She specializes in renaissance drama and focuses on early depictions of race. She is the author of two books: Passing Strange: Shakespeare, Race, and Contemporary America (in press, Oxford University Press) and Performing Race and Torture on the Early Modern Stage (Routledge, 2008). She is the editor of two books: Weyward Macbeth: Intersections of Race and Performance (Palgrave Macmillan, 2010) (co-edited with Scott Newstok) and Colorblind Shakespeare: New Perspectives on Race and Performance (Routledge, 2006). Thompson is the guest editor of two special editions of scholarly journals: "Shakespeare, Race, and Performance," Shakespeare Bulletin (27.3: 2009) and "Actors of Color in Shakespeare," Borrowers and Lenders: The Journal of Shakespeare and Appropriation (4.1, 2008).