Hometown/country: New York, USA
Course: PhD English
Research topic: Fuimus Troes: A Multi-textual, Critical Edition
I took my BA at New York University where I studied Medieval and Renaissance literature on a course which allowed me the opportunity to design my own study. From this emerged a keen interest in the influence of Medieval texts on those of the Renaissance. My research now focuses on the transmission of legendary British history from its earliest roots in Geoffrey of Monmouth’s Historia regum Brittaniae, through ME Romance & chronicle-history, to the drama of the period 1558-1642. I also have a keen interest in the digital humanities and the editing of British drama from 1558-1642.
My postgraduate thesis is the Edmond Malone Society’s John Edward Kerry Prize winner for its contribution to the field of textual editing. The thesis is a multi-textual edition of an academic play, first published in 1633, called Fuimus Troes – an English play with a Latin title. My edition is ‘multi-textual’ insofar as it is comprised of a photo-facsimile of the 1633 quarto; an electronic text formatted on CD-ROM; and a modern-spelling, critical text. It is through the presentation of three wholly dissimilar kinds of texts that this project will paint a clear editorial and bibliographical picture of the play. The force behind the edition, in addition to its multi-textuality, will come from an interest in the transmission of the story from Geoffrey to Fisher. It is, in part, an experiment in stemmatics, wherein I will trace the story of Cassibelanus through pre- and post-Tudor chronicle-history while analysing its significance throughout the centuries.
Qualifications: B.A. Medieval and Renaissance Studies (New York University, New York, New York, USA)
Teaching: Erasmus Shakespeare; Shakespeare: His Work, Life, and Times; Generic Transformations: 1550-1750
Publications: ‘The Unusual Suspects.’ The Shakespeare Authorship Question. Ed. Paul Edmondson and Stanley Wells. Cambridge University Press, forthcoming 2012.
Book and Theatre Reviews, as well as Conference Papers
The Shakespeare Institute solicits the highest standard of research in the field. It is a veritable Mecca for the study of Shakespeare and the drama of his time. I have set out on this course of study with the ultimate intention of lecturing and continuing research in related areas, and the Institute community continues to foster my work, as well as my peer’s, in a professional environment.