Professor Farah Karim-Cooper

Biography

I am a Shakespeare scholar having worked as Head of Higher Education & Research and now as Co-Director of Education at Shakespeare's Globe for the last 18 years. I was appointed to Professor at King's in 2020 and am co-steering the major research partnership between KCL and the Globe: The Shakespeare Centre London through which the Early Modern Scholars of Colour Network will operate.

Research interests and PhD supervision 

My work focuses on Shakespeare and Antiracism, Premodern Critical Race Studies, Theatre and Performance and Early Modern Culture and History.

Selected publications 

• Cosmetics in Shakespearean and Renaissance Drama, Edinburgh University Press, 2006, revised edn. 2019
• Shakespeare's Theatres and the Effects of Performance, editors, Farah Karim-Cooper and Tiffany Stern, Arden/Bloomsbury, 2012
• Moving Shakespeare Indoors: Performance and Repertoire in the Jacobean Playhouse, editors Andrew Gurr and Farah Karim-Cooper, Cambridge University Press, 2014
• The Hand on the Shakespearean stage: Gesture, Touch and the Spectacle of Dismemberment, Arden/Bloomsbury, 2016
• The Hand on the Shakespearean stage: Gesture, Touch and the Spectacle of Dismemberment, Arden/Bloomsbury, 2016
• The Great White Bard: Shakespeare, Race and the Future of His Legacy, One World Publications, 2023

Teaching

I have been teaching on undergraduate modules in acting, performance, Shakespeare and Early modern theatre history at the Globe for years. At King's I teach Critical Race Theory on the postgraduate module Working With Early Modern Texts; I teach on select undergraduate modules and on the Globe modules on the MA in Shakespeare studies.

Expertise and public engagement

I work as co-Director of Education at Shakespeare's Globe for 80 % of my time. There are many public engagement activities that I am involved in from curating public events--such as the annual Shakespeare and Race Festival--, courses and study days to appearing on tv, radio and in the news media as a spokesperson for Shakespeare's Globe. I have participated in podcasts on Shakespeare and Race, Shakespeare's theatres etc. and I am writing a trade book to be published in 2023 (One World Publications and Viking Books/Penguin) on Shakespeare and Race.

I work on race/antiracism/premodern critical race studies which can leave me vulnerable to attacks, verbal and even threats. When my book: The Great White Bard is published in 2023, this may escalate.