Professor Richard Wilson (born 1950) is the Sir Peter Hall Professor of Shakespeare Studies at Kingston University, London.
Education and employment
Richard Wilson studied at the University of York (1970–5) with Philip Brockbank, C.A. Patrides and F.R. Leavis, who influenced his close reading in historical contexts. He wrote his PhD thesis under the supervision of Jacques Berthoud on Shakespeare and Renaissance perspective theory.
Taught at University of Lancaster 1978–2005:
Lecturer in English Literature, 1978
Reader in Renaissance Studies, 1993
Professor of Renaissance Studies, 1994
Director of the Lancaster Shakespeare Programme
Taught at Cardiff University 2005–2012
Professor of English Literature
Convenor of the Medieval and Early Modern Research Initiative (MEMORI)
Taught at Kingston University 2012–
Sir Peter Hall Professor of Shakespeare Studies
Convenor of the Kingston Shakespeare Seminar (KiSS)
Visiting Fellowships and Professorships
Visiting Fellow, Shakespeare Institute, University of Birmingham, 1991-2
Visiting Professor, University of Paris III (Sorbonne Nouvelle), 2001-2
2006 Fellow, Shakespeare's Globe, London
Distinguished Visiting Professor, University of Paris IV (Paris-Sorbonne), 2011–12 Plumer Fellow, St Anne's College, Oxford University, 2019
Special Lectures
2001 British Academy Shakespeare Lecture: 'A World Elsewhere: Shakespeare's Sense of an Exit' 2004 Rutherford Lecture at the University of Kent: 'Shakespeare in Hate: Performing the Virgin Queen' 2005 Stachniewski Lecture at Manchester University: 'Making Men of Monsters: Shakespeare in the company of strangers' 2006 Shakespeare's Globe Fellowship Lecture: 'Fools of Time: Shakespeare and the Martyrs' 2012 Shakespeare Institute Lecture, Stratford: 'Monstrous To Our Human Reason: Minding the gap in "The Winter's Tale"' (8 March) 2012 Agder Academy Lecture, Kristiansand: 'Denmark's a Prison: "Hamlet" and Christian IV' [Årbok for 2012 – AGDER VITENSKAPSAKADEMI] 2013 Inaugural Lecture at Kingston University: 'Sermons in Stones: Shakespeare's Dangerous Thresholds' (30 October) 2014 Shakespeare Birthday Lecture at the University of Hull: 'Moonlight Sonata: Larkin and the Shakespeare Prize' (30 April) 2016 Shakespeare Now Lecture at the University of Zurich: 'The Madness of King Charles III: Shakespeare and the Modern Monarchy' (12 May) 2016 Shakespeare 400 Lecture at Ludwig Maximilian University, Munich: 'A Girdle Round About the Earth: Shakespeare Goes Global' (21 June) 2019 Plumer Fellowship Lecture, St Anne's College, Oxford: 'Bad Faith: Clara de Chambrun and Le Grand Will' (22 May)
International Conferences
Richard Wilson has organised a series of international conferences: 'Religion, Region, Patronage and Performance' at Lancaster University and Hoghton Tower, Lancashire, 1999 'The New Shakespeare: A writer and his readers: The Return of the Author in Shakespeare Studies' at Lancaster Castle, 2004 'Shakespeare, Violence & Terror' at Shakespeare's Globe, 2006 'Shakespeare and Derrida' at Cardiff University, 2007 'Shakespeare and Wales' at Cardiff University, 2010 'Garrick and Shakespeare' at Garrick's Temple, Hampton, and the Rose Theatre, Kingston, 2014 'Jan Kott Our Contemporary' at the Rose Theatre, Kingston, 2015 'Shakespeare and Scandinavia' at the Rose Theatre and Garrick's Temple, 2015 'Frances Yates and the Art of Memory' at the Rose Theatre, 2016 'Shakespeare and the Enlightenment', at Garrick's Temple, 2016 'Hegel and Shakespeare', at Garrick's Temple, 2017 'Marx and Shakespeare', at Garrick's Temple, 2017 'Nietzsche and Shakespeare', at Garrick's Temple, 2017 'Marlowe and Shakespeare', at the Rose Theatre, 2017 'Lacan and Shakespeare', at Garrick's Temple, 2018 'Foucault and Shakespeare', at Garrick's Temple, 2018 'Derrida and Shakespeare', at Garrick's Temple, 2018 'John Barton, Peter Hall and Shakespeare', at the Rose Theatre, 2018 'New Old Spaces', at the Rose Theatre, 2018 'Walter Benjamin and Shakespeare', at Garrick's Temple, 2019 'The Hollow Crown: Shakespeare and Political Theology', at Hampton Court Palace, 2019 'Ernst Kantorowicz and Shakespeare', at Garrick's Temple, 2019 'Hannah Arendt and Shakespeare', at Garrick's Temple, 2019 'Peter Brook and Shakespeare', at the Institut Francais, London, 2019
Academic Advisor
Since 1999 he has been a Trustee of Shakespeare North. He is Academic Advisor on its project to rebuild the Elizabethan playhouse at Prescot (Knowsley) near Liverpool.
He was an academic advisor for the BBC series In Search of Shakespeare (2001). He appears in the series, interviewed by Michael Wood.