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Jennifer Holl

Jennifer Holl Craig-Lee Hall (CL) 144​
(401) 456-4653
jholl@ric.edu

Academic Background

Ph.D., M.Phil. City University of New York Graduate Center
M.A. Virginia Tech
B.A. James Madison University

I joined the RIC English Department in 2013, after having completed my Ph.D. in English at the City University of New York Graduate Center that same year. My primary area of expertise is Shakespeare, which I regularly teach in several different undergraduate and graduate courses. I also teach a wide variety of courses reflective of my other specializations and research interests: early British literature and culture, film and adaptation, drama and performance, and theory.

My research focuses primarily on Shakespeare and the ways that we make Shakespeare mean through use—whether through stage performance, film and TV adaptation, cultural appropriations, or the creative and critical work of fandom. My most abiding research project probes the relationship between Shakespeare and celebrity, from the celebrities of the early modern stage to the Shakespearean stars of stage and screen to digital incarnations of celebrity Shakespeare online. My current book project, Shakespeare and Celebrity Cultures, examines Shakespeare’s various roles, from inquisitor to paradigm, within evolving cultures of celebrity over 400 years.

One of the most rewarding ways I get to share my research interests with RIC students is through Shakespeare summer study abroad courses, where students get to explore Shakespeare’s past and present in Stratford-upon-Avon and London. In 2017, I developed Shakespeare’s England/England’s Shakespeare, an English program that combines classroom time with a 16-day tour through England, where we visit Shakespeare’s birthplace and burial site, attend workshops with actors from the Royal Shakespeare Company and the Globe, attend plays, and tour a number of cathedrals and landmarks. We expanded the program in 2019 to include more students and more sites of interest, and I look forward to leading students abroad again. You can read about the 2017 program here, and check out our Instagram story on the 2019 program here.

Courses Taught

English 530: Marlowe, Shakespeare, Jonson
English 460: Seminar in Major Authors and Themes:
[Spring 2019] “Conspiracy/Theory”
[Fall 2016] “Its Reigning Men: Early Modern Masculinities”

English 350/550: Shakespeare’s England/England’s Shakespeare: A Study Abroad Course
English 346: Shakespeare in/as/and Performance
English 345: Shakesqueer
English 335: The Bible as Literature
English 325: Film and Literature
English 304: Queering Camelot
English 300: Introduction to Theory and Criticism
English 205: Backgrounds in British Literature to 1700
English 200: Reading Literature and Culture
English 123: Studies in Literature and Genre
English 122: Studies in Literature and the Canon
English 121: Studies in Literature and Nation
English 120: Studies in Literature and Identity
First Year Seminar: Gossip, Scandal, and Social Knowledge
First Year Writing 100: Introduction to Academic Writing

Selected Publications

“‘The wonder of his time’: Richard Tarlton and the Dynamics of Early Modern Theatrical Celebrity.” Historical Social Research 32 (2019): 59-82.

“‘Now ‘mongst this flock of drunkards’: Drunk Shakespeare’s Polytemporal Theater.” Borrowers and Lenders: The Journal of Shakespeare and Appropriation 11.2 (2018). http://www.borrowers.uga.edu/783933/show

“Shakespeare Fanboys and Fangirls and the Work of Play.” The Shakespeare User: Critical and Creative Appropriations in a Networked Culture. Eds. Valerie M. Fazel and Louise Geddes. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2017. 109-128.

YouShakespeare: Shakespearean Celebrity 2.0.” Shakespeare/Not Shakespeare. Eds. Christy Desmet, Natalie Loper, and Jim Casey. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2017. 203-219.

“Immortal Parts: Ghostly Renown in Shakespeare.” The Selected Papers of the Ohio Valley Shakespeare Conference 7 (2014): 78-97. https://ideaexchange.uakron.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1045&context=spovsc

“‘If this be worth your hearing’: Theorizing Gossip on Shakespeare’s Stage.” Who Hears in Shakespeare? Auditory Worlds on Stage and Screen. Eds. Laury Magnus and Walter Cannon. Fairleigh Dickinson UP, 2011. 61-82.

Page last updated: August 13, 2020