Building from the conversations that started in the 2021 SAA workshop “Teaching Shakespeare in the Age of Mass Incarceration,” this roundtable aims to interrogate urgent questions of pedagogy and praxis that emerge when encountering Shakespeare in prison. 

Short 10-minute flash-point papers from a range of vantage points (including teachers, librarians, program administrators, and theater practitioners) will take up timely issues in Shakespeare-oriented prison programs. 

Questions the roundtable might  address include:What are the most important considerations today for people reading, teaching, studying, directing, or performing Shakespeare in carceral settings? What expectations, both about Shakespeare and about incarcerated people, are imposed on these encounters? How are these expectations met, upended, or subverted? How does  reading, performing, and studying Shakespeare reinforce existing inequities or other harms? What risks are entailed in introducing Shakespeare in prison?