Programming
The Borderlands Shakespeare Colectiva aims to be in community with scholars, educators, and students across the country. We have partnered with trailblazing activists and artists to honor Chicanx and Indigenous cultures. In September 2023, the BSC joined writer and activist Tony Diaz, El Libotraficante, at the Texas Author Series to discuss the importance of writing about Borderland communities with Ito Romo, the author of The Border is Burning.
Our March 2024 conference, “Translating, Adapting, and Performing Shakespeare in the U.S.–Mexico Borderlands,” successfully explored the place and potential of Shakespeare in the cultural production of the U.S.–Mexico Borderlands. Free and open to the public, this two-day event bridged the worlds of art, activism, and academia by featuring presentations and workshops with scholars, teachers, artists, and community activists. As part of our commitment to investing in Borderlands art, conference attendees were able to attend a BSC-commissioned performance of Gregg Barrios’s Hamlet-inspired play I-DJ by Teatro Audaz, San Antonio’s premier Latinx theater company.
Follow our social media for more information about upcoming events.
Programming
The Borderlands Shakespeare Colectiva aims to be in community with scholars, educators, and students across the country. We have partnered with trailblazing activists and artists to honor Chicanx and Indigenous cultures. In September 2023, the BSC joined writer and activist Tony Diaz, El Libotraficante, at the Texas Author Series to discuss the importance of writing about Borderland communities with Ito Romo, the author of The Border is Burning.
Our upcoming conference, “Translating, Adapting, and Performing Shakespeare in the U.S.–Mexico Borderlands,” explores the place and potential of Shakespeare in the cultural production of the U.S.–Mexico Borderlands. Free and open to the public, the conference features presentations and workshops with scholars, teachers, artists, and community activists, as well as a BSC-commissioned performance of Gregg Barrios’s Hamlet-inspired play I-DJ by Teatro Audaz, San Antonio’s premier Latinx theater company.
Follow our social media for more information about upcoming events.
Pedagogy
We are committed to culturally sustaining pedagogy and to teaching Shakespeare in ways that allow students to bring their own cultural perspectives and languages into the classroom.
Teachers throughout the country (and in Canada) are teaching with The Bard in the Borderlands. We’re proud that stories about La Frontera are reaching new and enthusiastic audiences.
We enjoy visiting classes and learning from students at all levels. During these visits, many students have noted that works of Borderlands Shakespeare make them feel their lived experiences are important to academic conversations.
We have hosted workshops for teachers with Humanities Texas, and with the Guadalupe Latino Bookstore’s grant from Congressman Joaquin Castro’s office, we worked with a local teacher to produce a bilingual lesson plan for high school classes.
If you would like to work with the Borderlands Shakespeare Colectiva or invite us to visit your classroom in person or virtually, please contact us.
"When I asked the class whether spending time on these Borderlands plays was worth it, a student replied that I had gotten the question backwards. "These plays," she said, “make Shakespeare worth it.” – Dr. Matthew Harrison, West Texas A&M University
Publications
Our flagship publication is The Bard in the Borderlands: An Anthology of Shakespeare Appropriations en La Frontera (ACMRS Press), a three-volume collection of fourteen plays. Borderlands theatermakers have repurposed Shakespeare for several decades, but their aesthetically innovative and politically complex plays have remained unpublished until now. A scholarly edition with introductions and a glossary, our anthology makes these works available to broad audiences and offers critical frameworks for understanding this wide-ranging artistic practice.
We have also published a wide range of scholarly articles and essays about the tradition of Borderlands Shakespeare. A selected bibliography of publications in this growing field can be found here.
Publications
Our flagship publication is The Bard in the Borderlands: An Anthology of Shakespeare Appropriations en La Frontera (ACMRS Press), a three-volume collection of fourteen plays. Borderlands theatermakers have repurposed Shakespeare for several decades, but their aesthetically innovative and politically complex plays have remained unpublished until now. A scholarly edition with introductions and a glossary, our anthology makes these works available to broad audiences and offers critical frameworks for understanding this wide-ranging artistic practice.
We have also published a wide range of scholarly articles and essays about the tradition of Borderlands Shakespeare. A selected bibliography of publications in this growing field can be found here.