This directory of Shakespearean theses, from Britain and Ireland, was compiled by Thomas Larque (s[email protected]), with permission, from the information given in the “Index to Theses” database (http://www.theses.com). Detailed abstracts and other information on individual theses is available from this Index, and you should either visit their website or contact them at [email protected] for further information on individual theses.
This directory of Shakespearean theses, in its current form, is © Thomas Larque, 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007 and may not be duplicated without permission (although information on individual theses still belongs to the “Index to Theses”). People are free to print out this directory for personal use or for small scale teaching purposes. However this directory may not be republished on another webpage (link to it instead) or republished in any form other than a straightforward computer print-out of the webpage for personal use or small scale teaching purposes. This directory may not be sold on in any form, whether printed or electronic.
Theses are included in this list if they seem (from their abstract) to contain the equivalent of a chapter or more devoted to Shakespeare or Shakespearean topics. Not all universities seem to give the “Index to Theses” information about their Research Masters degrees, so the list of Masters Theses may be less comprehensive than the list of Doctoral Theses.
If you notice any mistakes in this list, or know of (or have written) a Shakespearean or Shakespeare-related Research Masters or Doctoral thesis for a British or Irish University that should be listed here but is not, then please contact Thomas Larque at [email protected] .
Please note that there do seem to be a significant number of omissions in the “Index to Theses” (which formed the basis of this directory). By searching the University of Birmingham’s online library catalogue in detail I have located (and added to this directory) more than twenty doctoral theses on Shakespearean subjects that were apparently not listed at all in the “Index to Theses”. It would be too difficult to do a similar search on all University library catalogues (the University of Birmingham’s Shakespeare Institute was the reason that I searched their library catalogue in detail, once I realised that it contained dissertations not listed in the “Index to Theses”), so many theses may not appear in this directory that should do so. I am also certain that my own search of the “Index to Theses” will not have located all of the theses listed there with Shakespearean subjects (since I had to rely upon rough keyword searching). Given this level of unreliability, the absence of a dissertation from this directory should certainly not be taken as evidence of its non-existence. Again, I would be very grateful if anybody who does find any mistakes or omissions in this directory would let me know at the E-Mail address given in the paragraph above.
Thanks to Expert Information and the “Index to Theses” for their permission to produce this directory.