Fall 2025
Postponed until Spring 2026; please check back for the rescheduled date.
Thursday, November 13, 6pm CST, Spence Wilson Room, Briggs Hall. Reception to follow.
Ramie Targoff (Brandeis University), "Forging Women's Networks in Aemilia Lanyer's Salve Deus”
Aemilia Lanyer’s Salve Deus was a landmark publication: the first book of poems published by a woman in 17th-century England, it offered a startlingly feminist defense of Eve and argued for women’s liberty in relation to men. This talk looks at the ways in which Lanyer sought to create a community of powerful female readers and patrons to support her radical poetic project.
is the Jehuda Reinharz Professor of Humanities, professor of English, and co-chair of Italian Studies at Brandeis University. She has written multiple books, including Posthumous Love: Eros and the Afterlife in Renaissance England (University of Chicago Press, 2014), Renaissance Woman: The Life of Vittoria Colonna (Farrar, Straus, and Giroux, 2018), and most recently (Penguin Random House, 2024). Shakespeare’s Sisters was named one of the Best Books of 2024 by both The New Yorker and The Boston Globe.
Feb. 24 – March 5, 2025 Residency with visiting artist .
Hutchison is a director, actor, and lecturer. His work covers television, film, theatre, voice-over, and radio, working for the BBC, ITV, the Royal Shakespeare Company, the Royal National Theatre, and Shakespeare’s Globe.
As with past residencies, he is available for class visits and workshops.
October 24, 2024, 6pm CST
“How Plays Teach Us to See”
Location: Blount Auditorium, Buckman Hall
(Bard College), “Fair is Foul, and Foul is Fair”
Abstract: This talk explores how Macbeth dramatizes a crisis in the operations of judgment, in how individuals distinguish between real and illusory, good and bad, beautiful and ugly. Tracing this crisis to how Renaissance educational practices attempted to cultivate ethical statesmen by training them in rhetorical style, I’ll propose that Macbeth anticipates reflections on the continuities between aesthetic and moral judgments by modern philosophers like Iris Murdoch, Stanley Cavell, and Alexander Nehamas. It was obvious to Shakespeare and his contemporaries that writing well did not correspond to behaving well, but in Macbeth he demonstrates that freely deliberating upon the “good,” whether it be a poetical word or political deed, always risks rationally making the wrong choice.
(Oberlin College), “Theater as Portal”
Abstract: “Mine eyes are made fools of the other senses / Or else are Worth all the rest.” So says Macbeth, reeling, as he tries to clutch a floating dagger that his murderous thoughts have conjured. Is it physically there before him, or a psychological projection, “a dagger of the mind”? This is partly a question for directors, but it is also an epistemological question. How do we know what we know, and is the ocular sense an asset or hindrance to that knowledge? In the early seventeenth century, early modern optical technologies like the telescope, camera obscura, and (soon enough) the microscope promised newfound access to the invisible and the faraway. In this talk I argue that Shakespeare’s “Globe,” too, was an ingenious technology of perception, offering glimpses of supernatural realms that natural philosophy (or science) increasingly rejected. At the same time, plays like Macbeth deliberately ambiguate the relationship between the visible and intelligible, foregrounding the contingency of human perception and understanding.
On October 25, Professors Desai and Hyman will also be holding a pedagogy workshop entitled for faculty members.
Speaker Bios:
Adhaar Noor Desai is Associate Professor of English at Bard College, NY and co-founder of the Experimental Humanities Collaborative Network. He is the author of Blotted Lines: Early Modern English Literature and the Poetics of Discomposition (Cornell, 2023).
Wendy Beth Hyman is Donald R Longman Professor of English and Comparative Literature and Chair of Book Studies at Oberlin College, OH. She is Trustee of the Shakespeare Association of America and author of Impossible Desire and the Limits of Knowledge in Renaissance Poetry (Oxford, 2019).
Marjorie Garber, April 10-12, 2024
Renowned humanities scholar returns to Memphis April 10–12, 2024; her visit is co-sponsored by the and the Project for the Study of Liberal Democracy, Rhodes College; and the and the , University of Memphis.
Since serving as our at , Garber has published three more books: ; ; and, most recently, , praised by the as “a delight to read … beautifully written, and beautifully presented … a constant source of illumination.”
On Wednesday, April 10, Garber will lead a discussion at the University of Memphis about the recent history and current state of the academic humanities (12:00–1:30pm; African American Reading Room, Patterson Hall 221). Following an afternoon interview with WKNO’s “,” Garber will conduct a Meeman Center class on her books and (5:30–7:00pm; King Hall).
On Thursday, April 11, the Rhodes College committee will host Garber for a conversation about her experience directing Harvard’s as well as serving as the President of the (CHCI) (2:00–3:00pm; Spence Wilson Room, Briggs Hall). Garber will then offer opening remarks at 51’ 21st Annual Symposium on Gender and Sexuality Studies (3:30pm; Blount Auditorium), reflecting upon why continuing research in this field remains vital. The will have copies of her landmark study available for purchase and signing (Blount Lobby). Later that evening, Garber will give a reading from her most recent book, , at Novel bookstore (6:00pm; 387 Perkins Extension).
On Friday, April 12, Garber will deliver the keynote luncheon address at the of the (ACTC). Her talk is titled Displacement: Shakespeare, Freud, and the Place of the Humanities (12:30–1:45pm; Heritage Ballroom, Sheraton Downtown Memphis). This luncheon is free to registered ACTC guests, but please note that seating is limited, so pre-registration is required. Following her lecture, registered ACTC guests are also welcome to attend a about Garber’s , winner of Phi Beta Kappa’s . Respondents include Rhodes professors Daniel Cullen and Stephen Wirls as well as (2:00–4:30pm; Magnolia Room, Sheraton Downtown Memphis).
October 19, 2023, 5:00 pm CST
“What is Shakespeare’s First Folio—and Why Should I Care?”
Pearce Shakespeare Endowment Lecture by , Professor at the University of Oxford and best-selling author of “” and “.”
(Blount Auditorium, Buckman Hall, Rhodes College)
2023 marks 400 years since the publication of the first collected edition of Shakespeare’s plays, the book now revered as the First Folio. This talk introduces what’s significant about this book, and what copies can tell us about the way it was put together, and the uses to which it has been put over the last four centuries. From printers’ errors to cat pawprints, and from children’s drawings to commonplacing, First Folios give us a ringside seat to view the changing status of Shakespeare, and the ways in which its cultural, literary, and economic value have become intertwined.
Dr. Smith’s talk was one of many events celebrating Rhodes College’s 175th anniversary
2023 Pearce Law and Literature Speaker Series
The 2023 Pearce Law and Literature Speaker series will bring Renaissance scholars working on the cutting edge of law and literature studies to share their current work with us – and with each other. All speakers will be present at each session to create a dynamic conversation and continuity across the semester. Speakers will address topics such as race, disability, human rights, equity, and the politics of majority rule.
Schedule
Thursday, Jan. 26, 12:30-1:45 CST
(The University of Alabama at Tuscaloosa), “Black Legend as Legal Rhetoric in Early British Encounters with Sub-Saharan Africa”
Thursday, Feb. 23, 12:30-1:45 CST
(Macalester College), “Disabled by Law: Property and Ablenationalism in Seventeenth-Century Law and Literature”
(Stanford University), “Coriolanus and the History of Majoritarianism”
Tuesday, March 28, 12:30-1:45 CST:
(Indiana University Bloomington), “A Poetics of Human Rights: The Case of Cymbeline”
(The University of Alabama at Birmingham), “‘For with his own laws he can best dispense’: Equity and Interpretation in Samson Agonistes”
Thursday, April 13, 12:30-1:45 CST:
Keynote Address: (Merton Professor of English Literature, Merton College, Oxford University), “Neptune’s Sway: Law in the ‘Island Nation’ Fiction, 1550-1700”
Co-Sponsored by the Department of English, the Office of Academic Affairs, and the
February 1-11, 2022
Exhibit: “‘What Do I Know?’ Montaigne's Restless Mind”
Barret Library at 51 College hosts a student-curated exhibit about the French writer Michel de Montaigne (1533–92), one of Shakespeare’s major influences. Free and open to the public, the exhibit will have an informal closing reception at 4pm (CST) on Friday, February 11.
An innovator in the modern essay form, Montaigne continues to enchant readers across the globe. With idiosyncratic charm, he’s as apt to examine poetic verse as he is to scrutinize his own thumb. Montaigne’s capacious spirit encourages us to “examine everyone’s talent; a peasant, a bricklayer, a passenger: one may learn something from every one of these in their several capacities.”
This exhibit includes rare books dating back to the 1400s, early editions of Montaigne’s works, and other fascinating memorabilia. Rhodes students have selected and arranged Special Collections materials that illustrate how generative Montaigne’s work has remained for centuries of thinkers. Topics explored include Montaigne and women; his interest in indigenous peoples; his engagement with biblical as well as classical sources; and his literary and educational legacy.
ENG-380 students (Fall 2021) include Brittany Ashley, Lucie Christian, Emma Dove, Harrison Glaze, Tess Herzog, Katie Hopper, Sujung Hwang, Ellen Lemm, Madison McCloud, Diana Miranda, Ben Reynolds, Isabel Rodriguez, Lily Thomas, Emily Ulmer, Patsy Wardlaw, Rory Wilson, and Yifei Zhang.
Special thanks to Mr. William Short, Associate Director of Barret Library and Head of Special Collections, who has been tirelessly devoted to making this exhibit happen.
September 5, 2021
Co-sponsorship of Hattiloo Theatre’s , written by William Shakespeare; conceived by Geoffrey Owens.
continues the 200-year-old tradition of producing Shakespeare's work with Black actors. Shakespeare’s complex creations — men and women, kings and beggars, villains and heroes — stand alone and speak aloud their inmost thoughts. Although Geoffrey Owens is best known for his TV and film performances, he has appeared on Broadway in and in Julius Caesar at the in Washington, D.C. He has done roles—including Romeo, Richard the Third, Othello and Puck—at numerous theaters, including the New York Shakespeare Festival, the , , and the . For student tickets, please email newstokS@rhodes.edu.
Spring semester 2021
Artists and scholars e-visited our Midsummer Night’s Dream seminar
February 4, 11, 18, 25: Nick Hutchison on rehearsing/directing the play
March 4: on “”
March 9: Julia Gaisser on
March 11: on
March 16: on
March 18: on the
March 23: on Milton’s “”
March 25: Vanessa Rogers on ’s opera
March 30: on his 1999 film
April 6: on Britten’s opera
April 8: Rob Myles and on
April 13: on his Arden edition of the play
April 15: Don Rodrigues on queer theory and The Phoenix and the Turtle
April 20: on his book
April 22: on
April 27: on her
January 9, 2021
Co-sponsorship of , with the , the , and presenting a concert of a work in progress including original music and songs from the 1939 production. Streamed live from the in Stratford-upon-Avon, this jazz-infused version of A Midsummer Night’s Dream opened on Broadway with an all-star cast, including Louis Armstrong and Maxine Sullivan, along with musical contributions from Count Basie and Benny Goodman.
September 18, 2020
, Vanderbilt University Writer-in-Residence, discussed her book , which plays on the so-called Dark Lady of Shakespeare's sonnets. This Zoom event was co-sponsored by the Rhodes College Pearce Shakespeare Endowment and Jack D. Farris Visiting Writers Series.
September 2020
Digital residency with visiting artist Nick Hutchison
Nick Hutchison worked closely with Rhodes students on interpreting Shakespeare’s sonnets.
April 23–24, 2020 [Postponed due to COVID]
Law and Literature Symposium
This free public symposium convenes scholars of early modern law and literature, working primarily but not exclusively in the field of English. Invited speakers will take into account questions of form and content, both legal and literary; temporalities and periodization; space, mobility, and motion; and slavery, personhood, and the laws of property. (Oxford University) will deliver the keynote on April 23, followed by a pedagogy workshop and panel presentations on April 24 by (Indiana University); (University of Alabama—Birmingham); Stephanie Elsky (Rhodes College); (Stanford University); and (University of Alabama—Tuscaloosa). The symposium will conclude with Rhodes Theatre’s production of Qualities of Mercy: Scenes of Law & Justice on the Shakespearean Stage. Co-sponsored by the Office of Academic Affairs and the .
February 15 – March 6, 2020
Residency with visiting artist Nick Hutchison
Nick Hutchison is a director, actor, and lecturer. His work covers television, film, theatre, voice-over, and radio, working for the BBC, ITV, the Royal Shakespeare Company, the Royal National Theatre, and Shakespeare’s Globe.
As with past residencies, Nick is available for class visits and workshops.
November 16, 2019 (7:30am-5:00pm, English Commons, 312 Southwestern Hall)
Marathon reading of “Paradise Lost”
Join the “fit audience . . . though few” who have read Paradise Lost. We commence early (7:30am) with coffee and pastries for your eager appetite, break for noontide repast (a.k.a. pizza), rashly eat fair enticing fruit around 3pm, and take our solitary way after 5pm.
Drop by for just a few lines, or stay for all 10,565!
October 21, 2019 (7:30pm, McNeill Concert Hall, free admission)
Luna Nova Music presents An Evening of Music and Shakespeare
Featuring music by Claude Debussy, Juan Maria Solare, John Dowland, G. P. Telemann, Roger Quilter, and Erich Korngold, performed by Daniel Gilbert, violin, Kelly Hermann, flute, Ben Minden-Birkemaier, guitar, Brian Ray, piano, and Paul Murray, baritone
– 901-493-0958
October 4, 2019 (noon-2pm, Hyde Hall, Catherine Burrow Refectory)
— discussion with
Burt is a poet, scholar, and critic. Co-sponsored by Rhodes College Creative Writing and the University of Memphis .
February 21, 2019: Lecture by Prof. , director of the at the University of Alabama.
March 15, 2018 (7pm, Blount): Lecture on by Marc Shell (Harvard University), co-sponsored by English, Environmental Studies & Sciences, Latin American and Latinx Studies, Modern Languages and Literatures, Phi Beta Kappa, Political Economy, and the Project for the Study of Liberal Democracy
March 2, 2018: Shelby County students are invited to submit their original composition for Rhodes College's inaugural Sonnet Contest, sponsored by the Department of English's Creative Writing Program and the Pearce Shakespeare Endowment. Winners will receive a prize book and have their poem published in Rhodes' literary magazine, The Southwestern Review. Rhodes English Professors will select the top sonnet in two categories: Shakespearean sonnet (14 lines of iambic pentameter with an ABABCDCDEFEFGG rhyme scheme), and non-Shakespearean sonnet (where the only constraint will be 14 lines). Sonnet submissions must include name, age, school or home school, grade, and contact information, and must be e-mailed by Friday, March 2, 2018 to Lorie Yearwood.
January 25, 2018 "Why the Reformation Still Matters," lecture by Brad Gregory (Notre Dame), co-sponsored by the Batey Lecture with Search, Religious Studies, History, and West Tennessee Churches of the ELCA
November 2, 2017 (7pm, Hardie): Phi Beta Kappa lecture on Shakespeare and Race by Ayanna Thompson (George Washington), co-sponsored by Phi Beta Kappa, Africana Studies, English, Theatre
October 26—28, 2017 (8pm, Ewing Studio): SHAKESPEARE'S WOMEN, staged reading directed by Rhodes alumna Leslie Reddick ’82
February 22, 2017: Jews and Muslims in Shakespeare's World, a conversation between (Rhodes), (Columbia), and Ayanna Thompson (George Washington). Co-sponsored by Communities in Conversation; .
April 21–22, 2016: 1616 Symposium, with a keynote address (Thomas Christensen, author of ), the regional premiere of a show based on the last days of Shakespeare′s life (by UK artist Gareth Somers), and lectures by scholars ranging across the liberal arts: (Stanford) on print culture c. 1616; Owen Gingerich (Harvard) on Galileo; (Stanford) on Cervantes; (Alabama) on the origins of slavery in the Bermudas; Michael Legaspi (Penn State) on the genesis of biblical hermeneutics; Gideon Manning(USC) on early modern medicine; (Indiana), on alchemy and chymistry; (UBC), on Tang Xianzu and Kun opera; (Rutgers) on the early modern corporation; Wendy Wall (Northwestern) on recipes and knowledge. As part of the symposium, Barret Library displayed 1616-related items from our special collections. At the , a copy of Shakespeare′s First Folio was on display from April 11–May 1, 2016. The 1616 symposium was co-sponsored by Asian Studies, Barret Library, Biology, Chemistry, English, History, International Studies, Latin American Studies, Modern Languages & Literatures, Physics, Political Economy, Psychology, Religious Studies, and Theatre, as well as the , Communities in Conversation, and the Confucius Institute.
November 8, 2015: the Pearce Shakespeare Endowment partnered with the Film Festival for a screening of Orson Welles’ classic “” (a.k.a. “Falstaff”), celebrating the 50th anniversary of its 1965 release, as well as the 100th anniversary of Welles’ 1915 birth. The screening was be preceded by arias from Falstaff operas, and followed by a discussion with Welles scholar (Marymount). Film Studies and CODA co-sponsored this event.
September 28–October 23, 2015: artistic residency with British actor and director Nick Hutchison, who visited dozens of classes as well as worked closely with students in rehearsal. Hutchison's visit culminated in a free public Symposium on Shakespearean Comedy, co-sponsored by the Departments of English and Theatre. In addition to Hutchison’s direction of student scenes, (McGill) discussed “Gender, Shakespeare, and Emotion on the Eighteenth-Century Stage.” Her visit was co-sponsored by Rhodes' Gender & Sexuality Studies program.
April 23, 2015: Shakespeare′s Birthday Lecture by John Guillory (NYU), who will discuss "Monuments and Documents: On the Object of Study in the Humanities" (6pm, Blount). Guillory reflected upon Erwin Panofsky′s use of the terms ′monument′ and ′document′ to describe the works of art studied by the art historian or critic, and on the utility of these terms in describing the object of study across humanities disciplines generally. Co-sponsored by English, Art, and the Search Program. Guillory also discussed his pre-circulated paper on the Common Core State Standards Initiative (3:30pm, Palmer 203).
November 1, 2014: Regional premiere of Romeo and Juliet in Harlem at Film Festival (9:45pm, reception 9:00pm), with director and actor . Co-sponsored by the Rhodes Africana Studies Program, Rhodes Office of Multicultural Affairs, Rhodes Film Studies, CODA, and the at the University of Memphis.
March 27, 2014: Phi Beta Kappa lecture by Marjorie Garber: "Occupy Shakespeare: Shakespeare and/in the Humanities." Interview in Chapter 16; Memphis Flyer "Shakespeare Our Contemporary"; "Occupied Shakespeare." Co-sponsored by the Rhodes College chapter of Phi Beta Kappa; the Department of English; the Gender and Sexuality Studies Program; Greek & Roman Studies; the Search Program; and the Spence L. Wilson Chair in Humanities.
November 2, 2013: Regional premiere of H4 at the film festival (). H4 is the first black Shakespeare film, transporting the Henry IV plays to contemporary Los Angeles to explore political struggles in the African American community. Actor/producer and scholar/screenwriter (George Washington University) attended the screening as well as engaged in an informal discussion with Rhodes students, faculty, and staff (3:30pm, Rhea Lounge). Interviews with Lennix: ; Ferdy on Films; JET. Reviews: Show Biz Chicago; Antagony & Ecstasy; Memphis Flyer; The Bloodshot Eye.
October 10–11, 2013: "The Past and Future of the Book" symposium on the latest developments in book history as well as innovative digital approaches to interpreting Shakespeare. Lukas Erne discussed "Disseminating Printed Shakespeare in Early Modern England”; Michael Witmore addressed "Writing Literary and Cultural History at the Level of the Sentence”; Robert Darnton responded to these presentations, and engaged in a roundtable discussion with Erne and Witmore. Darnton also lectured at the University of Memphis: "Digitize and Democratize: Libraries, Books, and the Digital Future". Facebook event page; Flyer interview; interview; Smart City Memphis; Intermission Impossible; Commercial Appeal; event poster (pdf).
April 12–13, 18–21, 2013: Production of As You Like It, with the return of visiting director Nick Hutchison. Interview with the director; review in the The Memphis Flyer; view photos. This production garnered nine Ostrander nominations for most outstanding college drama, winning awards for Supporting Actress in a Drama (Madison Tallant) and Supporting Actor in a Drama (Stephen Brown).
October 5, 2012: Symposium on "Global Hamlets," with Nick Hutchison, and David Schalkwyk. Media: poster (PDF); lobby placard (PDF); Smart City Memphis; Memphis Flyer; interview.
November 10-11, 2011: Symposium on "The King James Bible′s 400th Anniversary," with Robert Alter, , Ena Heller, Naomi Tadmor, and Vincent Wimbush. Media: flyer; poster; schedule; facebook page; Chapter 16 interview with Alter; with Alter; Commercial Appeal review of Alter′s book; Memphis Flyer interview with Alter; article on symposium; Faith in Memphis entry on "Manifold Greatness" exhibit; Manifold Greatness and ; The Bible and Interpretation blog.
April 1-2, 14-17, 2011: Production of Twelfth Night, in celebration of the McCoy Theatre′s 30th anniversary season, with visiting director Nick Hutchison. Review in The Memphis Flyer; this production garnered eight Ostrander nominations for most outstanding college drama, winning awards for Leading Actress (Kilby Hodges), Leading Actor (Stephen Brown), and Supporting Actor (.
January 23, 2011: Panel discussion of the history and practice of adapting Shakespeare′s works to music, with Rhodes professors (English) and Vanessa Rogers (Music). Presented in conjunction with ′ production of a new musical version of ().
March 26, 2010: Symposium on "Green Shakespeare: Environmental Studies and the Bard," with a keynote lecture by Robert Watson was followed by a roundtable discussion on the "state of the field" with Dan Brayton, Simon Estok, Sharon O′Dair, Karen Raber, and Robert Watson. Co-sponsored by the Rhodes College Environmental Program, with additional support from the (ACS) and the Rhodes College Center for Outreach in the Development of the Arts (CODA). Press release; newspaper article; Memphis Flyer recommendation; Smart City blog posting; Counterpoint radio program; Watson′s lecture handout.
October 20, 2009: Concert: Music of Shakespeare′s England, performed by The City Musick.
April 24, 2009: Lectures on The Taming of the Shrew by Dympna Callaghan and Leah Marcus co-sponsored by the Gender and Sexuality Studies Program.
October 3, 2008: Lecture on As You Like It by Paul Kottman, co-sponsored by the Department of Political Science and by CODA.
January 25, 2008: Symposium on Macbeth, “Shakespeare in Color” (PDF), with Aleta Chappelle, Wallace Cheatham, Peter Erickson, Harry Lennix, Marguerite Rippy, Amy Scott-Douglass, and Ayanna Thompson. Co-sponsored by CODA, the African American Studies program, and the Departments of English and Theatre. This event was held in conjunction with the production of the play at Hattiloo Theatre, directed by Professor Cookie Ewing, and Verdi′s Macbett by Opera Memphis. Lectures from the symposium (by Wallace Cheatham,Peter Erickson, Harry Lennix, Marguerite Rippy, Amy Scott-Douglass, and Ayanna Thompson) have been published in an expanded collection of essays, Weyward Macbeth.