Situating Shakespeare Pedagogy in US Higher Education: Social Justice and Institutional Contexts

On college and university campuses across the United States, scholar-teachers and their students find themselves in conditions of both real threat and tremendous possibility. Building on the recent surge of interest in equitable pedagogy within the field of Shakespeare and Renaissance literary studies, Situating Shakespeare Pedagogy in U.S. Higher Education makes a case for anchoring our teaching in these institutional power dynamics that have historically contributed to systemic injustice and continue to affect our work on a daily basis. Each of the contributors to this collection speaks directly to the intersection between their own identities, the lived experiences of their students, and the particular qualities of the institutions where they teach—including student demographics, curricular requirements, geographical location, and comparative levels of administrative support for implementing social justice approaches. From this perspective, they provide hope and practical guidance for scholar-educators who want to meet our students where they are.