The Arthur F. Kinney Center for Interdisciplinary Renaissance Studies at UMass Amherst will present Shakespeare & Mass Incarceration, a symposium held in conjunction with a special exhibit of the same name, on Thursday, March 7 from 4-6 p.m.

After the symposium, visitors may tour the exhibit and enjoy a reception. This event at the Kinney Center, 650 E. Pleasant St., Amherst, is free and open to the public; registration is encouraged. 

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The symposium involves diverse voices and perspectives on the impact of encountering William Shakespeare in prison. Explicitly it asks: What are the most important considerations today for people teaching and studying Shakespeare inside? What expectations are imposed on the encounters? How can we reexamine histories of incarceration through links between past and present? 

Attendees will be invited to read in advance a short essay from incarcerated scholar Dave Rich that invites them to consider Shakespeare in prison as a form of cultural invasion. Panelists include professionals and scholars who are at the forefront of creatively envisioning new models for prison education: Ved Price of the Alliance for Higher Education in Prison, Matthew Ritger of Dartmouth College, Stephen Kim of Cornell University and Liz Fox, arts and academic programs coordinator at the Kinney Center at UMass Amherst. 

The special exhibit, “Shakespeare & Mass Incarceration,” is part of the campuswide “Shakespeare Unbound” exhibit and is now on view through March 8 at the Kinney Center. It explores early modern rare books and contemporary prison writing side by side to discover the entanglements between Shakespeare and prisons across time. Curated by Fox, the exhibit explores the prevalence of Shakespeare’s plays in prison libraries, arts programs, and higher education classrooms, placing Shakespeare and his work in conversations with writing from within and about Massachusetts prisons.

To learn more about the exhibit and register for the symposium, visit the Shakespeare & Mass Incarceration website.