Public writing
Before I became an academic, I was a student journalist and creative writer. My first publication was a poem in Teen Magazine in 1993 (thankfully, no digital record!), and my Daily Illini series on the struggles of migrant farmworkers in central Illinois won university- and state-wide awards for investigative reporting. These early experiences still inform my writing and my commitment to social justice. More recently, my public writing illustrates the social and personal relevance of humanities research.
Both of my children were born too soon. The second time, I found solace in the poetry of Hester Pulter. Nursing Clio published this personal essay about my experience.
My friends at the Folger Shakespeare Library invited me to speak at the March 2025 Folger Virtual Book Club. My talk, presented in a shortened version here, offered historical context for The Tower, a novel about Mary, Queen of Scots, and the women imprisoned with her in the 1560s.
"If I could travel back in time to the late sixteenth century, I know the first question I’d ask Shakespeare: what is the deal with that stage direction in Love’s Labor’s Lost?"
Read the rest at the Folger Shakespeare Library's Collation blog.
"Women Patrons as Playmakers"
How did women sponsor plays during Shakespeare's time? What did patrons do? I write about these questions and identify some female patrons who made plays in this post for the Folger Shakespeare Library's Collation blog.
