Wikipedia

Emma Smith (scholar)

Emma Josephine Smith(born 15 May 1970)[1]is an English literary scholar and academic whose research focuses on early modern drama, particularlyWilliam Shakespeare,and the history of the book. She has been a Tutorial Fellow in English atHertford College, Oxfordsince 1997 and Professor of Shakespeare Studies at theUniversity of Oxfordsince 2015.

Professor
Emma Smith
Born
Emma Josephine Smith

(1970-05-15)15 May 1970(age 54)
Leeds,West Yorkshire,England
NationalityEnglish
Occupation(s)Historian and academic
TitleProfessor of Shakespeare Studies
Board member ofRoyal Shakespeare Company
Academic background
EducationAbbey Grange School
Alma materSomerville College, Oxford
ThesisSifting strangers: some aspects of the representation of the European foreigner in the English drama, 1580-1617(1997)
Academic work
DisciplineEnglish literature
Sub-discipline
InstitutionsAll Souls College, Oxford
New Hall, Cambridge
Hertford College, Oxford
Notable worksPortable Magic: A History of Books and their Readers

She has published and lectured widely on Shakespeare and on other early modern dramatists, and worked with numerous theatre companies. Her lectures are available as podcastsNot Shakespeare: Elizabethan and Jacobean Popular Theatre[2]andApproaching Shakespeare.[3]

Life and career

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Born and raised inLeeds,Smith was educated atAbbey Grange schooland did her undergraduate degree atSomerville College, Oxford,from 1988 to 1991.[4]She was a Prize Fellow atAll Souls College, Oxfordand completed her doctorate in 1997 during her fellowship at the college.[5]She joined Hertford College as Tutorial Fellow in English in 1997, having previously held a junior academic position atNew Hall, Cambridge.[6]In November 2015 she was awarded theTitle of Distinctionof Professor of Shakespeare Studies by the University of Oxford.[7]

As part of her work on Shakespeare'sFirst Folio,Smith worked with conservators, digital specialists and crowd-sourced funding on aBodleian Libraryproject to digitise a copy of the book.[8]In 2016, she authenticated a new copy of the First Folio found atMount Stuart Houseon theIsle of Bute.[9]

With Laurie Maguire of Oxford University she published a new argument in 2012 that Shakespeare's playAll's Well that Ends Wellwas a collaboration withThomas Middleton.The New Oxford Shakespeareedition of 2016, edited by Bouruset al.,was the first printed edition of the play to accept this joint attribution.[10]Another article with Laurie Maguire won the 2014 Hoffman Prize.[11]She was a script advisor to Josie Rourke's 2018 filmMary Queen of Scotsand the BBC’s 2023 documentary series Shakespeare: The Rise of a Genius. She edits the Cambridge University Press journalShakespeare Survey.

Smith publishedThis Is Shakespearein 2019. The book was published as a guide to Shakespeare's plays. It extends from her lectures for Oxford undergraduates, which were also used as the basis for herApproaching Shakespearepodcast, where she discusses 20 of Shakespeare's plays in chronological order. She says she wanted the book "to give a sense of Shakespeare's range across his career" but also "to keep the individual chapters self-contained, so that you could read one before going to the theatre."[12]

She was shortlisted for the 2023Wolfson History PrizeforPortable Magic.[13]In 2024 she was made anHonorary Bencherat Middle Temple and included inRibbons,a public sculpture in Leeds celebrating inspirational women. In September 2024 Smith joined the board of theRoyal Shakespeare Company,having been named an Associate Scholar of the RSC in 2021.[14]

Bibliography

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Selected publications

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  • Portable Magic: A History of Books and their Readers(Penguin, 2022)ISBN9780241427262[15]
  • This Is Shakespeare(Pelican, 2019)[16]
  • Shakespeare’s First Folio: Four Centuries of an Iconic Book,(Oxford University Press, 2016)
  • The Making of Shakespeare's First Folio,(Bodleian Publishing, 2015)
  • Women on the Early Modern Stage: A Woman Killed with Kindness, The Tamer Tamed, The Duchess of Malfi, The Witch of Edmonton(2014)[17]
  • The Elizabethan Top Ten: Defining Print Popularity in Early Modern England.Eds. Andy Kesson and Emma Smith (Ashgate Publishing, Ltd., 2013)ISBN9781472405876[18]
  • Five Revenge Tragedies: The Spanish Tragedy, Hamlet, Antonio's Revenge, The Tragedy of Hoffman, The Revenger's Tragedy(Penguin UK, 2012)[19]
  • The Cambridge Shakespeare Guide(Cambridge University Press, 2012)[20]
  • The Cambridge Introduction to Shakespeare(Cambridge University Press, 2007)ISBN9781139462396[21]
  • Shakespeare's Comedies: a Guide to Criticism(Blackwell Guides to Criticism, 2003)[22]
  • Shakespeare's Histories: a Guide to Criticism(Blackwell Guides to Criticism, 2003)[23]
  • Shakespeare's Tragedies: a Guide to Criticism(Blackwell Guides to Criticism, 2003)[24]
  • Shakespeare in Production: Henry V(2000)
  • Thomas Kyd:The Spanish Tragedie(ed. 1998)

References

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  1. ^"The Cambridge Introduction to Shakespeare (electronic resource) / Emma Smith".Browns Books.Retrieved11 September2024.
  2. ^[1]Not Shakespeare: Elizabethan and Jacobean Popular Theatre podcasts
  3. ^[2]Approaching Shakespeare podcasts
  4. ^"Shakespeare's First Folio: from London to the world - and Leeds!".Leeds Art and Humanities Research Institute.Retrieved11 September2024.
  5. ^Who's Who 2020.
  6. ^"Professor Emma Smith".Hertford College, Oxford.Retrieved11 September2024.
  7. ^"Recognition of Distinction: Successful Applicants 2015",The University of Oxford Gazette,no. 510915, October 2015. Retrieved 20 November 2016.
  8. ^[3]Digital facsimile of the Bodleian First Folio
  9. ^Coughlan, Sean (7 April 2016)."Shakespeare Folio 'astonishing' find".BBC News.Retrieved16 September2017.
  10. ^Pollack-Pelzner, Daniel (19 February 2017)."The Radical Argument of the New Oxford Shakespeare".The New Yorker.ISSN0028-792X.Retrieved16 September2017.
  11. ^"Hoffman Prize Winners".The Marlowe Society.Retrieved9 November2021.
  12. ^"No Such Thing as a Stupid Question: On Emma Smith's" This is Shakespeare "".Cleveland Review of Books.Retrieved21 December2021.
  13. ^"Kochanski wins £50k Wolfson History Prize".Books+Publishing. 14 November 2023.Retrieved20 November2023.
  14. ^"Professor Emma Smith joins the RSC Board".Royal Shakespeare Company.Retrieved11 September2024.
  15. ^Smith, Emma.Portable Magic.
  16. ^Alex Preston (6 May 2019)."This Is Shakespeare by Emma Smith review – the Bard without the baggage".The Observer.Retrieved9 November2021.
  17. ^Smith, Emma.Women on the Early Modern Stage: A Woman Killed with Kindness, The Tamer Tamed, The Duchess of Malfi, The Witch of Edmonton.Methuen Drama (2014)ISBN9781408182338
  18. ^Sauer, Elizabeth (July 2014)."Andy Kesson and Emma Smith, eds. The Elizabethan Top Ten: Defining Print Popularity in Early Modern England. Material Readings in Early Modern Culture series".Journal of British Studies.53(3): 769–771.doi:10.1017/jbr.2014.58.Retrieved9 November2021.
  19. ^Smith, Emma (2012).Five revenge tragedies.London: Penguin Books.ISBN9780141192277.
  20. ^Smith, Emma (2012).The Cambridge Shakespeare guide.Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.ISBN9780521195232.
  21. ^James Hirsh (July 2008)."Review".Journal of British Studies.37(3): 661–663.JSTOR25482840.
  22. ^Smith, Emma (2007).Shakespeare's Comedies: a Guide to Criticism.Chichester: John Wiley & Sons.ISBN9780470776919.
  23. ^Smith, Emma (2008).Shakespeare's Tragedies: a Guide to Criticism.Hoboken: John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.ISBN9780470776896.
  24. ^Smith, Emma (2007).Shakespeare's Histories: a Guide to Criticism.Chichester: John Wiley & Sons.ISBN9780470776889.
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Oxford podcasts

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