Public Books
Benjamin Woodring
Public Books
a magazine of ideas, arts, and scholarship
  • Essays
  • Interviews
  • Sections
    • View All
    • Anthropology & Religion
    • Antiquities
    • Art
    • Borderlands
    • Capitalism
    • Culture Industries
    • Digital Humanities
    • Film
    • Global Black History
    • Higher Education
    • Literary Fiction
    • Literature in Translation
    • Poetry
    • Politics
    • Print/Screen
    • Sociology
    • Sports
    • Systems and Futures
    • Technology
    • TV
    • Urbanism
    • Videogames
  • Series
    • View All
    • B-Sides
    • The Book That Made Me
    • Crisis Cities
    • An Engineer Reads a Novel
    • Migrant Futures
    • On Our Nightstands
    • Public Streets
    • Public Thinker
    • Quizzical
    • Shoptalk
    • Syllabi
    • Virtual Roundtables
    • @X
  • Podcasts
    • Public Books 101
    • Novel Dialogue
    • Primary Sources
    • Writing Latinos
  • Donate
  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • Instagram

Benjamin Woodring

Benjamin Woodring is an attorney. He received his PhD in English from Harvard University and his JD from Yale Law School. His research focuses on renaissance law and literature, sanctuary and other jurisdictional anomalies, and theater and book history. He is currently working on a book, “Shakespeare’s Sanctuary Cities.” icon

  • Visit website

Sanctuary Cities and Sanctuary Theater

By Benjamin Woodring

Even in Shakespeare’s era, theaters literally shielded people from the state. Today’s theaters might talk sanctuary, but rarely practice it.

Get Our Weekly Newsletter

Most Viewed

  • This Is Your Brain on Books
  • Toward the Next Literary Mafia
  • What 35 Years of Data Can Tell Us about Who Will Win the National Book Award
  • Why Does Japanese Society Overlook Racism?
  • Crossings into Indigenous Palestine

LISTEN TO WRITING LATINOS

  • Ingrid Rojas Contreras on “The Man Who Could Move...
    Geraldo Cadava 7.26.2023

Subscribe to RSS

Support Public Books

Editors’ Pick

  • Data Free Disney
    Janet Vertesi 1.31.2023
  • About
  • Advertise
  • Submissions
  • Partners
  • News
  • Contact
  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • Instagram

Public Books Logo
© 2023 Public Books.TM All Rights Reserved