The event is free and open to the public. Akhimie will attend virtually and provide a question-and-answer session for the gathered audience at the end of the lecture.

Akhimie is the author of several publications including “Shakespeare and the Cultivation of Difference: Race and Conduct in the Early Modern World.” Her research has been supported by the National Endowment for the Humanities, the Folger Shakespeare Library, the Ford Foundation, and the John Carter Brown Library. 

Akhimie received a Bachelor of Arts in English from Princeton University, a Master of Fine Arts in creative writing from the University of Michigan-Ann Arbor, a Master of Arts in English from Columbia University, and a Doctor of Philosophy in English from Columbia University.

Among numerous awards and recognitions she has earned, Akhimie was honored by Rutgers University in 2021 with the Warren I. Susman Award for Excellence in Teaching for her outstanding and innovative performance in the physical and virtual classrooms. 

At Rutgers University, she teaches undergraduate and graduate courses in early modern critical race studies, early modern literature, Renaissance drama, Shakespeare, textual editing, early modern travel writing, conduct literature, early modern women's travel writing, comics and graphic novels, gender and colonialism.

The Robert W. Hamblin Lecture promotes literary studies and general appreciation for literature. The event honors Dr. Robert Hamblin, professor emeritus of English at Southeast from 1965-2013, and director of the Center for Faulkner Studies, which he helped found in 1989 and directed until his retirement in 2013. Hamblin was key to bringing the Louis Daniel Brodsky Collection to the Center for Faulkner Studies at Southeast. Additionally, Hamblin wrote and edited more than 20 books, including guides to the Brodsky collection, literary criticism, nonfiction and poetry.