Greening the Globe: Shakespeare, Ecocriticism, and Education, 13.-14.11.2025 Conference for Teachers, Students, Theatre Practicioners and Shakespeare Enthusiasts Nature, the environment, and ecology have always held a central position in Shakespeare’s works. In recent years, these topics have gained increasing significance, particularly with regard to climate change, natural disasters, and the healing power of nature and…

Shakespeare and Popular Cultures The Spring Conference centres on the topic Shakespeare and Popular Cultures and will be taking place from 25-27 April 2025 in Weimar. On the evening before the official beginning of the conference, on Thursday, 24 April, the award ceremony of the German Shakespeare Prize will take place at 6 pm in the…

Troilus and Cressida The autumn conference will centre on Troilus and Cressida, or, to quite Michael Dobson’s paper title, „the most unperformed performed play in world drama“. Addressed to an „eternal reader“, placed between tragedies and histories in the Folio Edition, often referred to as problem play or „bitter war comedy“ – Troilus and Cressida…

Diversity and Community Spring conference 19.-21.04.2024 in Bochum. „He was not of an age, but for all time” – Ben Jonsons often-quoted description of Shakespeare hints at the plurality of themes, characters and worlds that characterise Shakespeare’s works and establish their popularity until today. Diversity and Community are not only central themes in Shakespeare’s works…

Shakespeare’s Libraries 21.-23.04.2023 in Weimar. The first printed edition of Shakespeare’s collected plays was released in 1623 with the title Mr William Shakespeare’s Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies. Previously, only a few of Shakespeare’s plays had been published at all. Without the First Folio, large parts of Shakespeare’s works, like Macbeth or The Tempest, would probably have…

Shakespeare’s Odysseys Here you can download the programme, the invitation letter of the president and further information. Please use this link for room bookings.

Shakespeare and Politics The topic of this year’s conference, “Shakespeare and Politics” could not be more topical in the elction year 2021. Conceptions of the political in Shakespeare and the related questions of legitimations of power, governance and justice, of freedom and tyranny have, as Stephen Greenblatt has recently demonstrated in Tyrant, geopolitical relevance even today.   Our…

Romeo and Juliet Our conference theme “Romeo and Juliet” takes on unexpected topicality. In the fifth act, Friar John and his brother in Mantua are suspected of being in a house where the infectious plague is raging and are locked up there, preventing them from delivering the letters to Romeo in which Friar Laurence informs…

Shakespeare and Translation The conference on “Shakespeare and Translation” takes a twofold approach. On the one hand, it looks historically at the translation theories and practices of Shakespeare’s time, which is characterised more than almost any other epoch by its translation activity. English literature in particular occupies a special position among the cultural areas of…

Othello “Othello” is the theme that we want to explore in performances, lectures and discussions during the Bochum Autumn Conference from 23 to 24 November 2018. Here you can download the Programme and the President’s invitation letter.