ENGL 249: Gender, Race, and Ethnicity in Shakespeare

The Black Shakespeare(ans) Database (BSD) highlights the history, complexity, and vibrancy of that performance tradition by giving visibility to classically trained Black actors, directors, playwrights, and dramaturgs in North America and beyond.

PhD students enrolled in Pr. Noémie Ndiaye’s “Early Modern Critical Race Studies” at the University of Chicago in Fall 2021 interviewed scholars who do cutting-edge work at the intersection of Shakespeare Studies and Critical Race Studies drawing on exciting critical approaches from Queer studies, Trans studies, Disability studies, Adaptation studies, and Intellectual History, and more. Discover their work here!

Prof. Ian Smith, celebrating recent recognitions, demonstrates the importance of the humanities in today’s society and the voice that can be raised in the academic world when one chooses to engage in 'talking race'.

In this podcast, which Folger originally broadcast in 2015, they explore two periods in the long history of African American engagement with Shakespeare.

Professor Farah Karim-Cooper examines the racial meanings behind the language of light/dark and white/black used in Shakespeare’s England.

On May 26th, Shakespeare’s Globe in London released an article called “Anti-racist Shakespeare” by Professor Farah Karim-Cooper. The Stratford Festival in Canada just hosted a live stream event called “Black Like Me, past, present and future: Behind the Stratford Festival Curtain.”

In solidarity with these actions, and in a world of Shakespearean scholarship often dominated by white voices, here is a list of 10 books, articles, and podcasts by black scholars that you can read/listen to today.