Invited Talks

Connections: Re-examining Taming of the Shrew in the Era of #MeToo
April 2018, Connections with Evan Dawson

Connections is a local radio program that airs on NPR WXXI. Evan put together a round-table with an actress, a director, and myself to discuss the problems of misogyny in plays like Taming of the Shrew​.

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Courting the Fool:  The Creation of Authoritative Space in King Lear
February 2017, Roberts Wesleyan University

This paid talk was a 60 minute presentation draft of my second dissertation chapter.  I used several cinematic and theatrical clips of the various ways directors have dealt with the strange disappearance of Lear's Fool as a starting point, and then offered my spatial license argument as an alternative explanation.

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Zombie Shakespeare: A Discussion of the Undying Bard on the 400th Anniversary of His Death
April 2016, Seymour Public Library, Brockport NY

This talk was prepared for the Seymour Library's programming on the anniversary of Shakespeare's death.  The talk focused on the various cultural trends that kept Shakespeare's plays in the public consciousness, as well as a reading of King Lear.  Click the title for the full abstract of this talk.

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Political Wooing in Henry V
September 2015, Shakespeare Literary Society of Rochester

The Shakespeare Literary Society of Rochester is a group of dedicated and passionate fans of theater in the Rochester, NY area.  They hold monthly meetings to discuss area shows.  Since one of the local theater companies was putting on a production of Henry V, I was invited to present and discuss my work on the play.  The talk was centered on the final wooing scene--a scene that is almost universally panned by critics as one that doesn't fit either the tone or the genre.  I presented an argument based around the tragicomic elements of the play to suggest that the wooing scene was a dramatically ironic nod from Shakespeare to his royal audience to indicate that though Henry was a great warrior, he was not a legitimate king.

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Comic Books as the American Shakespeare: Cultural Sites of Perpetual Adaptation
July 2015, Seymour Public Library, Brockport NY

This was my first paid talk prepared for the Seymour Public Library's programming.  The overall presentation was designed to suggest that comic books and Shakespeare operate in a similar manner in terms of creative interpretation.  Both are creative properties that have a core truth to them while also being dynamic sites for creative risk-taking and expression.  Few creative properties share those two traits of core truth and a rotating cast of creators/interpreters.  Click the title for the full abstract of this talk.

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Topic Panelist:  Composition and Multi-Modality
Summer 2015, WRT 571 Pedagogy    ​

Every summer, the Writing, Speaking, and Argument Program at Rochester requires new Composition instructors to complete a pedagogy foundations course--WRT 571.  In 2015, I was invited to join a panel of guest instructors to discuss multi-modal approaches to teaching composition.

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Conference Presentations

Even the briefest of glances at my C.V. will indicate that there are three academic conferences where I feel right at home.  These three are my "regulars" that I try to make every year:  the Shakespeare Association of America, the College English Association, and the New York College English Association.   I enjoy the SAA not only because of the targeted and expert feedback that I can receive on my academic work, but also for the opportunity to connect and re-connect with my fellow Shakespeareans to talk about new teaching and research ideas.   My connection to CEA and NYCEA is a bit more personal.  When I first left my job as a high school teacher to go to grad school, it was because I wanted a better balance between teaching and scholarship.  I felt my teaching was valued there, but there was zero time for research.  NYCEA and CEA epitomize that balance.  The panels are usually evenly split between research and pedagogy, and the warmth and congeniality of the regular attendees is something I look forward to every year.  I've become one of those regular attendees (I've even been on the board for NYCEA these last few years), and my CEA/NYCEA colleagues have really helped me grow as a scholar, teacher, and professional.

                          I've listed my conference presentations below.  Please click on the paper titles
                                                to pull up a PDF of the abstract for that presentation.

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Shakespeare Association of America
Member since 2015

 2020   Denver, Colorado
"Habitual Friars: Monastic Equivocation and Hidden Jesuits in Romeo and Juliet​."

2019   Washington, D. C.
"Workshop: Teaching the Premodern in a Time of White Supremacy."

2017   Atlanta, Georgia
"The Kings of Subjects: Licensed Confinement and the Inversion of Authority
in Love's Labour's Lost."
 
2016   New Orleans, Louisiana
"Courting the Fool: The Creation of Authoritative Space in King Lear."

College English Association
Member since 2011

2015   Indianapolis, Indiana
“Sacralized University Space and the Origins of Academic Authority.” 
 
2014   Baltimore, Maryland
“’O, he hath a patent of immunities’: Foolish Madness and Disguise in Marston’s Antonio Plays.” 
               * Paper selected as “Best in Section.”
 
2013   Savannah, Georgia
“’[Co]mingling Kings and Clownes’: The Tragicomic Mode and Choric Manipulation.” 
 
2012   Richmond, Virginia
“’Some delightful ostentation’: Social Boundaries and the Pedantic Fool in Love’s Labour’s Lost.” 
 
2011   St. Petersburg, Florida
“’I’m the Party Pooper’: Unfamiliar Territory and the Pedantic Fool in The Merry Wives of Windsor.”

New York College English Association
Member since 2010; Board Member since 2014

 2017   Rochester, New York
"Marking the Margins and Setting the Center."
                    * Conference chair

2015   Buffalo, New York
“Chronological Camelots and Digital Dagonets: Using Digital Archives to Uncover Literary Trends.”
               * Also, Panel Organizer: “Digital Humanities and the Creation of the Active Archive.”
 
2014   Troy, New York
“Bridging the Core: Digital Humanities and Pedagogical Opportunity.” 
 
2012   Buffalo, New York
“’And the children of Israel again did evil in the sight of the LORD’: Medieval Judicial Tropes and the Characterization of Pilate in the York Cycle.”
 
2011   Utica, New York
“’Dolors for thy daughters’: The Fool as the Ideal Yet Ignored Foolmaster in King Lear.”
 
2010   Rochester, New York
“Chaucer’s Physician: The Worm of Conscience and Health Care Reform.”

Other Conference Work
Listed by Most Recent

2018  Modern Language Association Annual Meeting, New York, NY
"The Fool's Errand: Connecting Folly and Tragedy in King Lear's Performance History."
               * Part of the "400 Years of King Lear" panel sponsored by the New Variorum Shakespeare

2015   International Congress on Medieval Studies, Kalamazoo, Michigan
“Lorenzo Valla’s ‘intellectual violence’: Personal Feuds and Appropriated Sarcasm.”
               * Part of a "book preview panel" for an edited collection on medieval sarcasm.
 
2012   Northeast Modern Language Association, Rochester, New York
“From Page to Stage and Back Again: The Folger Shakespeare Philosophy in the Composition Classroom.” 
 
2010   National Council of Teachers of English (NCTE), Orlando, Florida
“The Uses of Web 2.0 Resources in the Teaching of Shakespeare.”
               * Part of the Folger Shakespeare Library Strand. 
 
2010   Australia and New Zealand Shakespeare Association, Sydney, Australia
“The Search for the Perfect Shrew:  Education, the Elizabethan Ideal Woman and Why Shakespearean Men Don’t Want Her.”
               * Don't judge this one too harshly.  I was brand new, haha.  So new that I actually set up a camera to record my first conference presentation.  For
                             comedy purposes only, you may view said video:  Part 1     Part 2