Michael Witmore (born May 3, 1967) is a Shakespearean, scholar of

rhetoric Rhetoric () is the art of persuasion, which along with grammar and logic (or dialectic), is one of the three ancient arts of discourse. Rhetoric aims to study the techniques writers or speakers utilize to inform, persuade, or motivate parti ...

, digital humanist, and director of a library and cultural institution. In 2011, he was appointed the director of the Folger Shakespeare Library in

Washington, DC ) , image_skyline = , image_caption = Clockwise from top left: the Washington Monument and Lincoln Memorial on the National Mall, United States Capitol, Logan Circle, Jefferson Memorial, White House, Adams Morgan ...

, where he continues to serve.

Early life and career

Michael Witmore graduated from

Vassar College Vassar College ( ) is a private liberal arts college in Poughkeepsie, New York, United States. Founded in 1861 by Matthew Vassar, it was the second degree-granting institution of higher education for women in the United States, closely follo ...

in 1989 with a bachelor's degree in English. He has an M.A. and a Ph.D. in rhetoric from the

University of California, Berkeley The University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley, Berkeley, Cal, or California) is a public land-grant research university in Berkeley, California. Established in 1868 as the University of California, it is the state's first land-grant u ...

. From 1999 to 2008, he was an assistant professor and then an associate professor of English at

Carnegie Mellon University Carnegie Mellon University (CMU) is a private research university in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. One of its predecessors was established in 1900 by Andrew Carnegie as the Carnegie Technical Schools; it became the Carnegie Institute of Technology ...

. From 2008 to 2011, he was a professor of English at the

University of Wisconsin-Madison A university () is an institution of higher (or tertiary) education and research which awards academic degrees in several academic disciplines. Universities typically offer both undergraduate and postgraduate programs. In the United States, the ...

. Witmore's books include ''Culture of Accidents: Unexpected Knowledges in Early Modern England'' (2001), the co-winner of the 2003 Perkins Prize for the study of narrative literature; ''Pretty Creatures: Children and Fiction in the English Renaissance'' (2007); ''Shakespearean Metaphysics'' (2008); and ''Landscapes of the Passing Strange: Reflections from Shakespeare'' (2010) with photographer Rosamond Purcell. He was the co-curator with Purcell of the 2012 Folger exhibition "Very Like a Whale," based on ''Landscapes of the Passing Strange.'' He co-edited ''Childhood and Children's Books in Early Modern Europe, 1550–1800'' (2006) and ''Shakespeare and Early Modern Religion'' (2015).

Digital humanities

A pioneer in the use of computers for digital analysis of the texts of William Shakespeare, Witmore launched and directed the Working Group for Digital Inquiry at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and organized the Pittsburgh Consortium for Medieval and Renaissance Studies. He also founde
Wine Dark Sea
a blog on the nature of linguistic variation in Shakespeare's plays and early modern English text; he continues to jointly maintain the blog with Jonathan Hope of Strathclyde University. Witmore and Hope are collaborating on a book in progress, ''Shakespeare by the Numbers and Other Tales from the Digital Frontier.'' Witmore is interested in how the resources of computing, when applied to collections of digitized texts, can allow scholars to do intellectual and cultural history "at the level of the sentence." He is known for proposing that "massive addressability" is a fundamental feature of texts.

Folger Shakespeare Library

As the director of the Folger Shakespeare Library, Witmore developed a new Strategic Plan, which was accepted by the Board in 2013. During Witmore's tenure, the Folger has pursued multiple digital humanities (DH) projects, including Early Modern Manuscripts Online (EMMO)
Shakespeare's World
(a crowdsourced manuscripts project)
Shakespeare Documented
free and searchabl
Folger Digital Texts
of Shakespeare's plays and poems
A Digital Anthology of Early Modern English Drama
and apps with a social reading platform for seven of Shakespeare's most-known plays. Witmore led the Folger in celebrating two major anniversaries: the 450th anniversary of Shakespeare's birth in 2014 and the 400th anniversary of Shakespeare's death in 2016. In preparation for both events, the library updated and renovated its Great Hall exhibition space and completed a number of upgrades to its Elizabethan Theatre. For the 2016 anniversary, the Folger organized the ''First Folio! The Book That Gave Us Shakespeare'' tour, displaying First Folios from the Folger collection in all 50 states, Washington, DC, and Puerto Rico, with public programs and events at the host sites. Other aspects of the 2016 anniversary celebration included a CSPAN2 Book TV LIVE broadcast on the anniversary date, a

Los Angeles Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the largest city in the state of California and the second most populous city in the United States after New York City, as well as one of the world' ...

exhibition on ''America's Shakespeare: The Bard Goes West'', launching a continuing Theater Partnership Program nationwide, commissioning the vocal work "The Isle" (based on ''The Tempest'') by Caroline Shaw, premiering ''District Merchants'', a variation of ''

The Merchant of Venice ''The Merchant of Venice'' is a play by William Shakespeare, believed to have been written between 1596 and 1598. A merchant in Venice named Antonio defaults on a large loan provided by a Jewish moneylender, Shylock. Although classified as ...

'' set in

, after the

Civil War A civil war or intrastate war is a war between organized groups within the same state (or country). The aim of one side may be to take control of the country or a region, to achieve independence for a region, or to change government policies ...

, and piloting the CrossTalk DC community discussion program on race and religion as part of the NEH’s Humanities in the Public Square program. Under Witmore, the Folger also produced an NEH-funded 2011–13 national touring panel exhibition, with the Bodleian Library of the University of Oxford, on the 400th anniversary of the 1611

King James Bible The King James Version (KJV), also the King James Bible (KJB) and the Authorized Version, is an Bible translations into English, English translation of the Christian Bible for the Church of England, which was commissioned in 1604 and publis ...

; the fre
Shakespeare Unlimited
podcast series; studio recordings of seven Shakespeare plays by the Folger Theatre; Experiencing Shakespeare, an electronic field trip used by hundreds of thousands of students, which won two regional Emmys;"APT Wins Emmy Awards"
Alabama Public Television. Press release, June 10, 2013. and the general-audienc
Shakespeare & Beyond
blog.

References

External links

Folger Shakespeare LibraryWine Dark Sea
blog {{DEFAULTSORT:Witmore, Michael 1967 births American rhetoricians People in digital humanities Folger Shakespeare Library Living people Shakespearean scholars University of California, Berkeley alumni University of Wisconsin–Madison faculty Vassar College alumni

Early life and career

Digital humanities

Folger Shakespeare Library

References

Further reading

External links