Brown's research and professional interests lie in the intersection between Law and the Arts, including literature, theatre, music, film, and visual art. Since joining the IU Business Law faculty in 2007, Brown has been awarded an Innovative Teaching Award, a Trustees Teaching Award nomination, and been named a Kappa Alpha Theta outstanding professor. Prior to IU, Brown worked as an attorney in San Diego, California where she was awarded the 2006 Business Volunteers for the Arts Award. She was also elected to the Board of Directors of Sledgehammer Theatre and was a member of the San Diego Shakespeare Society. Professor Brown earned her J.D. from University of California, Davis School of Law, and her B.A. in English Literature from Skidmore College. Her undergraduate program included a semester-long intensive study of Shakespeare's works that took place abroad in London and Stratford-Upon-Avon, England.
Courses
Shakespeare and the Law
In this seminar, students will take on the roles of attorneys prosecuting or defending characters from Hamlet and Macbeth in simulated murder trials. Hamlet and Macbeth have been chosen because of their profound themes and complex characters. Both plays feature men and women who display deep behavioral ambiguities, leaving their motives and actions ripe for critical analysis and reinterpretation. Specifically, students will prepare and present the mock trial of Cawdor v. Lady Macbeth, in which Lady Macbeth will stand trial for the regicide of King Duncan, and the mock trial of Denmark v. King Claudius I, which will place Claudius on trial for the murder of the elder King Hamlet.
Assignments will include the development and presentation of case theories, opening statements, and closing arguments, as well as the direct and cross-examinations of witnesses such as Ophelia, Rosencrantz, Guildenstern, Polonius, Macduff, the Three Witches, and Banquo. Students will also engage in "evidence" collection by mining their client's actions, quotes, and interactions with other characters throughout their assigned play, and arranging that data in ways that support the student's legal arguments.
In order to effectively represent their clients, students will be required to analyze their assigned play from a new perspective, and to shift their thinking patterns away from entrenched or conventional interpretations to innovative and fresh solutions. In doing so, students will need to explore all sides of an argument, challenge preconceived ideas, and learn to articulately persuade audiences to support their position.
The course will include film screenings, literary analysis, live court visits, and a significant amount of teamwork, discussion, role play and active participation. Special emphasis will be given throughout the course to introducing students to the learning tools available at IU in particular, the Lilly Library (which contains four Shakespeare folios), the Wells Library (which contains a wealth of media resources, as well as numerous literary critiques and commentaries of Shakespeare's works), the Law Library, and Oncourse. Students will also become proficient at conducting Internet research, drafting documents using Microsoft Word, and preparing audiovisual presentations using Powerpoint.
Back to Course List
