Current Project
“Just” Teaching Shakespeare: Wyrd Sisters, Allowed Fools and Critical Hope in the 21st-Century Classroom, under contract with University of Toronto Press
Co-authored with Dr. Shannon Murray (UPEI, 3M National Teaching Fellow) and Dr. Jessica Riddell (Bishop’s U, 3M National Teaching Fellow).
Standing at the intersection of Shakespeare Studies and the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning, this book makes the case for the classroom experience as a rich site of knowledge production and challenges the typical disciplinary division of “real” research from its less-valued cousin, “just” teaching. We take up the challenge of “just” teaching to ask: what does it mean to create a just classroom? How does the polyphony of Shakespeare’s theatre and his plays provide a model for 21st-century active learning? How can the just classroom generate fresh insights into the cultural, historical, and critical importance of the plays? Privileging a diversity of voices engaged in important debates for which there is no easy answer, Shakespeare’s plays and our active, innovative engagement with them help student- and teacher-researchers together to practice critical empathy, the ability to occupy, appreciate, and responsibly interrogate the perspectives of others. Such capacity is crucial in the fraught global climate of the 21st century, and higher education is one key space where future global citizens are fostered and supported. In exploring the joy of teaching and experiencing Shakespeare, we advocate for a critical hope that arises from pedagogical-scholarly practice grounded in and motivated by our experience in forging the just classroom. The book is informed by ideas of pedagogical justice and transformation articulated most famously by such theorists as Paulo Freire, Parker J. Palmer, Ira Shor, John D. Caputo and bell hooks, all of whom acknowledge the need for learners and scholars to live “undivided lives” (Palmer) and to have faith “in the creation of a world in which it will be easier to love” (Freire).
This is not a “how to teach Shakespeare” book. Rather it is a book that asks: “Why teach?” and “Why teach Shakespeare?” and “How do we find and share our joy?”
The book features “conversations” about four popular Shakespeare plays: King Lear, Hamlet, As You Like It, and Henry V. Individual essays on the plays by each of the three co-authors provide distinct perspectives, unified by our shared interest in the classroom as a site of knowledge-production and the role Shakespeare plays in helping us to cultivate critical empathy. Unlike a typical essay collection, however, each essay set features marginal conversation among the authors, modeling the polyvocal, multiplicitous and collaborative nature of active learning and Shakespearean staging, and destabilizing the authoritative claims of any one perspective in favour of complexity and “difficult knowledge.” While written individually, all of the essays are extensively workshopped throughout the writing process, and the fruitful exuberance of that experience is captured in the commentaries.
Upcoming Invited Talks
“The Wonder Engine.” TEDxUNBC, October 5, 2019, Prince George, BC. https://www.unbc.ca/releases/51774/tedxunbc-selects-speakers-oct-5-event
__, Shannon Murray and Jessica Riddell. “Hope and the 21st-Century University (working title)”. Keynote presentation. Association of Atlantic Universities Teaching Showcase, Charlottetown, PEI, October 19, 2019.
Selected Publications:
Edited Books
Beauty, Violence, Representation. Eds. Lisa Dickson and Maryna Romanets. New York: Routledge, 2013.
Reading Stargate SG-1. Eds. Lisa Dickson and Stan Beeler. New York and London: I.B. Tauris/Palgrave-St. Martin’s, 2006.
Book Chapters
__, Shannon Murray and Jessical Riddell. “’Something Wicked This Way Comes’: Wyrd Sisters, Collaborating In-The-Round.” Critical Collaboration Communities: Academic Writing Partnerships, Groups, and Retreats. Nicola Simmons Ed. Brill Press
“Introduction.” Beauty, Violence, Representation. With Maryna Romanets. Eds. Lisa Dickson and Maryna Romanets. New York: Routledge, 2013. 1-28.
“The Blazon and the Theatre of War: The Wars of the Roses and The Plantagenets.” Staging the Blazon. Deborah Uman and Sara L. Morrison eds. New York: Ashgate, 2013. 137-48.
“Performance, Performativity and Metatheatre in Webster’s The White Devil.” Beholding Violence in Medieval and Early Modern Europe. Erin Labbie and Allie Terry eds. Farnham: Ashgate, 2012. 163-78.
Journal Articles
__. Tracy Summerville. “’The Truth About Stories: Coming to Compassionate Pedagogy in a First-Year Program.” Journal of Perspectives on Applied Academic Practice. Special Issue. Ed. Kathryn Waddington, 6.3 (2018): 24-29. URL: https://jpaap.napier.ac.uk/index.php/JPAAP/article/view/378
—, Andrea Downie. “Hermione Sessions: Dancing, The Winter’s Tale and the Kinaesthetic Imagination.” Borrowers and Lenders. Special Issue. Ed. Elizabeth Klett, 10. 2 (2017). URL: https://shakespeareandance.com/articles/borrowers-and-lenders-abstracts/
Creative Works
“Irregular Verbs.” Theatrical Monologue. In Camenae Theatre Ensemble Monomania Monologue Competition Finalists. Chapbook. Camenae Theatre Ensemble, Steep Theatre, Chicago, IL, June 11, 2007. Second place winner.
“The Choreography of Communication.” Modern small group improvisation. Talk by Shelby Richardson. TEDxUNBC, October 5, 2019.
“Dystopian Tulle.” Hip Hop Large Group performance. Perf. Lisa Dickson, Keli Watson et. al. Choreo. Jennifer Johnson. Costume concept design, Lisa Dickson. Prince George Dance Festival, March 15-22, 2019. First Place.
“To Persevere.” Modern Group performance. Perf. Lisa Dickson, Keli Watston et. al. Choreo. Shelby Richardson and performers. Costume design, Lisa Dickson and Cori Ramsay. Prince George Dance Festival, March 15-22, 2019. First Place, and Overall Gala Award for Outstanding Performance 19 and Over.
“Tashweesh.” Modern Small Group performance. Perf. Amy Blanding, Lisa Dickson, Traci VanSpengen. Choreo. Andrea Downie. Dance Dramaturgy Lisa Dickson and Andrea Downie. Prince George Dance Festival, March 12-18, 2016. First Place.