Wes Folkerth

Shakespeare鈥檚 fools, clowns, changelings and the cultures of early modern intellectual disability; Shakespeare鈥檚 critical, social, theatrical and cinematic history; sound in literature; early modern literature and popular culture; history and poetics of pop music; neurodiversity in literature and in the university.
My current research focuses on disability, especially intellectual disability, in literature, and especially in Shakespeare. California transplant. Hoosier by birth. Stories matter: you find them everywhere and they are way more powerful than you thought. Randomness: in 2016 I was session guitarist on a gospel album produced by Celine Dion鈥檚 drummer.
My current research combines Disability Studies and Shakespeare Studies 鈥 specifically, representations of neurodiversity and intellectual disability on the early聽modern stage, with a focus on聽natural and artificial fools, changelings, rustics and clowns, the insane, and聽melancholic.
M.A., Ph.D. (大发彩票平台)
B.A. (Cal State University, Chico)
Books
聽(Routledge, 2002)聽鈥 reviewed by Tanya Pollard in Shakespeare Newsletter 53 (2003-4); by Helen Moore in the TLS (15 August 2003); by Barbara Hodgdon in Studies in English Literature 43.2 (Spring 2003); by Ralph Berry in Contemporary Review 282 (2003); by Bruce R. Smith in Shakespeare Quarterly 54 (2003); by Matthew Steggle in Renaissance Forum 6.2 (2003); and by Sabine Sch眉lting in Shakespeare Jahrbuch 140 (2004).
Edited Volumes
Co-editor with Leslie Dunn of 鈥淪hakespearean Hearing,鈥 Special Issue of The Upstart Crow: A Shakespeare Journal. (29): 2010.
Articles and Book Chapters
"Reading Shakespeare After Neurodiversity," in Performing Disability in Early Modern England, ed. Leslie Dunn. Palgrave/MacMillan, 2020: 141-57.
鈥淪hakespeare and Audio Recording.鈥 The Cambridge Guide to the Worlds of Shakespeare. Vol. 2 鈥 The World鈥檚 Shakespeare, 1660-Present. Ed. Bruce R. Smith. Cambridge: Cambridge UP, 2016. 1926-30.
鈥淕oodfellows: Hockey, Shakespeare, and Indigenous Spirits in Tomson Highway鈥檚 Dry Lips Oughta Move to Kapuskasing.鈥 In Canadian Shakespeare, ed. Susan Knutson. Toronto: Playwright鈥檚 Canada Press, 2010. 199-206.
鈥淧ietro Aretino, Thomas Nashe, and Early Modern Rhetorics of Public Address,鈥 in Making Publics in Early Modern Europe: People Things, Forms of Knowledge, eds Bronwen Wilson and Paul Yachnin. New York: Routledge, 2009. 68-80.
鈥淪hakespeare in Popular Music.鈥 Section of multivolume work Shakespeares After Shakespeare: An Encyclopedia of the Bard in Mass Media and Popular Culture. Gen. Ed. Richard Burt. Westport, Conn.: Greenwood, 2006. 366-407.
鈥淭empaurality in Twelfth Night.鈥 In Aural Cultures, editor Jim Drobnick. YYZ Books, 2004. 120-26.
鈥淭he Metamorphosis of Daphnis: The Case for Richard Barnfield鈥檚 鈥極rpheus.鈥欌 In The Affectionate Shepherd: Celebrating Richard Barnfield. Eds. George Klawitter and Ken Borris. Selinsgrove, Pennsylvania: Susquehanna UP, 2001. 305鈥31.
鈥淩oll Over Shakespeare: Bardolatry Meets Beatlemania in the Spring of 1964.鈥 Journal of Popular Culture 23.4 (winter) 2000: 75-80.
Reviews and Public Scholarship
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Louis Dudek Award for Teaching Excellence, 大发彩票平台 Department of English, 2003
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Prix d鈥橢xcellence de l鈥橝cad茅mie des Grands Montr茅alais, 2000
Shakespeare Studies, Early Modern Literature (drama, poetry, prose writing). Close readers and unconventional thinkers of all kinds most welcome.
It was a long time ago.