Marcela Kostihova

Marcela Kostihova is Professor of English and Endowed Chair in the Humanities at Hamline University, where she has taught since 2004. A literary scholar with a global lens, her work explores how literature—especially Shakespeare—helps us understand identity, power, gender, and cultural change. She is the author or editor of three books: Shakespeare in Transition: Political Appropriations in the Post-communist Czech Republic (Palgrave Macmillan, 2010), How to Analyze the Works of Stephenie Meyer (ABDO Publishing, 2011), and Strategic Shakespeare: Transformative Leadership for the Future of Higher Education (Routledge, 2025). Her writing includes scholarly essays on Shakespearean performance, cultural identity, gender, and, more recently, higher education leadership and curriculum innovation. She has presented her work at academic conferences and invited talks across North America, Europe, Africa, and Asia.

Marcela’s teaching spans English, Global Studies, and Leadership Studies, and increasingly draws in generative AI as a point of critical inquiry and creative opportunity. Her courses—ranging from Global Shakespeares to Monsters and Vampires, from Neoliberal Subjects to Adventure Leadership—invite students to ask big, messy questions about what it means to be human in a rapidly changing world. She is deeply committed to interdisciplinary and experiential learning, and regularly teaches immersive study abroad courses, including recent programs in Peru and Nepal that combine leadership, environmental ethics, and cross-cultural engagement. She is currently co-authoring AI and the Liberal Arts: Learning at the Edge of our Future (under review with Cambridge University Press) and Making Learning Matter: Course-Based Undergraduate Research for the 21st-Century Student (under contract with Routledge, forthcoming 2027).

In addition to her faculty role, Marcela served for over a decade in senior leadership at Hamline, including as Dean of the College of Liberal Arts, the School of Education and Leadership, and the School of Business. Her administrative work focused on academic innovation, inclusive and adaptive leadership, and expanding access to high-impact practices across disciplines. She now brings those experiences back into the classroom, helping students—and faculty—grow into confident thinkers and ethical changemakers.

Outside of the classroom, Marcela is a stubborn road cyclist and aspiring mountaineer. She believes most problems can be sorted out on a long bike ride. She’s also a fan of all things that grow (especially but not limited to spindly trees), curious minds, and stories that take unexpected turns.