Margo Hendricks, professor emerita at the University of California, Santa Cruz, is a pioneer of early and pre-modern critical race studies. She co-edited the landmark 1994 collection Women, 'Race,' and Writing in the Early Modern Period with Patricia Parker. In 2020-21, she was a Folger Institute research fellow. She's well known in the field for her lively and provocative conference talks.
Under the pen name Elysabeth Grace, Hendricks has also written over a dozen romance novels informed by her knowledge of early modern literature. Her Daughters of Saria series is a modern retelling of Milton's Paradise Lost. Other novels take place in 16th-century England.
Hendricks joins host Barbara Bogaev for a wide-ranging conversation about her experiences studying race and Shakespeare, writing and reading romance novels, and what's next for Shakespeare studies.
Margo Hendricks's latest book is Race and Romance: Coloring the Past, from ACMRS Press. Her essay "I Saw Them in My Visage: Whiteness, Early Modern Race Studies, and Me" appears in the collection White People in Shakespeare: Essays on Race, Culture, and the Elite, edited by Arthur L. Little, Jr. and published by Arden Shakespeare.
From the Shakespeare Unlimited podcast. Published February 14, 2023. © Folger Shakespeare Library. All rights reserved. This episode was produced by Matt Frassica. Garland Scott is the associate producer. It was edited by Gail Kern Paster. Ben Lauer is the web producer. Leonor Fernandez edits a transcript of every episode, available at folger.edu. We had technical help from Abbey West Recording in Reno and VoiceTrax West in Studio City, California. Final mixing services provided by Clean Cuts at Three Seas, Inc.
