BOZEMAN – Gretchen Minton, Montana State University’s Shakespeare expert and a professor in the Department of English since 2006, has been appointed Distinguished Professor for 2023 in MSU’s College of Letters and Science, the highest honor the college bestows upon a member of its faculty in recognition of contributions to the college, MSU and the scholarly community.

Minton is known for being a serious and highly accomplished scholar and editor of Shakespeare who wants her work to matter not just to her students and other scholars but also to the people in her community and state. She is co-founder of Montana InSite Theatre, a group that stages plays in site-specific outdoor locations, as well a literary adviser for Montana Shakespeare in the Parks, an outreach program of MSU’s College of Arts and Architecture.

Yves Idzerda, dean of the College of Letters and Science, said Minton was chosen for the Distinguished Professor award not just for her exemplary scholarship and enthusiastic teaching but also for her education and service.

“Her efforts during the pandemic to keep live theater thriving in the local community through her involvement with the Montana InSite Theatre and Montana Shakespeare in the Parks is truly impressive,” Idzerda said. “She made what seemed impossible – live theater – a stimulating and ground-breaking reality. Her caring nature for the well-being of actors and the health of our community during difficult times truly distinguished her as one of MSU’s best faculty.”

Minton’s scholarly contributions have included writing in-depth annotations and footnotes to Shakespeare’s works, as well as those of many other 16th- and 17th-century playwrights, and she believes the literature of those times is still relevant and can be applied to Montana in the present day. After working on annotations and footnotes of one of Shakespeare’s lesser-known plays, “Timon of Athens,” she wrote an adaptation set in mid-20th century Butte called “Timon of Anaconda,” a historical look at the era of the Montana copper kings and the devastation wrought by mining in Butte. She also adapted “Macbeth” to depict a futuristic Montana with few natural resources. She plans to create an environmental adaptation of Shakespeare’s “The Winter’s Tale” to address changes in Montana’s snowfall and snowpack.

The Distinguished Professorship is just the latest of Minton’s recent awards. Earlier this year, she was awarded a Fulbright U.S. Scholar Award that, in January, will take her to Townsville, Australia, to study applied environmental theater. She is spending this semester in Wales, working on an adaptation of Shakespeare’s “Henry V.”

Her sixth book, “Shakespeare in Montana: Big Sky Country’s Love Affair with the World’s Most Famous Writer,” a historical look at Montanans’ documented fascination with the Bard since the territory was founded, received the 2020 Montana Book Award and 2021 High Plains Book Award for Nonfiction.

Upon learning she had been named a Distinguished Professor, Minton credited her colleagues and students in the English department for their inspiration.

“I appreciate all of the support that I have received for my research and creative endeavors during my time at MSU and feel grateful to be part of a community that has nurtured my career in innumerable ways,” she said. “The faculty in the College of Letters and Science has so many distinguished researchers and educators, so I am especially honored to be recognized as one of them.”

A reception in Minton’s honor will be held at the Ellen Theatre on Sept. 28 at 6 p.m., after she returns from her sabbatical. For more information, contact Stacy Nation-Knapper at stacy.nation@montana.edu or 406-994-4288.