Race in Shakespeare

About the lecture

In this module, we think about the importance of race and 'the racial plot' when it comes to thinking about in Shakespeare, focusing in particular on: (i) the extent to which Shakespeare lived in a world in which racial thought circulated and served social purposes; (ii) the concept as race not as an objective feature of one's identity but as a social or political construction; (iii) the social and political purposes of race-based categorisations; and (iv) what ethnicity Shakespeare and his contemporaries had in mind when they described someone as a 'Moor'.

About the lecturer

Miles Parks Grier is Assistant Professor in the Department of English at Queens College, City University of New York (CUNY). His research encompasses Shakespeare Studies, Early American Studies, and African-American Studies. He is currently working on a book manuscript entitled Reading Black Characters: Atlantic Encounters with Othello, 1604-1855.