
Associate Professor, English
Early modern English literature and culture; Shakespeare; sixteenth- and seventeenth-century drama, poetry, and prose; law and literature; formalism; affect studies; disability studies.
Old Main, 202
651-696-6641
pgeng@macalester.edu
she/her/hers
Penelope Geng teaches courses on early modern literature, Shakespeare, demonology, law and literature, and disability. Her book Communal Justice in Shakespeare’s England: Drama, Law, and Emotion (University of Toronto Press, forthcoming) argues for the vital work of drama in preserving a culture of participatory justice, communal care, and lay magistracy at a time when law was becoming increasingly professionalized. Her next project, provisionally titled Precarious Ability, investigates the rise of ablenationalism in seventeenth-century law and literature.
Areas of Study
- Shakespeare and Renaissance Drama
- British Literature c.1500-1700
- Law and Literature
- Religion and Literature; the Reformation
- Affect and Emotions
- Disability
Fall 2021 Courses
- ENGL 140-01 Once Upon a Crime
- ENGL 394-03 Disability in the English Renaissance
Publications
Book
Communal Justice in Shakespeare’s England: Drama, Law, and Emotion. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2021.
Articles
“Jurisprudence by Aphorisms: Francis Bacon and the ‘Uses’ of Small Forms.” Law, Culture and the Humanities. First published Jan. 31, 2019. https://doi.org/10.1177/1743872119826455. Print version forthcoming.
“On Judges and the Art of Judicature: Shakespeare’s Henry IV, Part 2.” Studies in Philology 114.1 (2017): 97-123.
“Before the Right to Remain Silent: The Examinations of Anne Askew and Elizabeth Young.” The Sixteenth Century Journal 43.3 (2012): 667-679.
“‘He Only Talks’: Arruntius and the Formation of Interpretive Communities in Ben Jonson’sSejanus.” The Ben Jonson Journal 18.1 (2011): 126-140.
Encyclopedia Articles
“Trial by Jury.” Routledge Encyclopedia of the Renaissance World. Gen. ed. Kristen Poole: topics ed. Wendy Hyman. (Forthcoming).
“John Marston” (3000 words), “Sir John Davies” (1000 words), “John Dowland” (1000 words). TheEncyclopedia of English Renaissance Literature. 3 Vols. Gen. ed. Garrett Sullivan and Alan Stewart; assoc. ed. Rebecca Lemon, Nicholas McDowell, and Jennifer Richards. Oxford: Wiley-Blackwell, 2012.
Reviews
“Love, Law, and Literature,” essay-review of Regina Schwartz’s Loving Justice, Living Shakespeare. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2017. Syndicate, https://syndicate.network/symposia/literature/loving-justice-living-shakespeare/. 7 July 2019.
Book Rev. of The Work of Form: Poetics and Materiality in Early Modern Culture. Ed. Ben Burton andElizabeth Scott-Baumann. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2014. Renaissance Quarterly 71.1 (2017): 401-2.
Book Rev. of Marissa Greenberg. Metropolitan Tragedy: Genre, Justice, and the City in Early Modern England. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2015. Renaissance Quarterly 69.3 (2016): 1188–1190.
Theater Rev. of The Changeling. Thomas Middleton and William Rowley. Director Joe Hill-Gibbins. Young Vic, London. 25 Feb. 2012. Cahiers Élisabéthains 81 (2012): 57-8.
Fellowships & Grants
- Research Workshop Grant, Andrew W. Mellon Consortium for the Study of the Pre-Modern World, U of Minnesota, “Uncommon Bodies,” 2020-2021.
- Research Workshop Grant, Andrew W. Mellon Consortium for the Study of the Pre-Modern World, U of Minnesota, “Uncommon Bodies,” 2019-20.
- Fund for the Advancement of Collaborative Teaching (FACT), Macalester College, 2019.
- Wallace Scholarly Activities Grant, Macalester College, Fall 2018.
- Francis Bacon Foundation Research Fellowship, Huntington Library, 2018/9.
- Francis Bacon Foundation Research Fellowship, Huntington Library, 2014.
- Andrew W. Mellon Academy for Advanced Study in the Renaissance Fellowship, 2014.
- Dissertation Completion Fellowship, Graduate School, USC, 2013-14.
- Dissertation Fellowship, Early Modern Studies Institute, USC-Huntington Library, 2012-13.
Links
Website https://penelopegeng.wordpress.com/
Education
BA (Honors) in English: University of Toronto
MA in Humanities: University of Chicago
MA in English: University of Southern California
PhD in English: University of Southern California