Global Shakespeare: Othello’s Venice in the World

The Summer School aims to gather an international cohort of graduate students for a week-long, multi-faceted exploration of one of the most timely topics in the interdisciplinary humanities: Shakespeare’s global contexts and futures. In order to provide focus and coherence, the play Othello, set in multicultural Venice, will be taken as case study throughout the summer school.

Each day will begin with a lecture from a different disciplinary standpoint, which will be followed by a two-hour seminar discussion. Afternoons will be spent in the workshop where the ideas explored in the morning will be tested through embodied theatrical experimentation. These workshops will be with actors from the Venice Shakespeare Company.

Course leader

Kevin Curran, Professor of Early Modern Literature at the University of Lausanne and President of the Lausanne Shakespeare Festival (Scientific Coordinator)

Target group

Graduate students (MA and PhD) from various disciplines: Literary Studies, Shakespeare Studies, Theater and Performance Studies, History, Politics, Philosophy, Anthropology, Media and Film Studies, Cultural Studies, Art, Gender Studies, Queer Studies.

Course aim

- A clear historical sense of the way Shakespeare’s works are imbricated in a global world of commerce, ideas, and performance, both in Shakespeare’s time and our own.
- A nuanced theoretical understanding of globalism and cosmopolitanism, and especially of the unique ways in which Shakespeare’s writing and dramaturgy contribute to a long tradition of thought on these topics.
- An appreciation for the way performance constitutes not only a creative practice, but also a form of applied and embodied critical thought, one especially useful for exploring the meanings and implications of a “global Shakespeare”.

Credits info

4 EC
A Certificate of Attendance will be issued at the end of the course.

Fee info

EUR 650: Students from VIU member universities.
EUR 1250: Other applicants.

The fees will cover tuition, course materials, lunches in the San Servolo cafeteria (6 working days on campus), social events.
Student participants will be responsible for covering their own travel expenses to and from Venice and local transportation.


VIU Alumni are eligible for a reduced fee.


As the COVID-19 pandemic is ongoing, VIU will continue to monitor the situation, and in the event that it is not possible to confirm the program on the VIU campus as scheduled, other practicable solutions will be evaluated. Applicants and confirmed participants will be informed of any changes.

Scholarships

PhD candidates and post-docs from EU universities may be eligible for Erasmus+ mobility grant support.
Contact VIU Erasmus office: erasmus@univiu.org