ALAMOSA – The Adams State University Faculty Lecture “Consent in Shakespeare’s Classical Mediterranean: Women Speak Truth to Power” by Artemis Preeshl, Ed.D., begins at 6 p.m. Thursday, Feb. 13, in McDaniel Hall 101. The lecture is free and open to the public.  

Consent in Shakespeare’s Classical Mediterranean examines how female-identified, gender-fluid, and non-binary characters made choices and about intimacy, engagement, and marriage in Shakespeare’s classical Mediterranean plays set in classical Troy, Athens, Thebes, Antioch, Ephesus, Mytilene, the North African Pentapolis, Tarsus, Egypt, Rome, Antium, Britain, Sardis, Philippi, Sicily, greater Bohemia, and the Balkans. Shakespeare’s heroines and their supporters may have initially appeared to conform to Early Modern contexts, but their diverse backgrounds impacted the right to consent to friendship, affection, betrothal, and marriage in the classical Mediterranean. As classical realities collide with Early Modern preconceptions and misconceptions, commonalities and differences in the lived experiences of female-identified and non-binary royalty, nobility, servants, enslaved peoples, matchmakers, courtesans, sex workers, madams, herbalists, tailors, and merchants manifest in access to agency. 

For more information on the Faculty Lecture Series, contact Jess Gagliardi at 719-587-8921 or jgagliardi@adams.edu.