2023 Ferguson Lecture: Julia Reinhard Lupton

Please Join the Department of English for the 32nd Annual Josephine Gessner Ferguson Lecture in English Literature, where Professor Julia Reinhard Lupton will present her lecture, "Couples, Couplets, and Conversation: Shakespeare and the Art of Love" on Thursday April 20th at 7pm in Freeman Auditorium, Room 200 in the Woldenberg Art Center. There will be a reception following the event in Woodward Way. 

Please click here for more information regarding the Ferguson lecture and its long history within the Tulane Department of English. 

In this talk, Julia Reinhard Lupton will explore the dynamics of erotic play, lyric idealization, and gentle put-downs practiced by Shakespeare’s lovers in their search for mutuality and recognition. Featured couples will include Romeo and Juliet, Rosalind and Orlando, and Antony and Cleopatra. Illustrated with clips from productions and adaptations, this talk will treat the plays as a form of couples therapy. What did Shakespeare’s lovers get right, and what can we learn from them today?

Julia Reinhard Lupton is a Distinguished Professor of English at the University of California, Irvine, where she co-directs the New Swan Shakespeare Center. She is the author or co-author of five books on Shakespeare, including Shakespeare Dwelling and Thinking with Shakespeare. Her most recent publication is Shakespeare and Virtue: A Handbook, coedited with Donovan Sherman and published by Cambridge University Press in 2023.