Dr. Tiffany Stern, Bouverie fellow and tutor in English at University College, Oxford; lecturer in English, Oxford University; and a noted scholar of Shakespeare and the history of the theater, will present a lecture on performing Shakespearean drama on Wednesday, April 1, at 7:00 pm in Tarbutton Performing Arts Center at Oxford College of Emory University. Dr. Stern will be at Oxford College for one week in which, in addition to delivering her lecture, she will be a guest lecturer in classes at both Oxford College and Emory College. During the week, she will also conduct a master class with professional actors at the Atlanta Shakespeare Company’s New American Shakespeare Tavern in Midtown Atlanta. Dr. Stern’s appearance is made possible by Oxford College’s Pierce Institute for Leadership and Community Engagement.
Dr. David Gowler, who as Dr. Lovick Pierce and Bishop George F. Pierce Professor of Religion oversees the Pierce Institute, said, “We are delighted to welcome Dr. Stern to the Oxford campus, and we are especially pleased to be able to have our students encounter and learn from a scholar of her stature. Having this opportunity to interact with scholars from the ‘other’ Oxford is an important component of Oxford College’s distinctive liberal arts intensive educational experience.”
This is the fifth installment of the Pierce Visiting Scholars Program, which began in 2005. Each year the Pierce Institute designates a scholar from the University of Oxford for the program and also selects a faculty member from Oxford College, who hosts the Pierce Visiting Scholar and then in turn travels to Oxford University, where he or she is hosted by the designee. Dr. Stern’s host is Dr. Gretchen Schulz, Associate Professor of English, whose concentration is also in Renaissance drama and Shakespeare.
Dr. Schulz has known Dr. Stern since they met at a National Endowment for the Humanities Institute on Shakespeare’s Playhouses offered in Staunton, Virginia, and London some years ago. She attests that Dr. Stern is not only the person most knowledgeable about the particulars of performance in Shakespeare’s time but also a person wonderfully able to present what she knows in an accessible and entertaining way. Said Dr. Schulz, “World-renowned scholars are not always as world-class in their presentation skills as in their research skills, but this one is. It was the appeal of her presentation to Emory and Oxford students attending the British Studies program in England last summer that prompted us to invite her to serve as the Pierce Visiting Scholar this year so that many more can hear her speak and share her expertise.”
Prior Visiting Scholars have included Rev. David Cooper, Superintendent Minister of Wesley Memorial Methodist Church in Oxford, England; Dr. Catherine Oakes, Director of Studies for the History of Art, Kellogg College of Oxford University; Dr. Christopher C. Rowland, Dean Ireland Professor for the Exegesis of Holy Scripture, the Queen’s College of Oxford University; and Dr. Julian Savulescu, Uehiro Chair in Practical Ethics and Director of the Oxford Uehiro Centre for Practical Ethics at Oxford University.
The lecture is free and open to the public
