Haughey expands interest in Shakespeare, authors educational book for teaching Hamlet

The question of “to be or not to be” is answered by Dr. Joseph Haughey, an assistant professor of English at Northwest Missouri State University, who recently authored a book aimed at helping teachers make a challenging Shakespeare work more accessible.

Dr. Joseph Haughey

The book, “Teaching Hamlet in the Twenty-First Century Classroom,” is for both novice and veteran teachers and offers fresh takes on teaching Shakespeare’s iconic “Hamlet.” Rooted in text and performance, each chapter provides ready-to-use learning objectives, reading guides, notes on language, critical backgrounds, discussion questions, film-based strategies and project-based culminating activities that embrace students’ role in meaning-making.

It is a book, the publisher Rowman & Littlefield notes, for teachers who want to get their students to love Hamlet.

“I don’t think a play like ‘Hamlet’ is one that you read and then are finished,” Haughey said. “My goal is for students to see themselves in a different light because of it. I hope it’s a text that all people come back to and see new things.”

Haughey was offered the idea of authoring a book about teaching a Shakespeare play from Roman & Littlefield. He started his research during the COVID-19 pandemic and began writing in 2022. The book was published last month.

Haughey’s research for the book was extensive and included attending numerous performances of “Hamlet,” reading critiques of the play and reviewing other books published about teaching Shakespeare. His research is continuing.

“It’s decades of my ideas of teaching, and this book is going to exist after me,” he said. “I think that’s pretty special. I hope maybe 100 years from now, somebody looks at this book and gets some sense of who I was.”

Haughey hopes the book helps teachers make the learning process more playful and fun, although the theme of “Hamlet” may seem dark. The book includes methods to help students better understand the story with notes at the end of each chapter.

“If you can make them have a positive experience with it – that makes them curious and interested to come back – then that’s successful,” he said.

Haughey also says “Hamlet” can provide comfort to people, who may find new meaning through the play. The Hamlet character is an example of a person struggling to find their purpose in life, which, Haughey notes, directly reflects mental health crises happening today.

“That’s a dark message, but a valuable message too,” Haughey said. “We all have this life to live and there’s going to be some darkness in it; there’s going to be some lightness in it. It’s worth seeing how it plays out.”

Haughey also recruited his daughter, Dakotah, a junior digital media major at Northwest, to assist with the book’s art instead of contracting for the illustrations. She designed the cover and provided a student example of an assignment to think about the play through art.

“As a scholarly author, I don’t need to make money off of this. That’s not the goal,” Haughey said. “My life is dedicated to teaching. and this is something that I’m doing to give it a voice.”

Haughey joined the Northwest faculty in 2013 and serves as the assistant director of teacher education with academic interests in English education and critical literacy, educational history, and Shakespeare and theatre. He teaches courses in literature, writing, grammar, English and composition.

A Michigan native, he obtained his doctorate degree in English education from Western Michigan University. He has a bachelor’s degree in English and language arts teacher education from Grand Valley State University and an associate degree in liberal arts and sciences from Grand Rapids Community College.