About us

Ayanna Thompson is a Regents Professor of English at Arizona State University, and the executive director of the Culture foundry. She is the author of many books, including Blackface and Shakespeare in the Theatre: Peter Sellars. Thompson is known for her public-facing work with theater companies. She is a member of the board of trustees of the Royal Shakespeare Company and is a Shakespeare Scholar in Residence at The Public Theater in New York, where she has worked on the Broadway productions of Romeo + Juliet, Uncle Vanya, and Macbeth.

She is an elected member of both the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and the British Academy. In 2024, she was awarded the Sydney Hook Memorial Award for which “recognizes national distinction by a single scholar in each of three endeavors — scholarship, undergraduate teaching, and leadership in the cause of liberal arts education.” She served as the President of the Shakespeare Association of America in 2019, was one of Phi Beta Kappa’s Visiting Scholars, and was a member of the Board of Directors for the Association of Marshall Scholars.

Thompson is an Associate Scholar and the chair of the Royal Shakespeare Company’s Research Board, and a member of the Folger Shakespeare Library Board of Governors.