The University of Queensland created this Visiting Professorship for leading Shakespeare scholars in 2006, in memory of Associate Professor Lloyd Davis.
Midnight Sonnets: Taylor Swift and Shakespeare
Presented by Professor Liam Semler
American pop icon Taylor Swift stands out as a musical powerhouse with unmatched success—selling hundreds of millions of albums, winning four Grammys for Album of the Year, shattering streaming records, and leading the world’s highest-grossing concert tour. As a billionaire with a massive fanbase and a commanding social media presence, she’s even been compared to William Shakespeare, with some suggesting she’s his modern-day counterpart. In this public lecture, Professor Liam Semler will explore the intriguing parallels between Swift and Shakespeare as seen online and in classrooms.
Event Details
Event Date: Wednesday 18 September 2024
Event Time: 5:45pm for a 6pm start
Event Location: Avalon Theatre, 172 Sir Fred Schonell Drive, St Lucia (access via Macquarie Street).
Getting there: The Avalon is a 15-20 minute walk from UQ's St Lucia Campus, or accessible via public transport. You can use the Translink website to find details on public transport options. If you catch the ferry, the Guyatt Park terminal is directly opposite the theatre. Please note there is no on-site parking, and only very limited street parking available.
RSVP: Monday 16 September 2024
About the Presenter
Liam E. Semler is Professor of Early Modern Literature at the University of Sydney. He leads the Better Strangers educational research project which hosts the Shakespeare Reloaded website (shakespearereloaded.edu.au) and he is series editor (with Gillian Woods) of the Cambridge Elements ‘Shakespeare and Pedagogy’ series. His new book, co-edited with Claire Hansen and Jacqueline Manuel, is Reimagining Shakespeare Education: Teaching and Learning through Collaboration (CUP, 2023).
He is author of The English Mannerist Poets and the Visual Arts (1998) and Teaching Shakespeare and Marlowe: Learning versus the System (2013), and editor of Coriolanus: A Critical Reader (2021), The Early Modern Grotesque: English Sources and Documents 1500-1700 (2019) and Eliza’s Babes, or the Virgin’s Offering (1652) (2001). He has co-edited Storytelling: Critical and Creative Approaches (2013); Teaching Shakespeare beyond the Centre: Australasian Perspectives (2013); What is the Human? Australian Voices from the Humanities (2012); and Word and Self Estranged in English Texts, 1550-1660 (2010). Liam has an article on Taylor Swift and Shakespeare forthcoming in Australian Journal of English Education and he is currently completing a short book titled ‘Scholarship, Romance and Shakespeare’s Second Folio in Colonial Australia.’
UQ Sustainable Event
The School of Communication and Arts is proud to be running a UQ Sustainable Event.
We strive to incorporate sustainable practice into all aspects of university life, from daily operations to long-term goals for minimising our impact on the planet.
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- SCA's Fellowship webpage (hosted by UQ)
- Media and Production Support for the School of Communication and Arts Youtube page (hosted on Google servers located outside of Australia, as listed here
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