Richard Schoch is a historian whose research encompasses theatre historiography, Shakespeare in performance, musical theatre, and cultural history. He is the author of eight books, including the recently published 'Shakespeare's House: A Window onto his Life and Legacy' (Arden/Bloomsbury, 2023). His new book, written for a popular audience, is 'How Sondheim Can Change Your Life'. It will be published in November 2024 by Ebury (UK/Commonwealth) and Atria Books (USA/Canada).

He led the international research 'Performing Restoration Shakespeare' (2017-2020, funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council), a practice-based initiative run in partnership with Shakespeare's Globe in London and The Folger Shakespeare Library in Washingtonm DC. He and his co-investigator, Amanda Eubanks Winkler, also co-authored the monograph 'Shakespeare in the Theatre: Sir William Davenant and the Duke's Company' (Arden/Bloomsbury, 2021).

Schoch was awarded a Leverhulme Major Research Fellowship (2011-2014), during which wrote 'Writing the History of the British Stage, 1660-1900'. Published by Cambridge University Press in September 2016, it is the first monograph on British theatre historiography. It was short-listed for the George Freedley Award from the Theatre Library Association (USA).

In 2021 he was elected to the Royal Irish Academy, the highes academic honor on the island of Ireland.

His research can be followed on academia.edu.

Richard has been awarded the 2013 Oscar Brockett Essay Prize from the American Society for Theatre Research (ASTR) and his books have been shortlisted for the Barnard Hewitt Award (ASTR), George Freedley Award (Theatre Library Association, USA) and the Theatre Book Prize (Society for Theatre Research, UK). He has been awarded fellowships from the Leverhulme Trust, the Folger Shakespeare Library, the Stanford Humanities Center, the American Society for Theatre Research, and the Harry Ransom Center. He has given guest lectures at Trinity College Dublin, Oxford University, the Shakespeare Institute, the Shakespeare Theatre (Washington, DC), the Huntington Library, Duke University and UCLA. He serves on the International Advisory Board of the World Happiness Forum and sits on the editorial boards of 'Shakespeare Quarterly', 'Nineteenth-Century Theatre and Film' and 'Shakespeare Bulletin'. He represents Queen's University Belfast on the Folger Institute Consortium Executive Committee. Richard is a member of the AHRC Peer Review College (Research Grants, Strategic).

He has spoken at public events for the Wellcome Trust, the Institute of Ideas, the Royal Society of Arts, the Cheltenham Science Festival, the Edinburgh International Book Festival, the Boarding Schools’ Association and has been a regular commentator for the BBC. His short video on Shakespeare in performance, commissioned by the British Council, has been viewed more than 40,000 times on YouTube. Richard’s book 'The Secrets of Happiness: Three Thousand Years of Searching for the Good Life' (2006), written for a popular audience, has been translated into Chinese, Korean, Indonesian, Portuguese, Romanian, and Italian.

Richard has taught seminar and studio-based modules at undergraduate and postgraduate levels in performance history and historiography, Shakespeare in performance, Victorian melodrama, the history of theatre architecture, and performance criticism. He has supervised PhD students working on projects that range from theatre photography to the history of stage adaptations of 'Ivanhoe'.