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, 4.1.161-164).

A former student of the Andrews University English Department and graduate of the Honors Program, I began teaching here in 1999. I returned because Andrews University 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 travelling, entertaining, cooking, baking, kitchen gardening, and working home improvement magic.

Current Research or Professional Activities:

My research focuses on the treatment of marginal identities in film and stage performances of Shakespeare's drama. My monograph, Authorizing Shakespeare on Film and Television: Gender, Class, and Ethnicity in Adaptation (Peter Lang, 2011) considers constructions of Shakespearean authority in recent film and television adaptations as varied as 10 Things I Hate About You, Kenneth Branagh's As You Like It, and the series Rome. Currently, I am working on a study of productions at the Chicago Shakespeare Theater.

It is my great pleasure to encourage the scholarship of my students as well. Each year, I sponsor students to present their research at scholarly conferences.