Biography:

"Make the doors upon a woman's wit, and it will out at the casement; shut that, and 'twill out at the key-hole; stop that, 'twill fly with the smoke out at the chimney" (As You Like It, IV.i.161-164).

 

A former student of the Andrews University English Department, I began teaching here in 1999. I returned because the English Department had provided me with a stimulating and nurturing place in which to develop a mature intellectual and spiritual life. I also loved and admired the comradery characteristic of the faculty relationships with each other and with their students.

After completing my B.A. in English with a minor in music at Andrews (1991), I earned an M.A. from The College of William and Mary (1993), and finished a Ph.D. in Renaissance literature at Purdue University (2000). My dissertation explores the formation of subjectivity within the gendered binary opposition of public and private; I look at these binaries in the fiction of Robert Greene and Thomas Lodge, two Shakespearean sources. The literature and history of the English Renaissance has fascinated me since I was a child (I even had a postcard-sized portrait of Elizabeth I in my high school locker); as a scholar and teacher, I find the Renaissance's nuanced and complex treatment of the human condition endlessly satisfying.

My husband Paul analyzes numbers instead of literature as a CPA at a public accounting firm. We enjoy entertaining, cooking, baking, kitchen gardening, and working home improvement magic.

Current Research or Professional Activities:

My research currently focuses on the treatment of gender in film adaptations of Shakespeare's drama. An essay in which I compare the film Ten Things I Hate About You with its Shakespearean source The Taming of the Shrew was published in Literature/Film Quarterly. Most recently, my article examining masculinity in Kenneth Branagh's Hamlet appeared in Early Modern Literary Studies. I am currently reflecting on modes of authority in Michael Radford's film version of The Merchant of Venice (2005). It is my great pleasure to encourage the scholarship of my students as well. My specialty seminar courses require lengthy papers as the culmination of study, and each year, I sponsor students to present their finest seminar writing at scholarly conferences.