Rather than try to tell a sociological story about the "violent Black man" myth, we can examine one instance of this racial mythmaking in a widely studied, influential literary forebear: Shakespeare’s Hamlet.

Refusing disciplinary silos and thinking beyond periodization allows educators to connect the present realities of student's lives to the distant past.

Chaucer's most outspoken pilgrim gets three modern makeovers: an animated film, a spoken-word performance, and a poem staged in a London market. Jonathan Hsy shows how these adaptations open fresh classroom conversations about gender, power, and justice.