This special issue on contemporary performance proposes “trans” as method and as a social practice rather than as an immutable identity category that stands in opposition to more established ones such as cis-gender men or cisgender women. We ask new questions about Shakespearean performance: How might the meanings of the plays change if we…[Read more]

Gender is a set of interpersonal relationships and social practices that evolve in the presence of other people , in social spaces, and over time. My theory of trans lens corrects the institutionalized cis-sexism that assumes the cis status of even those characters with fluid gender practices. It does so by questioning the purported neutrality of…[Read more]

This interview with Dr. Mary Ann Saunders, conducted by Alexa Alice Joubin, offers a new interpretation of Julie Taymor’s 2010 film The Tempest. Bringing her life experience to bear on cisgender biases in non-trans artists’ works, Saunders proposes a new interpretation of Ariel, as performed by Ben Whishaw, as a trans woman who is “both beautiful…[Read more]

This interview with Terri Power, conducted by Alexa Alice Joubin, focuses on the representations of trans masculinity in Power’s play Drag King Richard III. For nearly two decades Power has been at the forefront of trans and queer representation in performances of Shakespeare. Weaving a personal story of the 1990s with Shakespeare’s early modern d…[Read more]

This interview with King Sammy Silver, conducted by Alexa Alice Joubin and Terri Power, explores drag as a stage practice. A London-based actor and YouTube personality, he represents a new generation of trans artists. He has worked with Power on multiple Shakespeare productions at Bath Spa University in the UK and elsewhere, and has been…[Read more]

This interview with non-binary actor Jess Chanliau, conducted by Alexa Alice Joubin, explores genderplay onstage. A bilingual actor, Chanliau has played Viola, “an intrinsically trans character” in Twelfth Night and a queer Mercutio in Romeo and Juliet. They spoke candidly on their experience of either being toke-nized or being cast frequently as…[Read more]

Using a qualitative method of research, the study investigated the increasing use of traditional medicine in Ghana, focusing on Afigya Kwabre South District. Traditional medicine has gone through various stages since time immemorial, especially with regard to how its patronage has evolved over time. The period ranges from the pre-colonial era,…[Read more]

This paper offers an articulation of a teaching methodology that I call Gamemaking in Education (GME). This educational approach emphasizes student gamemaking rather than gameplay. In this paper, I discuss what GME is, review some cases in which other educators have used what might be called GME in college classrooms, and situate GME as an…[Read more]

Cross-gender roles and performances permeate many of Shakespeare’s plays. This special issue on contemporary transgender performance of Shakespeare was published by the open-access journal dedicated to Shakespeare and appropriation, Borrowers and Lenders, and edited by Alexa Alice Joubin. It contains research articles and interviews of actors. S…[Read more]

Once again, country show societies are gearing up for the annual New South Wales Miss Showgirl competition. In 2008 500 young women entered the pageant at a local level representing 120 show societies, with the Sydney Royal Easter Show finals. The 2011 Camden Miss Showgirl has attracted seven young local women – four of the seven are university s…[Read more]

This is a poem about fire.

If postmodernism renders the replicant Rachael legible as a glossy simulacrum, then #MeToo renders her brutally legible as a victim of sexual violence.

La reproducción de paradigmas transmisivos y unidireccionales en la rutina productiva de la televisora CNTV limita instituir dinámicas participativas en el género spot de bien público. La situación antes descrita favorece que se planteen como objetivos de la investigación: 1) fundamentar la función social de los medios de comunicación desde l…[Read more]

This article examines Mary Magdalene’s biblical identity and poetic representation in selected sixteenth- and seventeenth-century Spanish texts. An alternative reading or “re-visioning” (Adrienne Rich’s term) of the narratives that tell her story reclaims her figure from masculinist characterizations of Mary Magdalene that have made an enduring…[Read more]

In central Camden is an empty bank building of understated significance at the intersection of John and Argyle Streets. This building was once the premises of Westpace, formerly the Bank of New South Wales, and was the second banking chamber on that site. Constructed in the 1930s by a prominent firm of Sydney architects, the building is of much…[Read more]

Article about the composer Pauline Viardot

Article about the Spanish composer, teacher and musicologist Felipe Pedrell, founder of the Modern Musicology in Spain

Like Virginia Woolf’s Orlando, Shakespeare’s Sonnets challenge the binaries between gender and between the vernacular and the literary. Translators take up this challenge and turn it into an opportunity for humanist interpretations of literature, as in the case of Taiwanese essayist Liang Shiqiu’s (1903–1987) translation. Widely known in the Sin…[Read more]

This chapter argues that cultural appropriation can be an exploitative act but need not be; it all depends on what users do with Shakespeare. Due to the unequal status of the parties engaged in appropriative exchange, some appropriations deploy Shakespeare to protect conventional power structures. Appropriations are rarely negotiated on a level…[Read more]

Novel has created as many forms as the novels have been written so for. Starting from realism it has went through a lot of transformations and adopted or invented generic techniques to narrate almost everything human. In Urdu, novel usually concerned more about the social life and social change it depicted. By maintaining a liquidating equilibrium…[Read more]