Learn about one of history’s greatest playwrights, William Shakespeare, and delve into two popular biographies that explain his mysterious past.

This course will provide an introduction to what we know about the man who has been called the greatest English playwright: William Shakespeare. Led by Ayanna Thompson, participants will delve into two popular biographies of the bard — Stephen Greenblatt’s Will in the World and James Shapiro’s Contested Will — which address our perceptions and understanding of the man from Stratford-upon-Avon, how he came to be such a great playwright and why the authorship debates began. Thompson will also discuss two of Shakespeare’s most famous plays, Hamlet and The Tempest.

Ayanna Thompson is associate dean of faculty, professor of English at Arizona State University . She specializes in Renaissance drama and focuses on issues of race and performance. She is the author of Passing Strange: Shakespeare, Race, and Contemporary America and Performing Race and Torture on the Early Modern Stage. She is also editor of Weyward Macbeth: Intersections of Race and Performance and Colorblind Shakespeare: New Perspectives on Race and Performance. Thompson received her applied bachelor’s degree from Columbia University. As a recipient of a Marshall Scholarship, she received her master’s at Sussex University in England and her doctorate from Harvard University. At the Aspen Institute, Thompson serves as a moderator of the Aspen Seminar.