The winner of the 2024 Patrick Scott Award for Best Graduate Paper has been announced:
Johanna Bailie, University of Georgia
“‘The African Roscius’: Ira Aldridge’s Self-Presentation and Audience Reception”
Abstract: In 1833, Ira Aldridge, the first professional actor of African descent in Britain, performed as Othello for London’s storied theatre, Covent Garden, marking a significant moment in Aldridge’s long and acclaimed transnational career. This paper examines the distinctively negative reception to Aldridge’s Covent Garden performances publicized by contemporaneous theater critics, a reception that speaks to how Aldridge’s performances and self-presentation as a qualified Shakespearean actor challenged Victorian racial stereotypes about men of African descent and conjured racial anxieties for some London audiences. This paper argues that Aldridge worked to allay such racial anxieties and that he did so, in part, by expanding his repertoire, turning to alternative characters such as Fabian in The Black Doctor that projected more palatable versions of black masculinity for his white audiences. In performing as Fabian, Aldridge presented an alternative black hero who, unlike Othello, did not reinforce the stereotypes that black men are physical and sexual threats to white women. By taking on this role, Aldridge ventured to intercede in the racial imagination of the Victorian British public, promoting his theatrical work as both culturally liberalizing and non-threatening.
Johanna Bailie is a PhD candidate in English at the University of Georgia where she previously received both her Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees. She currently works as an instructor for the university’s First-Year Writing program, teaching courses that focus on literature and disabilties. Her research areas include 18th Century Literature, British Romanticism, Disability Studies, and Postcolonial Studies, and her intended dissertation will cover how theater across dramaturgical genres influenced the British abolitionist movement.
Congratulations, Johanna!