Dr. William Casey Caldwell is an early modern literature scholar, professor, director, and actor.

He is currently an Adjunct Assistant Professor of English at Carthage College.

Dr. Caldwell’s research focuses on issues related to citizenship and early modern drama, including Shakespeare. His first book project, Urban Citizens in Early Modern Drama: City, Nation, Citizenship, is forthcoming with Bloomsbury Press as part of the Arden Studies in Early Modern Drama series. His second book project, tentatively entitled Dramatic Democracy in Early Modern Theater, will explore the perhaps surprisingly fraught relationship playwrights such as Shakespeare had with the notion of democracy. He has also published articles and book chapters with leading journals and presses, including SEL: Studies in English Literature, Shakespeare Studies, Theatre Topics, Arden Studies in Early Modern Drama, and the University of Alabama Press’s Hudson Strode Series in Early Modern Drama.

His teaching includes a wide variety of English classes, including upper-division courses dedicated to Shakespeare, Cervantes, and Chaucer, citizenship and early modern drama, commerce and power in early modern drama; as well as lower-division courses on literatures of citizenship, horror literature and film, apocalyptic literature and film; and “risky business” literature and the American Dream. His classes often feature performance and creative writing elements. He has taught previously as an instructor or teaching assistant at Northwestern University, Roosevelt University, Mary Baldwin University, the University of Auckland, and the University of Texas at Austin.

As a director, actor, and dramaturg, Dr. Caldwell has participated in dozens of plays in both a professional theater and educational setting. He has worked with Shakespeare at Winedale (Round Top, TX), the Globe Theater (London, UK), the American Shakespeare Center (Staunton, VA), Austin Shakespeare (Austin, TX), Poor Tom Players (Austin, TX), and Stuart Hall (Staunton, VA). He also gave regular pre-show lectures at Chicago Shakespeare Theater.

Dr. Caldwell’s passions for scholarship, research, and theater practice inform his leadership roles. He is the director for the English Players at Carthage College, a student acting troupe that stages scenes from Shakespeare’s plays. He also co-leads and organizes Carthage’s annual Stratford Theater Trip to Stratford, Ontario in Canada. He also organizes Carthage’s annual Sonnet Festival. Dr. Caldwell is currently developing a creative writing summer camp program for high school students with Carthage College.

Dr. Caldwell received his Ph.D. in English literature from Northwestern University (2019); an M.F.A. with a concentration in directing from the Shakespeare and Performance Program at Mary Baldwin University in partnership with the American Shakespeare Center (2011); an M.Litt. from the S&P Program at MBU in partnership with the ASC (2010); an M.A. in Philosophy from the University of Auckland (2007); and a B.A. in Philosophy from the University of Texas at Austin (2004).