James Shapiro is Professor of English and Comparative Literature at Columbia University and has taught as a Fulbright lecturer at Bar Ilan and Tel Aviv Universities. He is the author of three books including, Shakespeare and the Jews, an in-depth look at England’s Elizabethans and how they imagined Jews to be utterly different from themselves in religion, race, nationality, and even sexuality.
Shapiro co-edited the Columbia Anthology of British Poetry and served as the associate editor of the Columbia History of British Poetry. He is currently at work on A Year in the Life of William Shakespeare.