The National Endowment of the Humanities has made a grant to Richard Strier to lead one of its summer seminars in July 2017. The three-week seminar, entitled “King Lear and Shakespeare Studies: A Seminar for College Teachers,” will allow university educators who instruct undergrads to study King Lear in depth at UChicago.

“Their aim,” Strier says of the seminars, “is to provide full-time college and university instructors who are interested in the topic with the opportunity to do high-level work in a community of peers.” Strier is the Frank L. Sulzberger Distinguished Service Professor Emeritus in the Department of English Language and Literature.

Over the three weeks, the participants will study various aspects of the play and its history: textual problems, film adaptations, and critical interpretations. “There are, to my knowledge, very few opportunities to focus on a single play so intensely and intensively,” says Strier. “The seminar will work in great depth and will use the study of this play as a general model for studying Shakespeare's plays.”

The NEH’s Summer Seminars and Institutes are as continuing education for college and university instructors. Only full-time faculty may apply. Some spaces are designated for full-time non-tenure-track faculty.

Anyone interested in the seminar can find more detailed information and application materials at the seminar’s website. Applications are due 1 March 2017.