Against Prejudice: A celebration of Ira Aldridge

Thursday 19 September, 7 pm, Shakespeare's Globe Theatre

Join us for a celebration of Ira Aldridge, with a staged reading and panel discussion of Against Prejudice: Ira Aldridge Theatre Manager- 1828 led by Tony Howard

More information and link to the ticket office - warwick.ac.uk/thisiscov

Warwick will be a major partner of this year’s The Times and The Sunday Times Cheltenham Literature Festival. Exploring the 2017 theme of Who do we think we are? the festival brings the brightest most innovative thinkers to the stage we ask how we can solve the problems that divide us, and debate Britain’s new place on the world stage.

Warwick will be supporting a series of specially commissioned events exploring different the theme from different and thought provoking perspectives.

The festival runs from 6^th to 15^th October. The full festival programme - which includes Warwick staff and at least one former student - can be viewed at:

http://www.cheltenhamfestivals.com/literature/

The Complete University Guide rankings were published yesterday, and the department continues its strong performance in national and international league tables. For Creative Writing, the department's Warwick Writing Programme is ranked at number 1 in the UK. For English, we are 9th, and for Theatre Studies (categorised as Drama, Dance and Cinematics), 5th.

Other Warwick departments with joint degrees with English have also performed strongly: Film and Television Studies (categorised as Drame, Dance and Cinematics) and German and Philosophy are each ranked as 5th, and French, Hispanic Studies (categorised as Iberian Languages) and Italian are each at 7th.

The University is ranked at 8th nationally and is the highest rated university in the West Midlands.

Dr David Taylor is curating 'Draw New Mischief’: 250 years of Shakespeare and Political Cartoons in a new exhibition hosted by the Royal Shakespeare Theatre in Stratford upon Avon running 25 February – 15 October 2017. For details of the press release see here. David writes,

"I'm thrilled to be working with the Royal Shakespeare Company on this exhibition. It's been an exciting journey bringing this collection of cartoons together and we're also commissioning new work for current cartoonists that will be added to the exhibition over the course of its run.

“My research into political cartoons is driven by two overarching insights; first, that political cartoons cry out for close literary analysis and, second, that texts by Shakespeare and others shape the way we understand contemporary politics in profound ways that we're often unaware of. When I embarked on this project a number of years ago I felt strongly that the questions it was raising could be effectively presented through an exhibition and the RSC have proved to be the perfect partners in making this happen."

David will be discussing the exhibition on BBC Radio's Free Thinking today!

'Elsa', a new play by English and Comparative Literary Studies alumna Isobel Rogers, will feature at the 'All the Right Notes' festival being held at the Camden People's Theatre in London during November. For more details and tickets see the theatre website.