Keynote speakers

• Professor Dympna Callaghan (William Safire Professor of Modern Letters, Syracuse University)
• Professor Jonathan Dollimore (Philosopher and social theorist)
• Iqbal Khan (Director)
• Emma Rice (Artistic Director for Wise Children)
• Professor Sir Roger Scruton - (Writer and philosopher)

Key people

• Erica Whyman (Deputy Artistic Director of the Royal Shakespeare Company)
• Ewan Fernie (Chair, Professor and Fellow of the Shakespeare Institute)

The event will also feature an exciting mix of other scholars, artists and journalists, including: 

• Hassan Abdulrazzak (Playwright)
• Harriet Affleck (Publishing Manager, Digital Theatre)
• Dr Cristina Delgado-Garcia (Lecturer in Drama and Theatre Arts, University of Birmingham)
• Lucy Ellinson (Actor)
• Lyn Gardner (Theatre Critic, Writer and Journalist)
• Juliet Gilkes Romero (Journalist and Playwright)
• Professor Peter Holbrook (Professor of Shakespeare and Renaissance Literature, University of Queensland)
• Dr Richard House (Senior Lecturer in Creative Writing, University of Birmingham)
• Dr Islam Issa - Writer, curator and broadcaster
• Nadia Latif (Writer and Director)
• Professor Julia Lupton (Professor of English and Comparative Literature, University of California)
• Anders Lustgarten (Playwright)
• Dr Aneta Mancewicz (Lecturer in Drama and Theatre Arts, University of Birmingham)
• Terry O’Connor (Theatre-Maker)
• Dr Abigail Rokison-Woodall (Lecturer in Shakespeare and Theatre, University of Birmingham)
• Professor Kiernan Ryan (Honorary Senior Research Fellow, University of Birmingham)
• Dr Karen Salt (Assistant Professor in Transnational American Studies, The University of Nottingham)
• Dr Catherine Silverstone (Reader in Theatre and Performance, Queen Mary University of London)
• Kimberley Sykes (Director)
• Ayse Tashkiran (Movement Director)
• Professor Richard Wilson (Sir Peter Hall Professor of Shakespeare Studies, Kingston University)