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Stephen Wittek

@swittek.bsky.social
36 followers 21 following 8 posts

I'm an Associate Professor and Director of the Literary and Cultural Studies program in the Department of English at Carnegie Mellon University. I work on Shakespeare, early modern drama, wit, news, publics, conversion, computational humanities, and VR.

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Stephen Wittek @swittek.bsky.social · 06/09/2026
Check it out: CMU’s copy of the First Folio (left) alongside a reproduction of the same work in augmented reality (right)—the first First Folio of its kind!
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Stephen Wittek @swittek.bsky.social · 25/05/2026
I've got a new piece in The Pittsburgh Review of Books about early modern news culture, lunar fantasy, and astro-colonialism in Ben Jonson's space-masque, News from the New World Discovered in the Moon (1619). Many thanks to Ed Simon and Shanzeh Afzal. pghrev.com/ben-jonsons-...
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Stephen Wittek @swittek.bsky.social · 28/04/2026
Many thanks to Treviene Harris at the American Council of Learned Societies for this excellent review of CMU's PhD program in Computational Cultural Studies. We are looking forward to welcoming our inaugural cohort in the fall term! www.acls.org/resources/ca...
acls.org
Carnegie Mellon's Computational Cultural Studies Program
When the dean of Carnegie Mellon University’s (CMU) Dietrich College of Humanities and Social Sciences paused admissions to the Department of English’s PhD program in Literary and Cultural Studies in ...
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Early Theatre @earlytheatre.bsky.social · 21/02/2026
@swittek.bsky.social presents "Drama and Conversion." This Issues in Review explores how early moderns viewed identity and power through conversion, intertwining race, gender, politics, and performance. Access: buff.ly/yadZHOo
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Pittsburgh Review of Books @pghreviewofbooks.bsky.social · 27/02/2026
Caliban’s Nipples: an exploration of Fuseli’s Shakespeare illustrations reveals how race, desire, colonial anxiety, and personal obsession converge in eighteenth-century visual culture. By Stephen Wittek. pghrev.com/calibans-nip...
pghrev.com
Caliban’s Nipples - Pittsburgh Review of Books
Boydell's Illustrations of the Dramatic Works of Shakespeare (1797) is a collection of broadsheet engravings that collectively constitute one of the most
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Early Theatre @earlytheatre.bsky.social · 18/12/2025
Up next in December 2025: Issues in Review contributing editor @swittek.bsky.social introduces a brace of short, cutting edge essays tackling how early modern English drama represented conversion -- a complex process shaped, this IR shows, by by race, gender, politics, and performance. #EarlyDrama
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Early Theatre @earlytheatre.bsky.social · 18/12/2025
What counts as lawful, as opposed to criminal, conversion? And what are the stakes of each? This depends on which genre of early modern English drama is taking up such questions, according to Sheila Coursey. Read more in ET's upcoming Dec 2025 issue. #EarlyTheatre #EarlyModern @swittek.bsky.social
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Early Theatre @earlytheatre.bsky.social · 18/12/2025
What happens to faithful wives in early modern English plays where prodigal sons give way to prodigal husbands? Hannah Korrell explores how "Griselda Fights Back," along the way changing trajectories of gender in conversion narratives. Forthcoming in 28.2's Issues in Review. @swittek.bsky.social
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Early Theatre @earlytheatre.bsky.social · 19/12/2025
What's in a name -- Romeo's name? And what's conversion (not just love) got to do with it? Read more in @hollypickett.bsky.social's essay on Romeo's transformation 'from renegade to martyr': forthcoming in our upcoming Issues in Review, ET 28.2 (Dec 2025). @swittek.bsky.social
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Early Theatre @earlytheatre.bsky.social · 19/12/2025
Emily Parise highlights the paradox in Marlowe's Jew of Malta: while early modern religious conversion suggests an internal change, the need for outward performance can lead to insincerity. Learn more in our Dec 2025 Issues in Review on Drama and Conversion organized by @swittek.bsky.social
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Stephen Wittek @swittek.bsky.social · 20/12/2025
I'm proud to announce the publication of a collection of essays on ‘Drama and Conversion’ that I edited for 𝐸𝑎𝑟𝑙𝑦 𝑇ℎ𝑒𝑎𝑡𝑟𝑒. The line-up of contributing authors features Sheila Coursey, Jordan Zajac, Hannah Korell, Holly Crawford Pickett, Emily Parise, and yours truly. See comments for details.
Image from first page of the Introduction to 'Drama and Conversion' section of Early Theatre.
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