Looking for Mercy in The Merchant of Venice

In the fall semester of 2018, my students at Harvey Mudd College participated in “The Quality of Mercy Project,” whose remit was to offer a collaborative but locally inflected vision of what The Merchant of Venice communicates to us and how we can, in turn, perform and transform this play given our particular, regional interests … Continue reading Looking for Mercy in The Merchant of Venice

After Race Before Race

  On Friday and Saturday, January 18-19 2019, Arizona State University’s Center for Medieval and Renaissance Studies directed by Professor Ayanna Thompson hosted a paradigm shifting conference on race and race studies in the medieval and early modern periods. Following upon The Globe’s Shakespeare and Race Symposium of August 2018, this program expanded the field … Continue reading After Race Before Race

Banning Persepolis is not how we defeat Islamophobia

Image copyright Marjane Satrapi and Pantheon Marjane Satrapi’s searing graphic memoir Persepolis continues to remain controversial and relevant over 15 years after its publication in North America. The memoir follows the childhood trauma endured by Satrapi as she came of age during the student--and then-- Islamic revolution in Iran in the 1970s. Satrapi depicts the … Continue reading Banning Persepolis is not how we defeat Islamophobia

White women are oppressed, too, or Season 2 of The Handmaid’s Tale

All images courtesy of HULU The second season of Hulu’s critically acclaimed and award winning show, The Handmaid’s Tale premiered last week. Picking up where, last season’s seemingly triumphant cliffhanger left off, with our heroine Offred-June in a black “Eye” van, being unceremoniously removed from Commander and Mrs. Waterford’s home for parts unknown. The final … Continue reading White women are oppressed, too, or Season 2 of The Handmaid’s Tale

Where was he radicalized? The fanaticism of A Noise Within’s Henry V

Where was he radicalized? Henry V at A Noise Within Photo credit A Noise Within We all know that Shakespeare’s Henry V is about war. While the play might feature a specious and spurious cause for war (as all good warmongers and their surrogates are wont to do), we are apt to forget that motivating … Continue reading Where was he radicalized? The fanaticism of A Noise Within’s Henry V

Why we need a Trump Shakespeare

  Why we need a Trump Shakespeare I will begin with a straightforward contention: “Literature is good to think with. It makes us better analysts, better interpreters, better readers. It doesn’t supply answers.”[1] This will seem like a contradiction: that we acquire various critical thinking skills, yet we don’t utilize them in the service of … Continue reading Why we need a Trump Shakespeare

This Brown, Muslim-American Woman’s thoughts on ‘The Handmaid’s Tale’

Image copyright Hulu Last week, the streaming service, Hulu, premiered its “peak TV” series, The Handmaid’s Tale, based on Margaret Atwood’s 1985 novel.  Three episodes of the series are out (with new episodes released every Wednesday), and they are simultaneously haunting and terrifying. If you’re unfamiliar with Atwood’s novel, it is set in a dystopian … Continue reading This Brown, Muslim-American Woman’s thoughts on ‘The Handmaid’s Tale’