Conny Loder studied for a teacher’s profession at the Ludwig-Maximilians University, Munich and then took a M.Litt. at the Shakespeare Institute, University of Birmingham, UK.

She received a PhD from the Ernst-Moritz-Arndt University, Greifswald. Her research focuses on Elizabethan and Jacobean reception of Machiavelli’s works, in particular drama and pamphlets.

She has published theatre reviews and many articles on Early Modern drama. Her book Nicholas Breton and the English Self was published by Peter Lang December 2013.

Conny Loder has directed several plays, given drama workshops for universities and grammar schools in Germany, UK and USA. Since 2009 she has been conducting Shakespeare excursions to London, engaging people from all over the world with Shakespeare. She directs Shakespeare for Entity Theatre at the Open Air Shakespeare Summer and has founded the ESM Players, a youth company, dedicated to Shakespeare. Her most recent theatre works include As You Like It (2016), Twelfth Night and Richard III (2017), Macbeth and Hamlet (2018), Shakespeare's Complete Works and Romeo & Juliet (2019), The Tempest: a ditigal Project (2020), Much Ado About Nothing (2021) and Upstart Crow and Comedy of Errors (2022).

She is also a member of the Renaissance Drama Research Group, Shakespeare Institute, Stratford upon Avon. In another life, she was on a Fulbright grant, teaching German at Pacific University, Oregon, USA.

She currently teaches at the European School Munich and offers teacher training courses with MELTA and Pädagogisches Institut München.

Conny has a Graduate Certificate of Higher Education Learning and Teaching and is an Associate Fellow of The Higher Education Academy; she is also a member of the International Association of Teachers of English as a Foreign Language (IATEFL) and Munich English Language Teachers Association (MELTA). The Shakespeare London Excursion and its pedagocial and didactic aims are presented at the yearly IATEFL conference.

Shakespeare London Excursion in Print

Publications

Reviews

‘A Twelfe Night Merriment.’ Research Opportunities in Renaissance Drama, vol. XLV (2006): 107/8.

Peter Shaffer, ‘Equus.’ Penumbra Magazine, 1 (2007): 74/5.

William Shakespeare, ‘Twelfth Night.’ Cahiers Élisabéthains, 73 (Spring, 2008): 65/6.

Articles

“The perverted Machiavel: Richard III,” Peter Orford, ed. (et.al.) “Divining Thoughts”, Future Directions in Shakespeare Studies (Newcastle: Cambridge Scholars Publishing, 2007): 69-76.

“Tyranny, Theatricality and Machiavelli,” Alessandra Petrina, ed. Queen and Country (Bern et. al.: Peter Lang Publishing, 2011): 191-214.

“Siting Hamlet for the Online Generation: The hamlet_X Project,” Ruth J. Owen, ed. The Hamlet Zone. Reworking Hamlet for European Culture (Newcastle: Cambridge Scholars, 2012). 85-90.

“Shakespeare’s Bastard in King John: When pretence rules over essence,” Alessandro Arienzo and Alessandra Petrina, eds., Machiavellian Encounters in Tudor and Stuart England. Literary and Political Influences from the Reformation to the Restoration (London: Ashgate, 2013). 89-102.

“Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet: theatricality of reality against true love,” Testi E Linguaggi, 7 (2013): 305-20.

“The History of the damnable life, and deserued death of Doctor John Faustus and Marlowe’s Dr Faustus: why is there no salvation for Faustus? A comparison,” Faust-Jahrbuch (Bielefeld: Aisthesis, 2014): 153-78.

“Girdle Around the Earth,” Teaching Shakespeare, 7 (2015): 6-8.

“Impro-Theater im Fremdsprachenunterricht. Zwischen Struktur und Spontanität,“ PFU 7 (2017): 8-9.

“Romeo and Juliet -- Shakespeare mal anders,“ PFU  3 (2018): 16.

“What IATEFL's all about,” MELTA NEWS, 93 (2018): 11.

Monographs

Nicholas Breton and the English Self (Frankfurt am Main: Peter Lang, 2013).

Presentations and workshops

 “The semantic field of Machiavelli and Machiavellianism in English Renaissance Drama.” University of Birmingham, Blurring the Boundaries Conference, 2005.

 “The perverted Machiavel: Richard III.” Shakespeare Institute, 8th British Graduate Conference, 2006.

 “The flawed Machiavellian: the Bastard in King John.” Shakespeare Institute, 9th British Graduate Conference, 2007.

 “Shakespeare’s King John: The Bastard, an Upstart Courtier with a Good Cause.” London, Shakespeare’s Globe, Role and Rule: History and Power on Stage, February 2009.

 “Hamlet_X: A new generation of Hamlet?” Cardiff, ‘Hamlet’-Reception in European Cultures, May 2009.

 “Shakespeare’s Romances: Mediation and Poetic Devices.” Pisa, ESRA 09 Conference: Shakespeare and Conflict. A European Perspective, November 2009.

 “The Italianate Englishman in Shakespeare’s History Plays.” Turin, ESSE 10 Conference, August 2010.

 “Hamlet: an over-dimensional shadow of himself?” Prague, 9th World Shakespeare Congress, International Shakespeare Association, July 2011.

 “Münchner Kammerspiele: Othello for the 21st century?” Toulouse, Adaptation and Tradaptation of Shakespeare’s plays, April 2012.

 “Othello’s ‘speaking machines’: authenticity and identity of a tradaptation.” Montpellier, ESRA 12 Conference, June 2013.

 “Shakespeare’s Playhouses and Early Modern Documents.” Košice, ESSE 14 Conference, August/Sept. 2014.

 “Shakespeare’s Playhouses and Early Modern Documents: Shakespeare in and beyond the Classroom,” Worcester, ESRA, July 2015.

“A Multiliteracies Approach to Teaching Shakespeare,” Brighton, IATEFL, April 2018.

"Active Approaches to Teaching Shakespeare," Liverpool, IATEFL, April,2019.

"Teaching Shakespeare in the EFL Classroom," IATEFL Online Conference, Mai 2021.