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Searching for Juliet

January's Online Research Conversation

A free online talk with people engaged in Shakespeare-related research.

For the first edition of our 2025 series of Research Conversations celebrating The Women Who Made Shakespeare, we welcome Dr Sophie Duncan who will talk to us about the legacy and reach of Shakespeare's character Juliet.

How did Shakespeare set about writing the role of Juliet?

What have been her fortunes on stage and on screen?

How has she been reinvented in other cultures?

From Shakespeare's source material and his contemporary actors to enslaved people in the Caribbean; from the Victorian stage and 1930s fascism to 1960s cinema, Baz Luhrmann, and real-life livers in Afghanistan, Sophie Duncan's new research shows us why Juliet is for now, for ever and for everyone.

Led by Dr Sophie Duncan, Research Fellow at Magdalen College, University of Oxford and author of Searching for Juliet: The Lives and Deaths of Shakespeare's First Tragic Heroine.

This is a free online event. Book your free space >


About our Research Conversations
Every month we host a live online talk which provides you with the opportunity to listen to people who are engaged in Shakespeare-related research. The talk begins with a thirty-minute presentation, followed by an open discussion.

All of our Research Conversations are completely free to attend, though we do encourage donations in order to support our work and keep Shakespeare's story alive. So if you are in the position to support us with a donation, no matter large or small, we would be incredibly grateful.

Listen back: If you were unable to attend our previous virtual Research Conversations, want a recap, or completely new to it and want to see what it's all about, you can catch up on our audio recordings .


This event is part of our multi-year programme, celebrating The Women Who Made Shakespeare

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