity’ that characterized this era.The organizers welcome proposals from scholars of history, language, art, music or literature, which investigate the texts, performances, and careers of street singers and other closely-related performing professions in Renaissance Europe (and beyond).To be considered for these sessions, please send a 150-word abstract of your paper (please include a title and relevant keywords) and CV with full contact information to both organizers: Massimo Rospocher (mrospocher@fbk.eu&#60;mailto:mrospocher@fbk.eu&#62;) and Luca Degl’Innocenti (l.deglinnocenti@leeds.ac.uk&#60;mailto:l.deglinnocenti@leeds.ac.uk&#62;). The deadline for submission is May 31st. For additional details on the RSA Berlin 2015 conference, visit http://www.rsa.org/?2015Berlin