The Folger Shakespeare Library's Board of Governors announced
today that they have appointed Dr. Farah
Karim-Cooper as the new director of the 92-year-old
institution following a 10-month international search. Karim-Cooper
currently serves on the executive leadership team at Shakespeare's
Globe as the Director of Education. Karim-Cooper succeeds
Michael Witmore, who has served as
director since 2011. Karim-Cooper will begin in her new role as the
Director of the Folger Shakespeare Library on October 7, 2024.
WASHINGTON, May 20, 2024 /PRNewswire-PRWeb/ --
Dr. Karim-Cooper is a proven leader and respected scholar with
20 years of experience at Shakespeare's Globe in London
"After twenty years at Shakespeare's Globe
developing a scholarly profile while leading research, education,
collections and public programming, this role is the natural next
step on my lifelong journey with Shakespeare," Karim-Cooper
said.
The Folger Shakespeare Library's Board of Governors announced
today that they have appointed Dr. Farah
Karim-Cooper as the new director of the 92-year-old
institution following a 10-month international search. Karim-Cooper
currently serves on the executive leadership team at Shakespeare's
Globe as the Director of Education (Higher Education &
Research). She is Professor of Shakespeare Studies at Kings College London and the author of popular
commercial, trade and scholarly publications. Karim-Cooper succeeds
Michael Witmore, who has served as
director since 2011. Karim-Cooper will begin in her new role as the
Director of the Folger Shakespeare Library on October 7, 2024.
The Folger's Director Search Committee was unanimous in its
decision to recommend Karim-Cooper to the Board of Governors.
Chaired by board member Rebecca
Bushnell and Board Chair D. Jarrett
Arp, the group was tasked with identifying a leader who can
guide the Folger from a period of great transformation and
crystallize the institution's scope and ambition as it approaches
its second century. Karim-Cooper's experience and leadership
encompass education, research & collections, performance,
public engagement, and capital building projects. Her work has
uniquely situated her to consider the role of the humanities in
today's world and the possibilities for an organization like the
Folger.
"The Search Committee and the Board of Governors were impressed
with Farah's deep, diversified track record and experiences, which
traverse the world of Shakespeare studies, performance,
collections, media, and connecting with a variety of audiences,"
said Arp. "She has a well-earned reputation as an inclusive,
thoughtful, and engaging leader. Farah is a natural fit to guide
the Folger as we welcome the public, increase our visibility, and
build for the Folger's second century."
Karim-Cooper is widely recognized as a Shakespeare scholar and a
public scholar. She served as President of the Shakespeare
Association of America from 2021-2022 after serving 5 years on
their Board of Trustees. Her most recent book, The Great White
Bard: How to Love Shakespeare While Talking About Race (2023) was
voted a top book of 2023 by Time Magazine, NPR, and The New Yorker.
She is a field leader in examining Shakespeare's plays through the
lens of race and social justice. In 2018 she founded and curated
the Globe's Shakespeare and Race Festival and conceived and curated
the Antiracist Shakespeare Webinar series from 2021-2024. She is an
executive board member for RaceB4Race, a consortium of scholars and
institutions working on issues of race in premodern literature,
history, and culture. In the UK, she founded the first ever Early
Modern Scholars of Colour network.
She has a track record for bringing to life visionary, strategic
initiatives. At the Globe, Karim-Cooper championed and created the
business model for a new Research & Collections Centre that
will open in 2025. She spearheaded and now serves as Co-Director of
the Shakespeare Centre London, a major research partnership between
Shakespeare's Globe and King's College London. Karim-Cooper was
instrumental in returning the Globe to operations after the
pandemic, as she worked in concert with leadership to re-staff and
regenerate business at the Globe.
"I am thrilled to take up the role of Director of the Folger
Shakespeare Library. After twenty years at Shakespeare's Globe
developing a scholarly profile while leading research, education,
collections and public programming, this role is the natural next
step on my lifelong journey with Shakespeare. The Folger is a
world-renowned and beloved institution, a significant beacon of
knowledge that daily demonstrates the importance of the
humanities," Karim-Cooper said. "I am truly honored to uphold its
founding mission while forging new ways to demonstrate how
Shakespeare's work speaks to our moment. Above all, I look forward
to working with the Folger's passionate staff and its remarkable
Board of Governors to lead this miraculous institution into its
second century."
Karim-Cooper was born in Karachi,
Pakistan, and grew up in Houston,
Texas. She holds a Ph.D. in English Literature from
Royal Holloway, University of
London and received a B.A. in
English Literature from California State
University, Fullerton. She has published more than 40
chapters in books, reviews and articles, and is a co-General Editor
for Arden's Shakespeare in the Theatre series and their Critical
Intersections Series. She has published several books on
Shakespeare, theatre, performance and culture, including: Cosmetics
in Shakespearean and Renaissance Drama (Edinburgh University Press, 2006, revised ed. 2019)
and The Hand on the Shakespearean Stage: Gesture, Touch and the
Spectacle of Dismemberment (Arden, 2016). She co-edited
Shakespeare's Globe: A Theatrical Experiment with Christie Carson (Cambridge
University Press, 2008); Shakespeare's Theatres and Effects
of Performance with Tiffany Stern
(Arden, 2012) and Moving Shakespeare Indoors: Performance and
Repertoire in the Jacobean Playhouse with Andrew Gurr (Cambridge
University Press, 2014). Karim-Cooper edited a collection of
essays for Arden, Titus Andronicus: The State of Play (2019) and
edited the text of John Webster's
The Duchess of Malfi for the Routledge Anthology of Early Modern
Drama, collated by Jeremy Lopez
(2020).
Bushnell, the Search Co-Chair and a professor emerita of early
modern studies at the University of
Pennsylvania, said, "This extensive record of scholarship
demonstrates Farah's decades-long experience with libraries like
the Folger. She can dig deep into the archives and rare books, but
she can also bring what she finds there to invigorate the
scholarship of the twenty-first century, to make the past come
alive for new audiences."
Karim-Cooper will be the eighth director of the Folger
Shakespeare Library and the first person of color to hold the
position. After Michael Witmore
steps down on June 30, Greg Prickman,
the Eric Weinmann Librarian and Director of Collections and
Exhibitions, will serve as interim director until Karim-Cooper
starts in October.
About the Folger Shakespeare Library
The Folger Shakespeare Library makes Shakespeare's stories and the
world in which he lived accessible. Anchored by the world's largest
Shakespeare collection, the Folger is a place where curiosity and
creativity are embraced, and conversation is always encouraged.
Visitors to the Folger can choose how they want to experience the
arts and humanities, from interactive exhibitions to captivating
performances, and from pathbreaking research to transformative
educational programming. The Folger welcomes everyone to connect in
their own way—from communities throughout Washington DC to communities across the globe.
Learn more at folger.edu.
Media Contact
Melanie Bender Martin, Folger
Shakespeare Library, 443-421-0875, mbmartin@folger.edu,
www.folger.edu
Peter Eramo, Jr., Folger
Shakespeare Library, 202-675-0344, peramo@folger.edu,
www.folger.edu
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SOURCE Folger Shakespeare Library