Contemporary Shakespeare: Othello

Thursday, March 31 | 12 PM PST

REGISTER

Betrayal and Belonging. A secret marriage, mistrust and toxicity. An untrustworthy advisor. Join us for an insightful and exciting conversation about Othello and the play’s ongoing relevance in contemporary art and film today.

In conversation with Melissa Karmen Lee, Director of Education and Public Programs at the Vancouver Art Gallery, esteemed Shakespeare scholar Dr. Dennis Britton will discuss artist Chris Ofili’s 2019 edition of Othello—featuring twelve evocative etchings and a foreword by renowned critic Fred Moten—the role of Iago and other contemporary cultural markers and references to one of Shakespeare’s most moving tragedies.

This programs is the final event in our three-part webinar series Contemporary Shakespeare, launched in celebration of the exhibition For All Time: The Shakespeare FIRST FOLIO.

Simultaneous translation from English to Mandarin will be provided on Zoom.

This webinar series is being presented is collaboration with Bard on the Beach. The exhibition For All Time is co-organized by the University of British Columbia and the Vancouver Art Gallery.

This talk will be presented on Zoom and streamed live to the Gallery’s Facebook account here »

Questions? Submit them during the Zoom presentation using the Q&A function. You can also engage with your fellow attendees and panelists during the event using the Chat function.

New to Zoom? Learn how to register and attend a webinar here »

ABOUT THE SPEAKERS

Dr. Dennis Britton is an Associate Professor at the University of British Columbia in the Department of English Languages and Literature. He researches and teaches early modern English literature, with a focus on the history of race, critical race theory, Protestant theology and the history of emotion. He is the author of Becoming Christian: Race, Reformation, and Early Modern English Romance (2014) and has recently co-edited a special issue of the journal Spenser Studies on “Spenser and Race.” He is currently working on two books, Shakespeare and Pity: Feeling Difference on the Early Modern English Stage and Reforming Ethiopia: African-Anglo Relations in Protestant England. Before coming to UBC, Britton was Associate Professor of English at the University of New Hampshire. He is also passionate about the public humanities—in New Hampshire, he served on the board of the state humanities council and as the board president of the Black Heritage Trail of New Hampshire.

Melissa Karmen Lee is the Director of Education and Public Programs at the Vancouver Art Gallery. She has written on seventeenth-century New World narratives, reconceptualizing domesticity and hospitality in such publications as Hospitality and Society, Canadian Literature and Journal of Asian Pacific Communication. She is currently a Ph.D. Candidate at Lancaster University on Literature and Visual Cultures.