The Department is cohosting a conference on ‘Shakespeare and Social Justice’ at the Fugard Theatre this week, along with the English Department at Wits and the Shakespeare Association of Southern Africa. We have the pleasure and privilege of hosting Professor Ayanna Thompson, President of the Shakespeare Association of America and a leading scholar of race and performance studies. Professor Thompson's keynote address, on ‘Shakespeare and Blackface’, takes place on Thursday evening in the Fugard’s Studio Theatre, at 17h00.

Professor Ayanna Thompson is director of the Arizona Center for Medieval & Renaissance Studies (ACMRS) at Arizona State University. She is the 2018-19 president of the Shakespeare Association of America. Her books include Teaching Shakespeare with Purpose: A Student-Centred Approach (2016), Passing Strange: Shakespeare, Race, and Contemporary America (2011), Weyward Macbeth: Intersections of Race and Performance (2010), Performing Race and Torture on the Early Modern Stage (2008) and Colorblind Shakespeare: New Perspectives on Race and Performance (2006).