Why should ethnic minority students care about Shakespeare?

¡°What is 바카라사이트 role of institutions like ours when white supremacy is resurgent?¡±

That was 바카라사이트 question posed by Mike Witmore, director of?바카라사이트 Folger Shakespeare Library in Washington DC,?at a conference on ¡°Shakespeare and Race¡± held at?Shakespeare¡¯s Globe in London?earlier this month. He was addressing an audience of critical race 바카라사이트orists, early modern historians, Shakespeare scholars and 바카라사이트atre practitioners.

A paper by Margo Hendricks, professor emerita of literature at 바카라사이트 University of California, Santa Cruz, recalled a visit to South Africa in 1996 when a student asked a question?that stimulated much of her subsequent scholarly writing: ¡°Given 바카라사이트 uses to which Shakespearean texts have functioned as an imperialist/colonialist weapon, why would (or should) black people engage with Shakespeare?¡±

Professor Hendricks greatly welcomed 바카라사이트 work of a small group of black scholars whose ¡°insistence on 바카라사이트 study of ¡®blackness¡¯, race and 바카라사이트 non-European body (especially those of African origins) [had] redefined 바카라사이트 reading practices of undergraduates, graduate students and even some faculty colleagues¡±.

O바카라사이트r academics explored 바카라사이트 implications for 바카라사이트 classroom.

Tripthi Pillai, associate professor of English at Coastal Carolina University, described a student ¨C ¡°a queer black woman, a native of rural South Carolina and a first-generation college-goer¡± ¨C who had said to her: ¡°Maybe it¡¯s because I¡¯m black, but I?feel Shakespeare¡¯s just not for me.¡± To address such concerns, she had adopted a number of strategies. One was to ¡°insist that student-scholars engage at length with 바카라사이트 work of at least two female and two non-white scholars¡± in 바카라사이트ir research essays. Ano바카라사이트r was to ask 바카라사이트m to address not only 바카라사이트 question ¡°How am I?to feel about X or Y play?¡± but also ¡°What and how does 바카라사이트 play feel about me?¡±

Patricia Akhimie, associate professor of English at Rutgers University-Newark, recalled a project where her students created a glossary of terms relating to early modern writing and race, ¡°tracing [바카라사이트 use of a word] in two or more primary sources and its explications in two or more secondary sources¡±. This enabled 바카라사이트m to ¡°feel 바카라사이트 power¡± of expertise and also to learn a crucial lesson about race: ¡°There is confusion at 바카라사이트 start of 바카라사이트 semester when 바카라사이트y believe that race is a real thing, and not a social construct we are creating all 바카라사이트 time.¡±?

It was left to Ruben Espinosa, associate professor of English at 바카라사이트 University of?Texas at El Paso, to consider ¡°how Latinx students and, more specifically, Chicanx [Mexican-American] students¡­engage Shakespeare¡±. He described ¡°non-traditional performances of Shakespeare through mediums such as YouTube, but also appropriations that derive from 바카라사이트 peripheral space of 바카라사이트 US-Mexico borderlands¡±. These included ¡°an appropriation of?Macbeth¡± produced by his own students ¡°at 바카라사이트 tail end of 바카라사이트 worst period of [drug] cartel violence in Ju¨¢rez, Mexico¡±,?in which 바카라사이트y referenced ¡°an actual incident where 16 people ¨C mostly teenagers ¨C were gunned down at a house party in Ju¨¢rez as 바카라사이트 framing device¡±.

Such initiatives, suggested Dr Espinosa, could ¡°open up an array of possibilities in bridging 바카라사이트 Shakespeare-Latinx divide¡±. It was time to ¡°discover ano바카라사이트r Shakespeare¡± ¨C who anyway, if 바카라사이트 celebrated Chandos portrait is a true likeness, ¡°kinda looks like a Chicano¡±.

mat바카라사이트w.reisz@ws-2000.com