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Andrew Keener headshot

Andrew Keener headshot

Shakespeare Scholar Keener Joins SCU English Dept.

Explores Renaissance lit, translation through digital humanities

Explores Renaissance lit, translation through digital humanities

By Ally O’Connor ‘20

How does a Shakespeare scholar intersect with the digital age? Prof. Andrew Keener, the newest tenure-track faculty member in SCU’s Department of English, does this by engaging the past while using the tools of the present. Keener’s areas of expertise include Shakespeare and the “digital humanities,” a term describing scholarly efforts to utilize computer-based technologies to engage traditional humanities questions.

Keener has a particular interest in “the ways [Shakespearean and other Renaissance English] texts were printed, sold, used, and circulated,” much of which “has required long periods of archival research in dozens of rare book libraries in Europe and North America.” His doctoral dissertation, which he is currently revising into a book, “argues that the study of translation and early multilingual dictionaries shows us a new, cosmopolitan avenue into the plays of William Shakespeare and other Renaissance English playwrights.”

Keener’s academic pedigree is impressive, including a Ph.D. in English from Northwestern University and M.A. degree from North Carolina State University. He notes that his undergraduate training at Boston College, a fellow Jesuit university, prepared him well for the teaching styles and values-based education found at SCU.

In particular, Keener often references a favorite lecture on fulfillment given by Fr. Michael Himes, S.J., in which Fr. Himes invites listeners to ask themselves three questions: "What do you like?”, “Are you good at it?” and “Does the world need it?” Years later, Keener notes that these three questions still hold great relevance to his life choices and leadership styles. He encourages his students “to reflect on them at the end of each term — to think about their interests, their talents, and how they can be women and men for others in the broader world around us.”

Keener is excited for the work ahead of him at SCU and in the Silicon Valley, as they allow him to bring together his interests in traditional literary technologies such as engraving and the ways the written text is changing every day through computer technology. That combination of the old and the new, he notes, make SCU “an ideal place to teach.” Keener will teach several courses at SCU including Critical Thinking and Writing I and II (ENGL 1A and 1B), Shakespeare’s Comedies (ENGL 151B/THTR 117), Shakespeare (ENGL 54), and Introduction to Literary History and Interpretation (ENGL 14).

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