British Shakespeare Association: Shakespeare, Race and Nation
Swansea University, 17-20 July 2019
BSA2019@swansea.ac.uk
Plenary Speakers include: Prof. Kim F Hall (Barnard College), Prof. Nandini Das (University of Liverpool) Dr. Preti Taneja (University of Warwick)
Swansea University is proud to host the 2019 British Shakespeare Association conference on the theme of “Shakespeare, Race, and Nation”.
In the lead-up to the UK’s 2016 EU Referendum vote, both pro and anti-EU campaigners used Shakespeare to try and establish a persuasive argument about British (or English) national identity. In the wake of the referendum, several commentators turned to Shakespeare again, this time in the form of a bitter joke: ‘Brexit, pursued by a bear’. But what does Shakespeare tell us about nationhood and about race? Shakespeare is often praised as a universal writer with global appeal but his plays have complicated histories that reveal legacies of racism and imperialism. This major international conference invites academics, practitioners, and educators from across the world to consider the fraught relationship Shakespeare has with these important and contentious subjects.
BSA 2019 also features a screening of Twelfth Night (Shanty Productions, 2018), including a Q&A with the company founders Rakie Ayola and Adam Smethhurst.