Research at the Shakespeare Institute
Research is at the heart of the life of the Shakespeare Institute and informs all our activities.
The academic staff and research fellows are actively engaged in research on all aspects of Renaissance Drama, on the afterlife of Shakespeare in performance, on the culture of Renaissance England and on the impact of Shakespeare on modern culture.
Our research is funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council and by funding from the University of Birmingham.
Our postgraduate students’ research is similarly wide ranging, exploring such topics as the repertory of Renaissance theatre companies, the staging of Shakespeare’s plays, editions of Renaissance plays and key themes in early-modern theatrical culture.
The Shakespeare Institute Review was a journal run by postgraduate students at the Shakespeare Institute. It was founded to provide a platform for postgraduate students and early career researchers to share their research in Shakespeare and Early Modern Studies.
The Institute’s research culture is supported by the weekly seminars for all research students, a comprehensive programme of research skills training, playreadings and bookclubs and the ‘Thursday seminars’ that welcome international scholars who share their research with staff and students. A number of international scholars also visit the Shakespeare Institute to work in the library and to attend our open seminars and we host national and international conferences.
The students organise an annual conference, Britgrad, where students from the UK and overseas present their research.
All this work is ably supported by the staff of our outstanding library whose collections include some major theatre archives, a comprehensive collection of Shakespeare on film and access to all of the electronic and microfilm resources required for the study of the works, times and impact of Shakespeare.
Being based in the heart of shakespeare's Stratford upon Avon, with well established links with the Royal Shakespeare Company and the Shakespeare Birthplace Trust allows access to further collections and archives unavailable elsewhere.
- Academic staff research interests
- Current PhD research topics
- Academic visitors to the Shakespeare Institute
Current and recent staff research projects
- Signing Shakespeare
- Remixing the classics: digital adaptation and the literary and dramatic canon
- The Arden Performance Editions of Shakespeare
- Arden Shakespeare: 4
- Everything to Everybody - unlocking the world's first great people's Shakespeare library for all
- George Dawson - the lost prophet
- New Mermaids
- Playgoing, Pleasure and Judgement in Early Modern England, 1594-1642
- Rethinking Theatrical Documents
Research seminars
During the Autumn and Spring terms, the Institute runs a series of Thursday seminars which are given by members of staff and invited speakers.