Patricia Akhimie

Patricia Akhimie is an Associate Professor of English at Rutgers University-Newark, Director of the Folger Institute at the Folger Shakespeare Library, and Director of the RaceB4Race Mentoring Network. She specializes in Shakespeare, Renaissance drama, and early modern women’s travel writing, with a focus on race, gender, and colonialism. Her research explores how literary works contributed to the formation of racial and social hierarchies in the early modern world.

Education: Ph.D. in English from Columbia University (2011), M.F.A. in Creative Writing from the University of Michigan (2002), B.A. in English from Princeton University (2000). Additional certifications include Online Teaching (Rutgers, 2019), Effective College Instruction (ACE, 2017), and Feminist Scholarship (Columbia, 2006).

Research Interests: Early Modern Critical Race Studies, Shakespearean drama, conduct literature, early modern travel narratives, gender studies, and colonialism. Her work bridges literary analysis with pedagogy and digital humanities, emphasizing the intersection of race, gender, and editing practices.

Awards: Recipient of the Warren I. Susman Award for Excellence in Teaching (2021), Mellon-Funded Grant for RaceB4Race (2021–2024), and numerous fellowships from the National Endowment for the Humanities, Folger Shakespeare Library, and Ford Foundation.

Teaching & Mentorship: Teaches courses like 'Shakespeare and Race' and 'Race in the Renaissance,' focusing on racial literacy in literature. She actively mentors early-career scholars through the RaceB4Race network and has developed innovative online curricula, earning awards for online teaching excellence.

Publications: Author of Shakespeare and the Cultivation of Race (2018) and co-editor of The Oxford Handbook of Shakespeare and Race (2024). Currently editing Othello for the Arden Shakespeare series and working on Leaving Home: Early Modern Women’s Travel.

Affiliations: Affiliated Faculty in Women's & Gender Studies and African American & African Studies at Rutgers Newark. Collaborates with institutions like the Folger Shakespeare Library and the Arizona Center for Medieval and Renaissance Studies.