I specialize in the literature of the Medieval and Renaissance periods, with a special interest in the interaction between literature and the visual arts. My current research is on architectural ekphrasis--the literary descriptions of buildings--and the relationship between literature and architecture across the late Middle Ages and the Renaissance periods, including works by the Pearl Poet, Chaucer, Spenser, Shakespeare and Ben Jonson. I have presented on this and a range of other topics at numerous academic conferences and have encyclopedia articles forthcoming in Blackwell's Encylopedia of English Renaissance Literature on three intriguing Renaissance men and women: Martha Moulsworth, 17th century proto-feminist and author of one extant autobiographical poem; Richard Barnfield, early explicitly homoerotic sonneteer; and Philemon Holland, translator of the classics who is quoted in over 8,000 OED entries. I have taught courses in poetry and drama across the early period and beyond, including courses on English Renaissance Literature and the Visual Arts, Shakespeare and Marlowe, and, most recently, a survey of comedy through the ages from Plautus to Charlie Chaplin. I spent two years as co-coordinator of the University of Chicago Renaissance workshop and was the initiator and planning committee head of the interdisciplinary conference "Intellectual Exchange and Networks in Europe 1500-1660: Approaches from the Humanitites and Social Sciences." I am currently the Interim Assistant Director for the Center for Renaissance Studies at the Newberry Library where I delight in helping scholars, students and the general public explore the world of rare books, and I plan to defend my dissertation at the University of Chicago this June.

Britomart, the woman warrior in Spenser's Faerie Queene

Psalm Project Penitential Psalms Project (A work in progress offering a comparison of different Renaissance translations of the Penitential Psalms.) Course Links Envisioning the Renaissance Workshop Links N.B.--These sites are no longer updated with current information. I've kept them up as records of my past service and as samples of my website design skills. For current information about the University of Chicago Renaissance Workshop, please visit the blog maintained by the current coordinators: Current Renaissance Workshop Renaissance Workshop Interdisciplinary Intellectual Exchange Conference

---

The main page for personal home pages at the University of Chicago
The University of Chicago main home page