About
Professor of Shakespeare, late 16th and early 17th century English Drama, and Women’s and Gender studies at Hunter College, CUNY. Author of
Fantasies of Female Evil: The Dynamics of Gender and Power in Shakespearean Tragedy. U of Delaware P, 2003;
Women and Shakespeare’s Cuckoldry Plays: Shifting Narratives of Marital Betrayal, Routledge, 2017; and Co-editor, with Emily G. Sherwood, of
Reading Mistress Elizabeth Bourne: Marriage, Separation, and Legal Controversies, Routledge 2021. Series Editor, with Helen Ostovich, of “
Late Tudor and Stuart Drama: Gender, Performance, and Material Culture,” for Medieval Institute Publications. Research and teaching interests include, Shakespeare, Early Modern English drama, gender studies, sexuality, political history, history of women, marriage law, parrhesia, and feminist ethics.
For more about my work, please visit my
website.
she/her/hers
Education
PhD, English, University of Washington, 1997
BA, MA, English, California State University, Fresno, 1987, 1991
— Acting, Theater Production, Pacific Conservatory of Performing Arts, 1981-83 Mastodon Feed
The English Department at Hunter College, CUNY, is very happy to announce a Tenure Track position in #Medieval British Literature at the Assistant Professor level. Applications from scholars in interdisciplinary and/or global approaches are especially encouraged to apply. The listing offers more details! Come teach with us! https://cuny.jobs/new-york-ny/assistant-professor-medieval-british-literature-english-department-school-of-arts-sciences/5119F569CE44468081B2430E965EBB3C/job/ (2025-10-02 ↗)
Academia dot edu is now mining work for AI summary. To optout, log in to your account. Click on Account Settings. Click on AI Settings. Unclick the button. You will be warned that this will opt you out of all AI summaries and reviews of your work. Click confirm. #academicmastodon (2025-07-01 ↗)
Quite literally Trump's SCOTUS. Understand that we do vote for the Supreme Court when we vote for senators and presidents. These elected officials are the ones who control that process. So you better vote. Your life depends on it. (2024-07-01 ↗)
This speech might make you feel better about last night. President Biden and Dr. Biden Hold a Campaign Rally in Raleigh, North Ca… https://youtube.com/live/8bfx-AFff6s?feature=shared (2024-06-28 ↗)
I haven't posted here for awhile, but now I have news! My partner on the book series, Late Tudor and Stuart Drama at MIP, Helen Ostovich, has retired. I'm very proud of the work we did together. I'll miss her and am grateful to her for her belief in my work over the years. But now, I'm going it alone. I've revised the subtitle (now Readings in Feminist Theories and Histories) and the aims of the series. And I hope you'll consider it for your book project! Tyler Cloherty is the acquisitions ed, tylercloherty44@gmail.com #EarlyModern #CFP #Shakespeare #drama Go to https//umich.edu/medievalpublications/books/late-tudor-stuart-drama (2024-05-21 ↗)
Blog Posts
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Blog
(Cristina León Alfar,
2021-06-25)
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Welcome to our Web Site!
(Society for the Study of Women in the Renaissance, New York, CUNY,
2017-05-02)
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SSWR NYC
(Society for the Study of Women in the Renaissance, New York, CUNY,
2017-05-02)
Publications
BOOKS
Alfar, Cristina León and Emily Sherwood, eds.
Reading Mistress Elizabeth Bourne: Marriage, Separation, and Legal Controversies, Routledge, 2021. “The Early Modern Englishwoman in Print, 1500-1750: Contemporary Editions,” edited by Anne Prescott and Betty Travitsky. Preview the Introduction at
Taylor & Francis. Follow
@MistressBourne on Twitter!
Women and Shakespeare’s Cuckoldry Plays: Shifting Narratives of Marital Betrayal, Routledge, 2017. “Women and Gender in the Early Modern World.”
Now available in paperback!
Preview the introduction, available from
Taylor and Francis. Chapter one, “Early Modern Women’s Narratives of Marital Betrayal,” is available in Routledge’s
Shakespeare Studies Chapter Sampler.
Fantasies of Female Evil: The Dynamics of Gender and Power in Shakespearean Tragedy. Newark: U of Delaware P, 2003. (Available on
Google Play Books and Questia, a library subscription service.)
ARTICLES
“Abandoning Tragedy in James Ijames
Fat Ham,” Borrowers and Lenders, forthcoming.
“Feminist Authorship Studies.”
The Oxford Handbook of Shakespeare and Authorship. Edited by Rory Loughnane and Will Sharpe. Forthcoming.
“Speaking Truth to Power as Feminist Ethics in
Richard III.”
Social Research: An International Quarterly, vol. 86, no. 3, Nov 2019, pp. 789-819.
“‘Let’s Consult together’: Women’s Agency and the Gossip Network in
The Merry Wives of Windsor.” Solicited for publication in
The Merry Wives of Windsor: New Critical Essays. Eds. Phyllis Rackin and Evelyn Gajowski. New York: Routledge, 2015. 38-50.
“‘Proceed in Justice’: Narratives of Marital Betrayal in
The Winter’s Tale.” Solicited for publication in
Justice, Women and Power in English Renaissance Drama, Edited by Andrew J. Majeske and Emily Detmer-Goebel. Madison and Teaneck, N.J.: Farleigh Dickinson UP, 2009. 46-65.
“Elizabeth Cary’s Female Trinity: Breaking Custom with Mosaic Law in
The Tragedy of Mariam.” Early Modern Women: An Interdisciplinary Journal, Volume 3, (2008): 61-103.
“Looking for Goneril and Regan.”
Privacy, Domesticity and Women in Early Modern England, ed. Corinne Abate. Aldershot, Hampshire, UK: Ashgate, 2003. 167-198.
“‘Blood Will Have Blood’: Power, Performance, and Lady Macbeth’s Gender Trouble.” Jx: A Journal in Culture and Criticism. 2.2 (1998): 179-207.
“King Lear’s ‘Immoral’ Daughters and the Politics of Kingship.”
Exemplaria: A Journal of Theory in Medieval and Renaissance Studies. 8.2 (1996): 375-400.
“Staging the Feminine Performance of Desire: Masochism in
The Maid’s Tragedy.”
Papers on Language and Literature. 31.3 (1995): 313-333.
EDITING
Series Editor, with Helen Ostovich, “
Late Tudor and Stuart Drama: Gender, Performance, and Material Culture.” Medieval Institute Publications — MIP — The University Press at Kalamazoo.
Projects
“Isabella’s Feminist Ethics in Measure for Measure,” an article in progress.
“Feminist Ethics and Emilia’s Sacrifice of Happiness in The Two Noble Kinsmen,” an article in progress. Upcoming Talks and Conferences
“Feminist Ethics and Complaint in The Two Noble Kinsmen” SAA, Minneapolis, 2023. Memberships
MLA, SAA, RSA, SSEMW
