#  Jeffrey R. Wilson 

 



Jeffrey R. Wilson is a Shakespeare scholar, Editor-in-Chief of [*Public Humanities*](https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/public-humanities), and Director of the [Harvard Law School Writing Center](https://hls.harvard.edu/academics/hls-writes/writing-center/).



 

 [ About Jeffrey R. Wilson arrow\_circle\_right ](https://wilson.fas.harvard.edu/about) 

 

       ![Jeffrey R. Wilson](/sites/g/files/omnuum9406/files/styles/hwp_21_9__1920x825/public/2025-09/Jeffrey%20R.%20Wilson_0.jpeg?h=073b8ed2&itok=MiMb4NqB) 

 

 



 

 



  [### Public Humanities

 ](https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/public-humanities)*Public Humanities* is a space for scholars, students, activists, journalists, policy-makers, professionals, practitioners, and non-specialists to connect and share knowledge.



 

   ![Public Humanities Banner](/sites/g/files/omnuum9406/files/styles/hwp_16_9__480x270/public/jeffreywilson/files/public_humanities_twitter_banner.jpg?itok=IdXF95pU) 

 

 

 

  [### Public Humanities Launch Party

 ](https://doi.org/10.52843/cassyni.0jqzjd)This gathering celebrated the launch of *Public Humanities*, a new open-access journal from Cambridge University Press, and the publication of the first issue, called *The Manifesto Issue*.



 

   ![Launch Party](/sites/g/files/omnuum9406/files/styles/hwp_16_9__480x270/public/2025-09/Public%20Humanities%20Launch%20Party.png?h=c5ac9827&itok=qQsVcq3V) 

 

 

 

  [### Businesses Have a Lot to Learn From the Impromptu ‘Teaming’ That Happens in Theater

 ](https://www.smithsonianmag.com/innovation/businesses-have-a-lot-to-learn-from-the-impromptu-teaming-that-happens-in-theater-180985929/)A Shakespeare scholar at Harvard University explains how the creative collaboration that happens in theater can be a model for companies developing innovative new products.



 

   ![Lord and Lady Macbeth](/sites/g/files/omnuum9406/files/styles/hwp_16_9__480x270/public/2025-09/Businesses%20Have%20a%20Lot%20to%20Learn%20From%20the%20Impromptu%20%E2%80%98Teaming%E2%80%99%20That%20Happens%20in%20Theater.jpg?h=8eeb5b45&itok=HeA0B2rW) 

 

 

 

  [### Shakespeare Across the Disciplines

 ](https://wilson.fas.harvard.edu/sites/g/files/omnuum9406/files/jeffreywilson/files/jeffrey_r._wilson_22shakespeare_across_the_disciplines22_2024.pdf)Theorizing four centuries of interdisciplinary scholarly engagement with Shakespeare.



 

   ![Taxonomy of academic disciplines](/sites/g/files/omnuum9406/files/styles/hwp_16_9__480x270/public/2025-09/Shakespeare%20Across%20the%20Disciplines%20%28Image%29.jpeg?h=dd378cd9&itok=Xrs1SMQC) 

 

 

 

  [### Richard III's Bodies from Medieval England to Modernity

 ](https://wilson.fas.harvard.edu/R3sBodies)How is Richard III always both so historical and so current?



 

   ![R3sBodies](/sites/g/files/omnuum9406/files/styles/hwp_16_9__480x270/public/jeffreywilson/files/r3sbodies_cover.jpg?h=e7a91e8c&itok=3vzxFVx_) 

 

 

 

  [### Criminology and Literature

 ](https://wilson.fas.harvard.edu/sites/g/files/omnuum9406/files/jeffreywilson/files/jeffrey_r._wilson_22criminology_and_literature22_2021.pdf)Criminology and literature is an interdisciplinary field connecting the social scientific study of crime, criminals, criminal law, and criminal justice with humankind’s artistic, imaginative expression in written word.



 

   ![criminology_and_literature_image.jpg](/sites/g/files/omnuum9406/files/styles/hwp_16_9__480x270/public/jeffreywilson/files/criminology_and_literature_image.jpg?h=418d1b84&itok=MgV9r5f6) 

 

 

 

  [### Justice for Hamlet

 ](https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/1535685X.2025.2475677)This article contends that Hamlet’s delay dramatizes due process in criminal justice proceedings.



 

   ![The Criminal Justice System in Elizabethan Murder Trials](/sites/g/files/omnuum9406/files/styles/hwp_16_9__480x270/public/2025-09/Justice%20for%20Hamlet.jpeg?h=0bdaa6d7&itok=x4iW4_rB) 

 

 

 

  [### What The Bard Tells Us About Broken Windows and Policing

 ](https://wilson.fas.harvard.edu/sites/g/files/omnuum9406/files/jeffreywilson/files/hidden_brain_podcast_shakespeare_and_broken_windows.mp3)Shortly after graduating from the University of California, Jeffrey Wilson found himself working in the Criminology department at Cal State Long Beach. This was an odd choice because Wilson's PhD was in Shakespeare.



 

   ![Hidden Brain](/sites/g/files/omnuum9406/files/styles/hwp_16_9__480x270/public/2025-09/Hidden%20Brain.jpeg?h=597f7f0b&itok=pSfAPCZA) 

 

 

 

  [### Shakespeare and Trump

 ](https://wilson.fas.harvard.edu/ShakespeareAndTrump)Revealing the modernity of Shakespeare’s politics,and the theatricality of Trump’s.



 

   ![Shakespeare and Trump on Reduced Shakespeare](/sites/g/files/omnuum9406/files/styles/hwp_16_9__480x270/public/jeffreywilson/files/shakespeare_and_trump_on_reduced_shakespeare.png?h=34261205&itok=VkDq_opS) 

 

 

 

  [### A New Definition of the Humanities

 ](https://www.insidehighered.com/opinion/views/2023/10/25/new-definition-humanities-opinion)It’s time for a better—and more strategic—definition, Jeffrey R. Wilson writes.



 

   ![A New Definition of the Humanities](/sites/g/files/omnuum9406/files/styles/hwp_16_9__480x270/public/jeffreywilson/files/a_new_definition_of_the_humanities.jpg?h=7cfab2df&itok=ALeaqH5h) 

 

 

 

  [### “To be, or not to be": Shakespeare Against Philosophy

 ](https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/17450918.2017.1343376)This essay hazards a new reading of the most famous passage in Western literature: “To be, or not to be” from William Shakespeare’s *Hamlet*.



 

   ![To be or not to be](/sites/g/files/omnuum9406/files/styles/hwp_16_9__480x270/public/jeffreywilson/files/to_be_or_not_to_be_image.jpg?h=d3af0028&itok=eKX0oZgo) 

 

 

 

  [### Public Shakespeare in the Classroom

 ](https://www.keyterms.org/issues/public-shakespeare)In honor of the final semester of Jeffrey R. Wilson's *Why Shakespeare?*, Key Terms is thrilled to showcase the impact the course has had on its students and the broader Shakespeare community.



 

   ![public_shakespeare_image.jpg](/sites/g/files/omnuum9406/files/styles/hwp_16_9__480x270/public/jeffreywilson/files/public_shakespeare_image.jpg?itok=IWhiob2S) 

 

 

 

  [### Sigma Alpha Elsinore: The Culture of Drunkenness in Shakespeare's Hamlet

 ](https://muse.jhu.edu/pub/4/article/856832)This essay asks what the tragedy of alcoholism looks like when located not on the level of the individual but on the level of a culture, as Shakespeare depicts in *Hamlet*.



 

   ![sigma_alpha_elsinore.jpg](/sites/g/files/omnuum9406/files/styles/hwp_16_9__480x270/public/jeffreywilson/files/sigma_alpha_elsinore.jpg?h=5ce898bd&itok=LB5b_kPx) 

 

 

 

  [### How to Do Public Writing

 ](https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/public-humanities/article/how-to-do-public-writing/5EE0E072EB60671784EAA69FB5BBA147)Emphasizing the importance of storytelling, this article includes tips for style and structure in public writing and advice on submitting pieces for publication.



 

   ![The Salina Journal](/sites/g/files/omnuum9406/files/styles/hwp_16_9__480x270/public/2025-09/How%20to%20Do%20Public%20Writing.png?h=6d854335&itok=0P0iGCZR) 

 

 

 

  [### Making Shakespeare Feel Relevant

 ](https://news.harvard.edu/gazette/story/2021/09/how-jeffrey-wilson-makes-shakespeare-feel-relevant/)It took Jeffrey Wilson a while to make a personal connection, but it showed him how to help others do it.



 

   ![harvard_gazette.jpg](/sites/g/files/omnuum9406/files/styles/hwp_16_9__480x270/public/jeffreywilson/files/harvard_gazette.jpg?h=7dfea40c&itok=DrpYdU2O) 

 

 

 

  [### 500 Years of Looking for Richard III

 ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j7fpdzlqtFU)Jeffrey R. Wilson tells the story of Richard III’s body traveling through time into Shakespeare’s hands, on down to today.



 

   ![500 Years of Looking for Richard III.](/sites/g/files/omnuum9406/files/styles/hwp_16_9__480x270/public/2025-09/500%20Years%20of%20Looking%20for%20Richard%20III.png?h=c69a4a8f&itok=TzOe47PX) 

 

 

 

  [### To Be Or Not To Be: Dean's Hamlet

 ](https://www.wnycstudios.org/podcasts/aria-code/episodes/aria-code-brett-dean-hamlet-allan-clayton)Host Rhiannon Giddens and her guests explore one of the most famous speeches in literature, its transformation into opera, and why Hamlet’s brooding soliloquy continues to intrigue artists and audiences four centuries later.



 

   ![To be or not to be](/sites/g/files/omnuum9406/files/styles/hwp_16_9__480x270/public/jeffreywilson/files/to_be_or_not_to_be_image_01.jpg?h=43cf20c9&itok=AGiOdWaB) 

 

 

 

  [### The Figure of Stigma in Shakespeare’s Drama

 ](https://read.dukeupress.edu/genre/article-abstract/51/3/237/136856/The-Figure-of-Stigma-in-Shakespeare-s-Drama)This essay theorizes a tradition in William Shakespeare’s drama involving some of his greatest and most captivating characters, including, among others, Richard III, Aaron the Moor, Shylock the Jew, Edmund the Bastard, Falstaff, Thersites, and Caliban.



 

   ![figure_of_stigma_in_shakespeares_drama_image.jpg](/sites/g/files/omnuum9406/files/styles/hwp_16_9__480x270/public/jeffreywilson/files/figure_of_stigma_in_shakespeares_drama_image.jpg?h=3ac76a7e&itok=uE_XtnCr) 

 

 

 

  [### Shakespeare and Game of Thrones

 ](https://www.folger.edu/podcasts/shakespeare-unlimited/game-of-thrones-wilson/)Wilson’s new book, *Shakespeare and Game of Thrones,* explores some of the ways that Shakespeare influenced *Game of Thrones…* as well as some of the ways that *Game of Thrones* has begun to influence Shakespeare.



 

   ![Shakespeare and Game of Thrones](/sites/g/files/omnuum9406/files/styles/hwp_16_9__480x270/public/jeffreywilson/files/shakespeare_and_game_of_thrones_image.jpg?h=18549302&itok=_JjxByS4) 

 

 

 

  [### Shakespeare Lightning Round

 ](https://www.instagram.com/p/ClCgondjDHV/)Dr. Wilson answers our thirty lightning-fast Shakespeare questions and talk about his new book, *Richard III's Bodies from Medieval England to Modernity*.



 

   ![Shakespeare Lightning Round](/sites/g/files/omnuum9406/files/styles/hwp_16_9__480x270/public/jeffreywilson/files/shakespeare_lightning_round.jpg?h=4802081f&itok=Unus-oR1) 

 

 

 

  [### Shakespeare and the Fate of Taylor Swift

 ](https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/public-humanities/article/shakespeare-and-the-fate-of-taylor-swift/6E6329E2BF6CBE602474CDCB0E209C0B)For the [Taylor Swift (Public Humanities' Version)](https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/public-humanities/of-the-moment/taylor-swift-public-humanities-version?utm_source=SFMC&utm_medium=email&utm_content=Read+Taylor+Swift+(Public+Humanities'+Version)+Now!&utm_campaign=KMW_PUB_Taylor+Swift&WT.mc_id=KMW_PUB_Taylor+Swift) Roundtable.



 

   ![Shakespeare and the Fate of Taylor Swift](/sites/g/files/omnuum9406/files/styles/hwp_16_9__480x270/public/2025-12/Shakespeare%20and%20the%20Fate%20of%20Taylor%20Swift.jpg?itok=8xsoehmd)