Scott L. Newstok teaches courses in Shakespeare and his Renaissance contemporaries, as well as more recent appropriations and adaptations of their works; other interests include lyric poetry, the history of rhetoric, ecocriticism, film studies, and the literature of citizenship. He has enjoyed working closely with undergraduates who have gone on to present their scholarly research at Rhodes′ Undergraduate Research and Creativity Symposium (URCAS), the British Studies Symposium, the Association for Core Texts and Courses (ACTC) Student Conference, and national conferences. In 2012 Professor Newstok won the Campus Life Award for Outstanding Faculty Member.
Before joining the Rhodes faculty in 2007, Professor Newstok earned his doctorate from Harvard University and taught at Oberlin College, Amherst College, and Gustavus Adolphus College, and held the Andrew W. Mellon Post-Doctoral Fellowship in the Humanities at Yale University Library′s Special Collections. He has edited a volume of Kenneth Burke′s Shakespeare criticism, co-edited (with Ayanna Thompson) a collection of essays on Macbeth and race, and published a monograph on early modern English epitaphs. For 2010-11 he held a sabbatical fellowship from the American Philosophical Society, for a book project exploring the intersection of citizenship and philology. He is also at work on a book about the place of Duluth in the American cultural imagination.
Professor Newstok coordinates the Pearce Shakespeare Endowment, which brings innovative programming to the Rhodes campus in support of Shakespeare studies. He is the President of Rhodes′ Phi Beta Kappa chapter, Faculty member of the Rhodes Board of Trustees, and serves on the Advisory Board for the Marcus Orr Center for the Humanities at the University of Memphis. Vita (PDF); Google Scholar profile.
Ph.D., English and American Language and Literature, Harvard University, 2002
B.A., English, Grinnell College, 1995—magna cum laude, Phi Beta Kappa, President′s Medalist
Yeats International Summer School, 1997; Folger Institute, Folger Shakespeare Library, 1996; Newberry Library, Research Seminar in the Humanities, 1993
English 151 - FIRST-YEAR WRITING SEMINAR
The Figure of the Citizen
Overton: Memphis and the History of Urban Parks
English 190 - INTRODUCTORY TOPICS IN LITERATURE
Shakespeare on Screen
English 230 - SHAKESPEARE′S MAJOR PLAYS
(Spring 2009)
English 332 - ADVANCED SHAKESPEARE STUDIES
Shakespeare & Film
Ecocritical Approaches to Shakespeare
Hamlets
English 335 - MILTON
(Fall 2008)
English 485 - SENIOR SEMINAR: CRITICAL THEORY AND METHODOLOGY
The Return to Philology
The Sonnet in Theory and Practice
BRITISH STUDIES AT OXFORD - Christopher Marlowe′s plays; Milton′s poetry
Humanities 201: The Search for Values in Light of Western History & Religion
Books
Weyward Macbeth: Intersections of Race and Performance (Palgrave Macmillan, 2010) (co-edited with Ayanna Thompson)
Reviews: African American Review, Borrowers and Lenders, Chapter 16, CHOICE, College Literature, Discoveries, GRIOT, Journal of the Northern Renaissance, Modern Drama, Parergon, Shakespeare Bulletin, Shakespeare in Southern Africa, Shakespeare Quarterly, Studies in English Literature, Theatre History Studies, Theatre Journal, Theatre Survey, Theatre Topics, This Rough Magic, The Upstart Crow
"Weyward Macbeth is an astonishingly wide-ranging volume, taking in an impressive swath of theatrical and cultural history. . . . This is a provocative collection, certain to animate discussion of Macbeth, and much more, for some time to come." — W. B. Worthen, Alice Brady Pels Professor in the Arts, Barnard College, Columbia University
"Weyward Macbeth deserves reading--and re-reading . . . it′s an intellectual delight." — James Hatch, Professor Emeritus, The Graduate Theatre Program at the City University of New York
Quoting Death in Early Modern England: The Poetics of Epitaphs Beyond the Tomb (Palgrave Macmillan, 2009)
Reviews: Appositions, Cahiers Élisabéthains, English Studies, Essays in Criticism, Forum for Modern Language Studies (FMLS), The Journal of Ecclesiastical History, Journal of the Northern Renaissance, Modern Language Review, Mortality, Notes & Queries, Parergon, Reformation, Renaissance Quarterly, Review of English Studies (RES), Seventeenth-Century News, The Shakespeare Institute Review, Sixteenth Century Journal, Studies in English Literature (Poetry), Studies in English Literature (Drama), Times Higher Educaton (THE), Times Literary Supplement (TLS), Zeitschrift fur Anglistik und Amerikanistik
"Quoting Death exemplifies new formalism at its best. Ludic and strikingly original . . . An innovative stylist, Newstok writes in short, carefully honed sections that stand apart as brilliant mini-essays in their own right. In the speed and intellectual elegance with which he moves from historical specifics to profound meditations on aesthetics and the pathos of humanity′s efforts to overcome death, Newstok becomes a latter-day Thomas Browne." -- John Watkins, Studies in English Literature
Editor, Kenneth Burke on Shakespeare (Parlor Press, 2007)
Reviews: Anthropoetics, Appositions, Around the Globe, As We Like It, Cercles, College Literature, Comitatus, Comparative Drama, Discoveries, Early Modern Literary Studies (EMLS), Early Theatre, e-Colloquia, English Studies, Essays in Criticism, Études Anglaises, Folio, A Groat′s Worth of Wit, Hudson Review, Interdisciplinary Humanities, Journal for Early Modern Cultural Studies (JEMCS), Journal of the Northern Renaissance, KB Journal, Kritikon Litterarum, Liminalities, Notes and Queries, Parergon, PlayShakespeare.com, Raritan, Religion and Literature, Renaissance Studies, Review of Communication, Rhetoric Society Quarterly, Rocky Mountain Review, Sewanee Review, Shakespeare Bulletin, Shakespeare Geek, Shakespeare in Southern Africa, Shakespeare Matters, Shakespeare Newsletter, Shakespeare Quarterly, Shakespeare Scene, Shakespeare Studies, Shakespeare Yearbook, SHAKSPER, Shenandoah, Sixteenth Century Journal, South Atlantic Review, Southern Humanities Review, Studia Anglica Posnaniensia, Studies in English Literature (SEL), Studies in Medieval and Renaissance Teaching (SMART), Theater History Studies, Theatre Survey, Théâtres du monde , Times Higher Education (THE), Times Literary Supplement (TLS), The University of Toronto Quarterly, The Upstart Crow, & The Use of English.
Book project: Twinomials: Residual Bilingualism and Philological Citizenship in English Renaissance Literature, supported by a fellowship from the American Philosophical Society
Articles
"′A Joint and Corporate Voice′: Shakespearean Echoes in the Boardroom," Shakespeare Survey, (forthcoming)
"George W as Henry V," co-authored with Harry Berger, Jr., Shakespeare Yearbook special issue on "Shakespeare after 9/11" (2011)
"Certain Tendencies in Criticism of Shakespeare on Film," co-authored with Richard Burt, Shakespeare Studies special issue on "After Shakespeare on Film" (2010)
Interview with Welcome Msomi, Shakespeare in Southern Africa (Summer 2009)
"The Poetics of Closure: Epitaphs Ending Renaissance Elegies ‘Here,’" "Literature of the Graveyard" special issue of Studies in the Literary Imagination (Spring 2006)
"re: vs." Review of the play Quinnopolis vs. Hamlet. Borrowers and Lenders: The Journal of Shakespearean Appropriation (2006)
Editorial preface to Kenneth Burke essay, Shakespeare Quarterly (Autumn 2006)
"Renewing Burke’s “Plea for the Shakespearean Drama,” Literature Compass (Spring 2006)
"Touch of Shakespeare: Welles Unmoors Othello,” Shakespeare Bulletin (Spring 2005)
"Step Aside, I′ll Show Thee a President," PopPolitics (May 2003)
Contributions to Books
"Double-Translating Tropes as an Introduction to Early Modern Rhetoric," Companion to Shakespeare and Classical Literature, ed. Sean Keilen and Nick Moschovakis (proposed collection)
"Grafting Philology," Ecological Approaches to Teaching Early Modern English Literature, ed. Lynne Bruckner and Jennifer Munroe (Ashgate, forthcoming)
"Loving and Cherishing ′True′ English: Shakespeare′s Twinomials," Interlinguicity, Internationality, and Shakespeare, ed. Michael Saenger (McGill-Queen′s UP 2013)
"After Welles: Re-do Voodoo Macbeths," in Weyward Macbeth (2010)
"Appendix: Selected Productions of Macbeth Featuring Non-traditional Casting," co-authored with Brent Butgereit, in Weyward Macbeth (2010)
"Elizabeth I’s Death Rehearsal," Goddesses and Queens: Iconography of Elizabeth I (Manchester UP, 2007)
Entries in Shakespeares After Shakespeare: An Encyclopedia of the Bard in Mass Culture and Popular Culture (Greenwood Press 2006)
Reviews
Annabel Patterson, Milton′s Words in Modern Philology (forthcoming)
Eric Langley, Narcissism and Suicide in Shakespeare and His Contemporaries in Forum for Modern Language Studies (2011)
Anthony Guneratne, Shakespeare, Film Studies, and the Visual Cultures of Modernity in Renaissance Quarterly (Spring 2010)
Stephen Cohen, Shakespeare and Historical Formalism in Shakespeare Quarterly (December 2008)
Amy Scott-Douglass, Shakespeare Inside: The Bard Behind Bars in The Upstart Crow (2007)
Russ McDonald, Shakespeare′s Late Style in Renaissance Quarterly (Fall 2007)
Lawrence Rhu, Stanley Cavell′s American Dream in Shakespeare Bulletin (Winter 2006)
Lectures and symposia
Organizer, "Global Hamlets" symposium, Rhodes College (October 5, 2012)
Seminar member, "Professions and Identity," International Shakespeare Conference, The Shakespeare Institute (August 2012)
Organizer, "1611: A Symposium on the 400th Anniversary of the ′King James′ Bible," Rhodes College (November 10-11, 2011)
"How Macbeth Became ′Black,′" invited lecture, Agnes Scott College (February 2011)
"Returns to Philology," graduate seminar at the University of Geneva (September 2010)
"Teaching Writing in the Liberal Arts College," faculty wokshop at the European College of Liberal Arts (ECLA) (September 2010)
Organizer, "Green Shakespeare: A Symposium on Environmental Studies and the Bard," Rhodes College (March 26, 2010)
"Henry V after September 11, 2001," What′s the Word radio program (September 2009)
Seminar member, "Shakespeare Spin-offs," Shakepeare Association of America Annual Meeting (April 2009)
"Shakespeare and Presidential Politics," invited lecture, Centre College (October 2008)
Seminar member, "Shakespeare′s Medieval Tautologies: Loving and Cherishing English," International Shakespeare Conference, The Shakespeare Institute (August 2008)
Seminar leader, "Burke and Shakespeare," Kenneth Burke Society Triennial Conference, Villanova University (June 2008)
"Welles, Verdi, Othello," Film Music Conference, Bradford International Film Festival (March 2008)
Organizer, "Shakespeare in Color: A Symposium on Macbeth and African-American Performances and Appropriations," Rhodes College (January 25, 2008)
"Civics Lessens: Un-condensing the Seminar," invited lecture, Hudson Strode Program in Renaissance Studies symposium (April 14, 2007)
Organizer, Roundtable on "The Military Theatre: Drafting Shakespeare," Shakespeare Association of America Annual Meeting (April 13, 2006)