Mark Thornton Burnett, FEA, MRIA, is Professor of Renaissance Studies, Founder of the Sir Kenneth Branagh Archive, and Fellow, Religion, Arts and Peacebuilding Theme, George J. Mitchell Institute for Global Peace, Security and Justice, Queen's University Belfast.

He is the author of Masters and Servants in English Renaissance Drama and Culture: Authority and Obedience (Basingstoke: Macmillan, 1997), Constructing ‘Monsters’ in Shakespearean Drama and Early Modern Culture (Basingstoke: Palgrave, 2002), Filming Shakespeare in the Global Marketplace (Basingstoke: Palgrave, 2007; 2nd ed. 2012), Shakespeare and World Cinema (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2013) and 'Hamlet' and World Cinema (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2019), the co-author of Great Shakespeareans: Welles, Kurosawa, Kozintsev, Zeffirelli (London and New York: Bloomsbury Academic, 2013), the editor of The Complete Plays of Christopher Marlowe (London: Dent, 1999) and The Complete Poems of Christopher Marlowe (London: Everyman, 2000), and the co-editor of New Essays on ‘Hamlet’ (New York: AMS Press, 1994), Shakespeare and Ireland: History, Politics, Culture (Basingstoke: Macmillan, 1997), Shakespeare, Film, Fin de Siècle (Basingstoke: Macmillan, 2000), Reconceiving the Renaissance: A Critical Reader (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2005), Screening Shakespeare in the Twenty-First Century (Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 2006), Filming and Performing Renaissance History (Basingstoke: Palgrave, 2011), The Edinburgh Companion to Shakespeare and the Arts (Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 2011) and Women and Indian Shakespeares (London and New York: Bloomsbury Academic, 2022).

His work has been supported by the Arts and Humanities Research Council, the British Academy, the European Commission, the Folger Shakespeare Library, the Harry Ransom Humanities Research Centre and the Huntington Library.

He is PI of two funded 2023-25 projects: 'Shakespeare and the Irish Actor' (Marie Curie/EPSRC), with experienced researcher Dr Emer McHugh, and 'Shakespeare, India, Diaspora' (British Academy Newton International Fellowship), with experienced researcher Dr Taarini Mookherjee. He is also series editor of the Arden Shakespeare/Bloomsbury series, 'Shakespeare and Adaptation'. Volumes in the series thus far include: Thea Buckley, Mark Thornton Burnett, Sangeeta Datta and Rosa Garcia-Periago, eds, Women and Indian Shakespeares (Arden Shakespeare/Bloomsbury, 2022); Gemma Kate Allred, Benjamin Broadribb and Erin Sullivan, eds, Lockdown Shakespeare: New Evolutions in Performance and Adaptation (Arden Shakespeare/Bloomsbury, 2022), William C. Carroll, Adapting 'Macbeth': A Cultural History (Arden Shakespeare/Bloomsbury, 2022), Julia Reinhard Lupton and Aliane Helou, eds, 'Romeo and Juliet', Adaptation and the Arts: 'Cut Him Out in Little Stars' (Arden Shakespeare/Bloomsbury, 2022), Jennifer Flaherty and Deborah Uman, eds, Liberating Shakespeare: Adaptation and Empowerment for Young Adult Audiences (Arden Shakespeare/Bloomsbury, 2023), Jennie M. Votava, Shakespeare's Histories on Screen: Adaptation, Race and Intersectionality (Arden Shakespeare/Bloomsbury, 2023), Edel Semple and Ronan Hatfull, eds, Shakespearean Biofiction on the Contemporary Stage and Screen (Arden Shakespeare/Bloomsbury, 2023), Jim Casey and Brandon Christopher, eds, Shakespeare and Comics: Negotiating Cultural Value (Arden Shakespeare/Bloomsbury, 2024), Paul Prescott and Alys Daroy, Shakespeare, Ecology and Adaptation: A Practical Guide (Arden Shakespeare/Bloomsbury, 2025), Christina Wald and Elisabeth Bronfen, eds, Shakespeare and Seriality: Page, Stage, Screen (Arden Shakespeare/Bloomsbury, 2025) and Andrew Murphy, ed., Shakespeare in Ireland: Adaptations and Appropriations (Arden Shakespeare/Bloomsbury, 2025). 

My interests include English Renaissance drama and culture, Marlowe, Shakespeare, Shakespeare on film, Shakespeare and adaptation, Irish studies and global Shakespeares, and I welcome applications from doctoral students in these and related areas.

Member of the Royal Irish Academy; Fellow of the English Association; Trustee and Director of the British Shakespeare Association (2019-2022); Sustained Excellence Teaching Award; Fellow, Religion, Arts and Peacebuilding Theme, George J. Mitchell Institute for Global Peace, Security and Justice, Queen's University Belfast.

English in Transition; Shakespeare & Co.; Further Adventures in Shakespeare; Shakespeare and Asia; Theory and Practice of Adaptation; Literary Research Methods.