Shakespeare’s plays, originally written for all-male casts, are trans and queer on many levels, as evidenced by the early modern cross-gender stage practices. In the early modern world gender was more complex than a male and female binary. Modern performances also engage regularly with early modern notions of genderplay. Artists used Shakespeare to understand trans histories even before trans and queer studies were formalized fields of study.

The idea of transness refers not only to a spectrum of experiences associated with gender identity, but also to movement through space-time or residing in transitory social spaces. The kinetic prefix trans and the verb queer evoke transgression, transience, transition, gender as a translational practice, and transformation.

Taking an intersectional approach, we will apply trans and queer theories to interpretations of Shakespeare and to topics within and beyond traditional gender studies, such as critical race, disability, and ecological studies.

Assignments include short written responses to the weekly readings and a final project of either research paper or creative praxis as research.