Academics

Shakespeare is at the core of the research and teaching of many faculty members at Notre Dame. And his plays and poems figure in the work of many others.

That's not surprising. Shakespeare has been a central figure in university literary studies since the beginning. He's a central figure for our understanding of the human imagination.

The nature of love. The operations of power. The possibility of evil. The organization of the state. The meanings we give to history. The understanding of race. The concept of morality. Shakespeare's works make us rethink who we are... and who we may become.

Our faculty study and teach Shakespeare in every imaginable way. We examine performances everywhere: on stage, film, television, radio, and online. We explore his relationship to early modern printing, and early modern religion. We look at his drama in many countries beyond our own. And we examine what his works might have meant in his own time.

No other dramatist makes us think harder, or with greater pleasure. No other writer provides such delights, and makes such intense demands. No other poet satisfies so completely. Shakespeare engages us in profound and complex worlds, and it's our pleasure to study him.