Presenter: Eve Hirschman
Mentors: Corbett Upton and Steven Shankman, English
Oral Presentation
Major: English
Hamlet: Denmark’s a prison.
Rosencrantz: Then is the world one.
Hamlet: A goodly one, in which there are many confines, wards, and dungeons…for there is nothing either good or bad but thinking makes it so. To me, it is a prison.
-Hamlet, II.ii.261-70
Elizabethan England and Oregon State Correctional Institution, two places separated by substantial amounts of time and space, come together to provide new insight into the human condition in today’s world. After studying Shakespeare in a classroom environment consisting of equal parts UO students and Adults in Custody, it is clear that the benefits of a humanities education reach far beyond the world of Academia. Incorporating the ethical and moral implications that arise from engaging in literature and theory should be a cornerstone in how modern society approaches correctional institutions. Whether outside or inside prison, close proximity to the study of the humanities, especially works as psychologically and emotionally complex as Shakespeare’s, provides an important and unique opportunity to understand one’s relationship with society. A humanities education enhances one’s conception of their own humanity while unavoidably acknowledging that of the other. Not only do we need the human element in academic studies of the humanities, but also the incorporation of the humanities into institutions which play a part in defining what it is to be human.