Shakespeare-VR: Bringing Virtual Reality into Humanities Education

Wittek, S. and Von Davier, T.

The Shakespeare-VR project uses virtual reality to bring students face-to-face with professional actors performing Shakespearean soliloquies in a replica of Shakespeare’s Blackfriars Playhouse. Directed by Shakespeare scholar and Digital Humanities specialist, Prof. Stephen Wittek, the project combines the talents of partners from the virtual reality production company Stitchbridge, the Eberly Center for Teaching Excellence and Educational Innovation, the CMU Center for Digital Sciences, Humanities, Arts, Research, and Publishing (DSHARP), and the American Shakespeare Center. In addition to providing an exciting, immersive introduction to the spaces Shakespeare had in mind when he composed his plays, the project makes an important contribution to the growing body of research on virtual reality in humanities education. Students can view the Shakespeare-VR experience in the classroom as a supplement to Shakespeare instruction, or on their own (provided they have a headset). Attendees to the TEL demo session will be able to view a 4-minute clip from the project on an Oculus Go.

Stephen Wittek, English
Thomas Von Davier, HCII