William Shakespeare is undoubtedly the most internationally renowned author/playwright/poet – even 400 years following his death. His plays continue to be highly popular and are constantly studied and reinterpreted in performances with diverse cultural and political contexts. The genius of Shakespeare's characters and plots are that they present real human beings in a wide range of emotions and conflicts that transcend their origins in Elizabethan England.

William Shakespeare also invented over 1700 of the common words found today in the English language. This was mainly achieved by changing nouns into verbs, changing verbs into adjectives, connecting words never before used together, adding prefixes and suffixes, as well as adding original new words. Some of these words include: generous, eyeball, lonely, manager and fashionable.

Accordingly, the Bibliotheca Alexandria, the revival of the ancient Library of Alexandria, the centre for free thought, discussion and pursuit of knowledge, has invited international and Egyptian scholars and artists to a 2-day conference, to shed light on Shakespeare from different perspectives.

The academic conference will cover the following topics:

• Translating Shakespeare

• Criticism and Shakespeare

• Shakespeare on Stage and Screen

• Shakespeare: History and Politics

The conference is by registration only, free of charge, through this link.

For the full schedule of the academic conference, please click here.