My expertise lies in early modern literature (c. 1485-1642), with areas of specialization in Shakespeare, early modern drama, law and literature, and sixteenth-century political culture. I am especially interested in ways that authors influence—and are influenced by—the educational, social, literary, and political communities that surround them. My research focuses on authors associated with one of the most prominent literary and educational communities in the period, the cluster of law schools and legal societies around Fleet Street in London, called the Inns of Court. John Donne, for instance, wrote many of his poems while in residence at Lincoln's Inn, one of the law schools, and Shakespeare's Twelfth Night was originally performed at another, the Middle Temple, in 1602. The poetry, drama, and classical translations written by members of the Inns from 1558-1642 fostered moral and political dialogue at the legal societies, creating a social and political community that rivaled the royal court, while contributing the 'rise' of the barristers as a distinct, socially and professionally prestigious group.

While my research addresses one area of early modern literature, my teaching interests range widely and I enjoy the challenge of developing classes that cross disciplines, periods, and genres. I love those classes that focus on Shakespeare, Renaissance Literature, and early British Literature up through the eighteenth century, but I am especially interested in the history of drama, from the Greeks to the present, and performance studies, and teach courses on these topics, such as Genre Studies in Drama and Shakespeare in Performance.

Selected Awards and Honors

• Fellowship, National Endowment for the Humanities, 2011-12
• Research Fellowship, Idaho Humanities Council, spring 2009
• Faculty Research Grant, ISU Faculty Research Committee, fall 2008
• Master Teacher Award, ISU Distinguished Teacher Selection Committee, 2007
• Summer Research Grant, ISU College of Arts and Sciences, summer 2005
• Mellon Sawyer Seminar Postdoctoral Fellowship, University of Aberdeen, 2003-04
• Humanities & Social Sciences Research Committee Grant, ISU, fall 2002

Selected Publications

Elizabethan Seneca: Three Tragedies (co-edited with James Ker), MHRA Tudor and Stuart Translations Series, vol. 8 (London: Modern Humanities Research Association, 2012). 340pp.

"A Note on Jasper Heywood's 'Free Compositions' in Troas (1559)" (co-authored with James Ker). Forthcoming: Modern Philology 101:4 (2013). 18pp. in MS.

"Lyric Poetry at the Inns of Court: Forming a Professional Community." The Intellectual and Cultural World of the Early Modern Inns of Court. Ed. Jayne Archer, Elizabeth Goldring, Sarah Knight. Manchester: Manchester UP, 2011. 223–44.

"Literary Associations of the Middle Temple." History of the Middle Temple. Ed. Richard Havery. Oxford: Hart Publishing, 2011. 147–71.

"English Seneca: Heywood to Hamlet" in The Oxford Handbook in Tudor Literature. Ed. Mike Pincombe and Cathy Shrank. Oxford: Oxford UP, 2009. 472-89.

"National History to Foreign Calamity: A Mirror for Magistrates and Early English Tragedy." Shakespeare's Histories and Counter-Histories. Ed. Dermot Cavanagh, Stuart Hampton-Reeves, and Steve Longstaffe. Manchester: Manchester UP, 2006. 152-165.

"Seneca in Early Elizabethan England." Renaissance Quarterly 59:1 (2006): 29-58.

"Expanding the Political Nation: Gorboduc at the Inns of Court and Succession Revisited." Early Theatre: A Journal Associated with the Records of Early English Drama 8:1 (2005): 11-34. (Link)

"Love's Labor's Lost." The Greenwood Companion to Shakespeare: A Comprehensive Guide for Students. Ed. Joseph Rosenblum. 4vols. (Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 2005): 2:380-97.

"A Mirror for Magistrates and Public Political Discourse in Elizabethan England." Studies in Philology 101:4 (2004): 381-400.

Courses Taught

• English 101: English Composition
• English 102: Critical Reading & Writing
• English 211: Introduction to Literary Analysis
• English 267: Survey Early British Literature
• English 301: Writing about Literature
• English 321: Genre Studies in Drama
• English 463/563: Renaissance Literature
• English 491: Senior Seminar
• English 476/576: Shakespeare
• English 477/577: Shakespeare in Performance
• English 663: Renaissance Seminar

Office: LA 239
Office Phone: 282-2895
winsjess@isu.edu