Recent News
Education
Ph.D., Emory University
M.A., Emory University
B.A., University of Oregon
Scholarly Focus
- Shakespeare
- Early Modern English Drama
- Marriage, Family, and Household In London
- Early Modern English Law
- Archival Sources for London History
Publications
Books
Courtships, Marriage Customs, and Shakespeare’s Comedies . New York: Palgrave-Macmillan, 2006.
London Consistory Court Depositions, 1586-1611: List and Indexes . London: London Record Society, 1997 for 1995. Reviewed: Shakespeare Studies 27 (1999): 77-93.
Book Chapters
“Translating Shakespeare from Scene to Screen, and Back Again: Digital Tools for Teaching Richard III .” Shakespeare and Digital Pedagogy: Case Studies and Strategies , edited by Diana E. Henderson and Kyle Sebastian Vitale, Arden Shakespeare, Bloomsbury, 2022, pp. 159-71.
Co-Authored with Joanne Bailey. “Marital Cruelty: Reconsidering Lay Attitudes in England c . 1580-1850.” Domestic Disturbances, Patriarchal Values: Violence, Family, and Sexuality in Early Modern Europe, 1600-1900 . Ed. Marianna Muravyeva. London and New York: Routledge, 2016. 63-79. (Republished article)
“Facing Marital Cruelty in Shakespeare’s The Taming of the Shrew and Early Modern London.” Shakespeare and the Power of the Face . Ed. James A. Knapp. Burlington, Vermont: Ashgate Press, 2015. 43-58.
“The Evidence against Joane Waters, the Deposition of George Ireland, London Consistory Court (1609/10).” Reading Early Modern Women: An Anthology of Texts in Manuscript and Print, 1550-1700 . Ed. Helen Ostovich and Elizabeth Sauer. New York: Routledge, 2004. 32-34.
“Images of Hamlet in the Undergraduate Classroom.” Teaching Shakespeare into the Twenty-First Century . Ed. Ronald E. Salomone and James E. Davis. Athens, Ohio: Ohio University Press, 1997. 172-76.
“Teaching The Taming of the Shrew: Kate, Closure, and Eighteenth-Century Editions.” Teaching Shakespeare Today: Practical Approaches and Productive Strategies . Ed. James E. Davis and Ronald E. Salomone. Urbana, Illinois: NCTE, 1993. 270-80.
Articles
“Teaching Shakespeare Online: Challenges, Advantages, and Strategies,” Medieval and Renaissance Drama in England , vol. 34, 2021, pp. 157-65.
Co-authored with Joanne Bailey, “Marital Cruelty: Reconsidering Lay Attitudes in England c . 1580-1850.” The History of the Family 18.3 (2013): 289-305.
“Malvolio’s Yellow Stockings: Coding Illicit Sexuality in Early Modern London.” Medieval and Renaissance Drama in England 19 (2006): 235-46.
“Theatrical Citings and Bitings: Some References to Playhouses and Players in London Consistory Court Depositions, 1586-1611.” Early Theatre 1 (1998): 113-28.
“An Anonymous Seventeenth-Century Bodleian Manuscript Dictionary: Its Authorship and Significance to Old English Studies.” Bodleian Library Record 14 (1992): 145-57.
“An Emendation of the OED definition of Hie, v., 1.” Notes and Queries 232 (June 1987): 146 47.
Symposium
Organized and edited symposium on Online Shakespeare Pedagogy, Medieval and Renaissance Drama in England, vol. 34, 2021, pp. 166-201.
Reviews
“ Shakespeare, Law, and Marriage .” Journal of British Studies 44 (2005): 587-88.
“ Twelfth Night .” Medieval and Renaissance Drama in England 28 (2015): 192-94.
Books in Progress
I am currently at work on a book examining the definitions, expectations, and ideas of marriage and marital cruelty and of the roles of wives and husbands in cases that went through the early modern London Consistory Court involving couples who had an established marriage. The depositions from this court complicate prevailing views and offer new and fresh ways to understand marriage and marital roles and relations on and off the stage.
Selected Invited Talks
“Willing Desire: Assessing Female Agency in Late Sixteenth- and Early Seventeenth-Century London Marital Cruelty Cases,” Medieval and Tudor London History Seminar, Institute of Historical Research, University of London, London, England, 9 May 2019.
“Ornamentation in Richard II and Early Modern London,” Ohio University, College of Fine Arts, London Semester Study Abroad, London, 20 and 22 March 2019.
“Uncovering Marital Cruelty in Shakespeare’s The Taming of the Shrew and Early Modern London,” Syers Lecture, Schreiner University, Kerrville, Texas, 23 October 2014.
“Re-facing Marital Cruelty in Sixteenth- to Nineteenth-Century England,” with Joanne Bailey (Oxford Brookes University), Medieval and Tudor London History Seminar, Institute of Historical Research, University of London, London, England, 26 May 2011.
"Hostile Environments in Early Modern English Marriage," Early Modern Seminar, Oxford Brookes University, Oxford, England, 9 November 2010.
“Turning Back the Sheets: Uncovering Marital Cruelty in Early Modern London,” Early Modern Britain Seminar, University of Oxford, Oxford, England, 4 November 2010.
“Probing between the Sheets: Uncovering Marital Cruelty in Early Modern London,” Medieval and Tudor London History Seminar, Institute of Historical Research, University of London, London, England, 28 May 2009.
“Courting the Law: Legal Records as Sources for Courtships and Marriages in Early Modern London,” Early Modern English Manuscript Studies Seminar, Institute of English Studies, Senate House, University of London, London, England, 24 October 2007.
“Cases of Marriage: Marriage Customs in Shakespeare’s London,” Shakespeare: Portraiture, Biography, and Material Circumstances, National Portrait Gallery, London, England, 19 May 2006.
“Picking at History: Love Tokens in Shakespeare and Early Modern London,” Shakespeare Seminar, Columbia University, 13 May 2005.
Papers (Most Recent)
“Contextualizing Domestic Violence: Modern Distortions of Marital Cruelty in Early Modern England,” Shakespeare Association of America, Minneapolis, Minnesota, 29 March-1 April 2023.
“Suiting Herself: Olivia’s Mourning Attire,” Shakespeare Association of America, virtual meeting, 6 April 2022.
“Close Reading from Afar: A Difficulty of Shakespeare Pedagogy,” Shakespeare Association of America, virtual meeting, 29 May 2020.
“Husbandly Authority in the Early Modern London Household: Lessons from Anne Fryer v. John Fryer ,” Sixteenth-Century Society, Albuquerque, New Mexico, 1-4 November, 2018.
“Teaching First-Generation Shakespeareans: Lessons from the Classroom,” Shakespeare Association of America, Los Angeles, California, 28-31 March 2018.
“’Grevous Complaints’: Negotiating Female Agency in the London Consistory Court,” “Litigating Women: Negotiating Justice in Courts of Law, c . 1100- c . 1750” Symposium, University of Swansea, Swansea, Wales, 28 and 29 June 2017.
“Regulating Regulations: Complicating a Husband’s Right to Correct His Wife in Early Modern London,” Shakespeare Association of America, Atlanta, Georgia, 5-8 April 2017.
“ Sara Porthowse v. William Porthowse : Lessons from the Archive,” Shakespeare Association of America, New Orleans, Louisiana, 23-26 March 2016.
“Separating Wives: Female Agency and Marital Cruelty in Early Modern London,” Women’s History Network Annual Conference, “Female Agency, Activism, and Organisation,” University of Kent, Canterbury, England, 4-6 September 2015.
“Judicial Performance in Early Modern English Ecclesiastical Marital Law,” Shakespeare Association of America, Vancouver, British Columbia, 2-4 April 2015.
“Waging War on the Home Front? Marital Physical Conflicts in Early Modern London,” Women's History Network International Conference, The Home Front, University of Worcester, Worcester, England, 5-7 September 2014.
“Marital Cruelty: Reconsidering Lay Attitudes in England, c . 1580-1850,” International Federation for Women's History & Women's History Network International Conference, Women's Histories: The Local and the Global, Sheffield, England, 29 August-1 September 2013.
“A Measure of the Church’s Material and Legal Roles in Mariana’s Marriage in Measure ,” Shakespeare Association of America, Toronto, Ontario, 28-31 March 2013.
“Facing Cruelty,” Shakespeare Association of America, Boston, Massachusetts, 5-7 April 2012.
“Violating Marital Violence: Abusive Husbands in The Taming of the Shrew and Early Modern London,” Shakespeare Association of America, Bellevue, Washington, 7-10 April 2011.
“Marking Marital Respect in English Ecclesiastical Court Records from the Sixteenth to Nineteenth Centuries,” with Joanne Bailey (Oxford Brookes University), Sex, Violence, and Religion in the Northern Province, 1300-1858, University of York, York, England, 13 November 2010.
Academic Awards and Honors
2009-10 University Professor Award, Ohio University
2004-07 Presidential Teacher Award, Ohio University
2004 Excellence in Education Award, Competitive Selection, State of Ohio
1998 Jeanette G. Graselli Teaching Award, Ohio University
1993-94 University Professor Award, Ohio University
1984 Phi Beta Kappa
Grants Awarded
2022—Humanities Research Fund, Ohio University
2019—Newberry Renaissance Consortium Grant
2018—Newberry Renaissance Consortium Grant
2017—Global Travel Fund Award, Ohio University
2015—International Travel Fund Award, Ohio University
2015—Humanities Research Fund, Ohio University
2014—International Travel Fund Award, Ohio University
2013—International Travel Fund Award, Ohio University
2010 International Visiting Research Fellowship in History, Oxford Brookes University, Oxford, England (Fall Semester)
2009 Friends of the Institute for Historical Research, Institute of Historical Research, University of London, London, England
2009 Baker Research Grant, Ohio University
2007 Humanities Research Fund, Ohio University
2007 Faculty Development Committee Award, Ohio University
2006 Paul Mellon Centre for Studies in British Arts
2006 Humanities Research Fund, Ohio University
1998 National Endowment for the Humanities, Senior Scholar Summer
1995 Baker Research Grant, Ohio University
1995 Research Award, Office of Research and Graduate Studies, Ohio University
1993 Ohio University Research Committee Award
1992 Experimental Education Fund Grant, University College, Ohio University
1991 Provost Pool Grant, Provost, Ohio University
1990 Folger Institute Grant-in-Aid
Courses Taught
Undergraduate Courses
On Campus
- English 3010 Shakespeare
- English 3020 Topics in Shakespeare
- English 3570 Law and Literature
- English 4600 Topics in English Studies
- English 4640 English Authors
Online
- English 3080J Rhetoric and Writing II
- English 3010 Shakespeare
- English 3020 Topics in Shakespeare
Graduate Courses
On Campus
- English 7240 Shakespeare
Online
- English 6930, Master’s Essay, Master of Arts in English program
- English 7240, Shakespeare, Master of Arts in English program