Shakespeare in the Age of Mass Incarceration: (Spotlight on Shakespeare)

Shakespeare in the Age of Mass Incarceration offers invaluable insight into how Shakespeare appears in prison. Bringing together theater artists, currently and formerly incarcerated actors, and college-in-prison educators and students, the collection describes powerful encounters in classrooms and rehearsal rooms as they explore the complexity of “prison Shakespeare.” In this innovative volume, instructors from college-in-prison programs across the United States recount students’ profound awe with Shakespeare, and their sometimes trenchant critiques. They also consider how their teaching has grown and changed as they learn from their incarcerated students. Theater artists, including founders of and participants in influential Shakespeare prison programs, illustrate evolving practices in the field. The collection also features discussion from directors of programs for returning citizens, addressing the formidable obstacles people face as they come out of prison. Accessible and highly teachable, this collection offers useful perspectives for students of Shakespeare, prison arts and education programs, and social justice initiatives. Those interested in starting or contributing to Shakespeare programs or courses in prisons will find a wealth of practical information, and those who read or watch Shakespeare with interest, skepticism, or delight will discover points of connection with incarcerated people who do the same.

Table of Contents:
Foreword; Introduction: Why is Shakespeare in Prison Today?; Past & Present; 1. Shakespeare’s “Working-house of thought”: The prison in early modern London; 2. Hope Needs to be Loud: A Founding Member on Nearly Thirty Years of Shakespeare Behind Bars; 3. Three Thousand Hours: Shakespeare and Awe in Prison; Interventions; 4. The Cultural Invasion of Shakespeare in Prison; 5. The Cultural Invasion of Shakespeare in Prison: Contexts and Futures; 6. Shakespeare at Auburn: Reflections on Teaching & Learning in the Prison Classroom; 7. “Prisoners of our Actions”: Teaching Hamlet on Rikers Island; 8. Playing Many Parts: The Challenges of Representing Incarcerated Shakespeares; 9. Michael Chekhov Technique as a Trauma-responsive Practice in Shakespeare in Prison; Practice; 10. “Presume not that I am the thing I was”: Collaborative Theater Companies in English Prisons; 11. “Like Bright Metal on a Sullen Ground”: The First Six Months of a Prison Shakespeare Program; 12. Wasps and Falcons: Figurative Language and Teaching Shakespeare’s Women; 13. Counter-Readings: Reimagining Shakespeare in Prison Libraries; 14. I Was Octavius Caesar; Futures; 15. Within and Beyond: Shakespeare Behind/BEYOND Bars; 16. Time Out of Joint: Taking Shakespeare from Prisons to Schools; 17. Marin Shakespeare Company and the Returned Citizens Theatre Troupe; Index

About the Author :
Liz Fox is Arts and Academic Programs Coordinator at the Kinney Center for Interdisciplinary Renaissance Studies at the University of Massachusetts Amherst, USA. She teaches literature courses for a variety of prison education programs. Gina Hausknecht is Professor of English and the director of the Prison Learning Initiative at Coe College, USA.

Review :
"Shakespeare in the Age of Mass Incarceration is a powerful exploration of what classical literature can bring to modern carceral realities. The essays invite readers to witness how incarcerated individuals use Shakespeare not just to understand themselves and their circumstances, but also to challenge the structures that surround them. This book provides a nuanced examination of how Shakespearean performance and study offer resistance and reflection, creating spaces for critical thinking, creativity, and self-expression in a setting designed to strip them away. For anyone interested in the intersections of education, art, and justice, and wishing to avoid worn tropes of individual redemption and reform, this book offers both a critique of the carceral system and visions of its potential transformation." - Rebecca Ginsburg, Associate Professor of Education Policy, Organization and Leadership, and co-founder and Director of the Education Justice Project, a comprehensive college-in-prison at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, USA "Shakespeare in the Age of Mass Incarceration is one of the most important volumes to be published on the past, present, and future of Shakespeare in prison. In addition to crafting an illuminating introduction that brilliantly surveys the current state of the field, Fox and Hausknecht have assembled a venerable body of scholars, practitioners, and justice systems-impacted contributors that chronicle their approaches to (and/or encounters with) carceral Shakespeare. The scope of the work is nothing short of inspiring; from first-person accounts highlighting the work of some of the world's foremost Shakespeare in prison programs, compelling arguments that challenge the hegemony of Shakespeare in multicultural spaces, to essays that champion trauma-informed pedagogies when engaging with these 400 year-old plays. This book provides an essential resource to anyone serving (or hoping to serve) prison populations through the performing arts." -Scott Jackson, Mary Irene Ryan Executive Artistic Director of Shakespeare, University of Notre Dame, USA; co-founder of the Shakespeare in Prisons Network; and president of the Shakespeare Theatre Association (2025-2027) "Shakespeare in the Age of Mass Incarceration is an exciting new book that is essential reading for those who wish to understand what is happening with “the Shakespeare Revolution” in prisons today. Breathtaking in its scope, this volume contains 19 appreciative and critical investigations by artists, scholars, teachers, students, incarcerated and formerly incarcerated citizens. Through first-person accounts by those who do the work within and beyond the confines of the prison industrial complex, we learn what makes Shakespeare so engaging, enriching, controversial, and liberating." - Jonathan Shailor, Emeritus Professor of Communication, University of Wisconsin-Parkside, USA, and Founder and Director of The Shakespeare Prison Project (2004–present)