MIT Global Shakespeares

04/24/2025

What do Shakespeare and AI have to say to each other? Virtuality, texts of obscure origin, dream, mirage, neurodiverse modes of relating to the world, collaboration , and more.

Shakespeare and RenAIssance technologies is the topic of Alexa Alice Joubin’s talk on Saturday April 26 at the University of Tennessee’s AI conference.

01/04/2025

Global Shakespeare is a myth that moves the world and moves around the globe. Having achieved a mythical status, Shakespeare’s plays have generated other myths about contemporary culture. These myths have been jointly created by educators, scholars, practitioners, administrators, funders, artists, spectators, and readers. Shakespeare’s name itself has been used to signify high culture. Read MIT Global Shakespeares co-founder Alexa Alice Joubin's latest essay:

https://globalshakespeares.mit.edu/extra/the-myth-of-global-shakespeare/

11/04/2024

"Bridging Cultures: An Intercultural Co-Production of The Winter’s Tale"

Through an international collaboration between Soon Chun Hyang University, South Korea, and Wellesley College, students from both universities will come together to present Shakespeare's classic play THE WINTER'S TALE on Nov 15 (7pm) and 16 (2pm & 7pm) at the Ruth Nagel Jones Black Box Theatre. Ticket sale starts on Nov 6. See the link below for full details:

https://globalshakespeares.mit.edu/bridging-cultures-an-intercultural-co-production-of-the-winters-tale/

10/16/2024

MIT Global Shakespeares co-founder Alexa Alice Joubin will speak on teaching global Shakespeare today in this Arden Bloomsbury webinar. She will launch her new book Contemporary Readings in Global Performances of Shakespeare. Registration and book links the comment. Wednesday Nov. 6 at 4 pm London, 11 am New York, 8 am San Francisco, 9:30 pm New Delhi.

10/05/2024

MIT Global Shakespeares thanks ASTR and ATHE for the honorable mention for the inaugural joint award for excellence in digital scholarship, 2024! Congratulations to co-founders Alexa Alice Joubin and Peter Donaldson!

07/23/2024

MIT Global Shakespeares received an HONORABLE MENTION for the 2024 ATHE-ASTR Award for Excellence in Digital Scholarship from the Association for Theatre in Higher Education.

Many thanks to the Association of Theatre in Higher Education and the members of the ATHE-ASTR Award For Excellence in Digital Scholarship Subcommittee for this recognition!

https://www.athe.org/page/24_digitalawardee

03/18/2024

Renowned for his contemporary performances on Traditional Turkish Theater, Ayhan Hulagu has released his new book, ‘Shadow of Hamlet,’ in the United States. Bringing Shakespeare’s Hamlet to traditional arts for the first time in its 700-year history, Hulagu documented the entire play process in his book, including documents, director’s notes, photographs, and the rewritten script. While the book details how Hamlet was adapted into traditional theater, it also provides clues on how art can build bridges between Eastern and Western cultures.

https://globalshakespeares.mit.edu/the-shadow-of-hamlet-is-speaking/

11/29/2023

The Shakespeare in BRAZIL website has launched! 🥳 🥳 🥳
https://shakespeareinbrazil.mit.edu

11/13/2023

Global Shakespeare for social justice. This article cites MIT Global Shakespeares co-founder Alexa Alice Joubin's research on how Sonnet 18 has become an unofficial hymn for China's new youth movement since late 2022.

On January 7, a young Chinese filmmaker named Xin Shang was arrested for an act he had committed two months earlier, that his country’s government had deemed “an endangerment to public safety”. Wha…

11/13/2023

NEW TURKISH PRODUCTIONS - During the Covid-19 pandemic, Zorlu PSM's "Digital Stage" presented iconic scenes from four popular plays by William Shakespeare, and they have agreed to let us host videos of these performances. İlker Özçelik, Regional Editor for MIT Global Shakespeares, worked with students in his Shakespeare and Performance course to transcribe, translate, and subtitle the videos in English. The four plays are: Hamlet, Romeo and Juliet, The Taming of the Shrew, and Twelfth Night. Please visit our archive, check out the performances, and leave your comments.
https://globalshakespeares.mit.edu/?s=%22digital+stage+series%22

11/09/2023

The latest volume of the The Shakespearean International Yearbook is now out. It focuses on the global afterlife of Pericles!

Preface

Tom Bishop and Alexa Alice Joubin



Part I: Special Section: Pericles, Prince of Tyre

Special Guest Editors:

Deanne Williams, York University, and Tom Bishop, University of Auckland



Introduction
Deanne Williams, York University, and Tom Bishop, University of Auckland



Whose Pericles, and Why, and When?
Stephen Orgel, Stanford University



The Excesses of Romance: Shakespeare’s Pericles and the Medieval Baroque
Robert Hudson Vincent, Harvard University



Hrotswitha of Gandersheim, Pericles, Prince of Tyre, and Humanist Girlhood
Deanne Williams, York University



Eater and Eaten, Feeder and Fed: Intercultural Consumption in Pericles
Stephen Cohen, Central Connecticut State University



Pericles and the Sea of Things
Andrew S. Brown, Dalhousie University



Pericles and the Primacy of Movement
Tonhi Lee, Tufts University



“The purchase is to make men glorious”: Pericles on the Stuart Court Stage
Gabriel Lonsbery, Purdue University



Inscribed Props and Daughters in Pericles
Bernice Mittertreiner Neal, York University



Musicking the Spheres in Pericles
Jennifer Linhart Wood, George Mason University



Pericles Comes to America
Tom Bishop, University of Auckland



Line Dancing, Belly Dancing, and Martial Arts: Staging the Soldiers’ Dance in Pericles
Linda McJannet, Bentley University



Productions of Pericles, Prince of Tyre, 1900-2020: a checklist
Tom Bishop, University of Auckland



Part Two: Recent Literature Review



Intersectional Shakespeare: the State of the Field, 2020-21
Nicole A. Jacobs, California Polytechnic State University

04/12/2023

When ChatGPT was launched, MIT Global Shakespeares co-founder Alexa Alice Joubin realized it was here to stay. She views it as her responsibility to teach students how to use it responsibly, not as a shortcut. “This technology is going to be with us, and students need employable skills in terms of curation, editorial repackaging and prompt engineering,” Joubin said. “They need to be able to formulate good queries—the quality of their queries is really important in this search-driven culture.” The skill to search for information and the ability to evaluate it are important assets in the job market and in life in general, Joubin said. “In our inquiry-driven culture, we need to know how to retrieve information through queries,” Joubin said. “Further, democratic society needs good question-askers as much as good problem-solvers. Asking key questions helps to advance scholarly fields, and students develop editorial, curatorial and critical questioning skills that are employable skills and the foundation of civil society in an era of ChatGPT.”

Alexa Alice Joubin said the new technology has much to offer students, including helping them develop critical skills.