Institute of English and American Studies (IEAS)
Toggle navigation EN

Blog​​​​​​ ​​​​

English Studies

Jul 10 2025
- 20.07.2025

Visiting Fellow Dr Simon Smith (Shakespeare Institute, University of Birmingham) at the IEAS


We welcome Dr Simon Smith as a visiting fellow in the Department of English Studies. 

Simon Smith, FSA, is Associate Professor of Shakespeare and Early Modern Drama at the Shakespeare Institute, University of Birmingham. His research focuses on early modern theatre, music and sensory culture.
https://www.birmingham.ac.uk/staff/profiles/shakespeare/smith-simon

  • Together with Professor Susanne Scholz, he will lead the block seminar Shakespeare's Audiences, which will take place on the weekends of 11–12 July and 18–19 July 2025.

  • Dr Simon Smith will give the Wednesday Lecture (Forschungszentrum Historische Geisteswissenschaften, FZHG) on 16 July 2025, titled “Twelfth Night" Reconsidered: Identity, Song and Performativity.
Jul 16
18:15 Uhr

“Twelfth Night" Reconsidered: Identity, Song and Performativity.

IEAS ES Simon Smith Header
Twelfth Night has long been recognised as one of Shakespeare's most musical plays. In recent decades critics have increasingly given attention to the ways in which it is concerned with identity too, from Viola's adoption of the Cesario identity for the vast majority of the play, to the conflict between Malvolio and Sir Toby over social advancement, hereditary rank, and meritocracy. This talk, emerging from my research for the new Cambridge Shakespeare Edition of Twelfth Night, argues that the two threads of song and identity are in fact closely entwined within the play, with each holding the key to a deeper understanding of the other. Looking in particular detail at key scenes including 2.3, 2.4 and 5.1, and drawing on the play's rich stage history that is yet to be fully researched, this talk will suggest ways of reading the play closely in light of the wider themes of identity and song, and suggest outward connections, too, with other plays by Shakespeare and his contemporaries. 

https://fzhg.org/termine/termin/10-simon-smith