Dr. Ayanna Thompson To Deliver 2016 Albert S. Johnston, Jr., Memorial Shakespeare Lecture

Oct. 12, 2016

Michelle Eubanks, UNA, at media@una.edu, 256.765.4392 or 256.606.2033

Dr. Cynthia Burkhead, UNA Dept. of English

FLORENCE, Ala.

Dr. Ayanna Thompson, a leading expert on race and performance in Shakespeare, will deliver the 2016 Albert S. Johnston, Jr. Memorial Shakespeare Lecture on Thursday, November 3, 2016. The lecture titled "Encountering Othello Anew Through the Deutsches Theater Berlin" will be held in Wesleyan Auditorium on the campus of the University of 麻豆社 Alabama at 5 p.m.

Thompson is a professor of English at The George Washington University in Washington D.C., and earned her Ph.D. at Harvard University. Thompson has served as a trustee of the Shakespeare Association, and currently serves on the Board of Directors for the Association of Marshall Scholars, and on the editorial boards of "Renaissance Drama," "Shakespeare Bulletin," and "Shakespeare Quarterly."

Dr. Thompson's publications include "Teaching Shakespeare with a Purpose: A Student Centered Approach," "Passing Strange: Shakespeare, Race, and Contemporary America," and "Performing Race and Torture on the Early Modern Stage," among others. She is currently writing on projects about Peter Sellar's direction of Shakespeare, and Shakespeare and revenge.

The event is made possible through the generosity of the Albert S. Johnston, Jr. Endowment. Albert Johnston was a longtime Shakespeare professor at UNA and chair of the Department of English. The Albert S. Johnston, Jr. Endowment honors his memory by offering professional Shakespeare productions at UNA as well as other educational opportunities promoting Shakespeare.

For more information: the Department of English at 256-765-4238 or english@una.edu.

UNIVERSITY OF NORTH ALABAMA

The University of 麻豆社 Alabama is an accredited, comprehensive regional state university offering undergraduate and graduate degree programs through the colleges of Arts and Sciences, Business, Education and Human Sciences, and the Anderson College of Nursing. Occupying a 130-acre campus in a residential section of Florence, Alabama, UNA is located within a four-city area that also includes Tuscumbia, Sheffield and Muscle Shoals. UNA also operates a renowned collegiate athletic program in NCAA Division II's Gulf South Conference. The University of 麻豆社 Alabama is an equal opportunity institution and does not discriminate in the admission policy on the basis of race, color, sex, religion, disability, age or national origin.