Dr. Farah Karim-Cooper

Dr. Farah Karim-Cooper was appointed as Director of the Folger Shakespeare Library in October 2024. She is the eighth director of the nearly century-old institution, which is home to the largest collection of Shakespeare’s works in the world.

Dr. Karim-Cooper is widely recognized as a Shakespeare and public scholar. She previously served as Head of Research and then Director of Education and Research at Shakespeare’s Globe in London from 2004-2024, and she was appointed Professor of Shakespeare Studies at King’s College London from 2020-2024. She served as President of the Shakespeare Association of America from 2021-2022 after serving 5 years on their Board of Trustees. She has published widely on Shakespeare, his theaters, and the culture of early modern England. Her most recent book, The Great White Bard: How to Love Shakespeare While Talking About Race (Viking 2023) was recognized as a top book of 2023 by Time Magazine, NPR, and The New Yorker.

She is a field leader in the theaters of Shakespeare’s time and was a project leader in the construction of the Sam Wanamaker Playhouse, the indoor Jacobean theater at Shakespeare’s Globe. She is also a leader in the examination of the plays through the lens of race and social justice. In 2018 she founded and curated the Globe’s Shakespeare and Race Festival. In the UK she founded the first ever Early Modern Scholars of Colour Network.