我要吃瓜

I am an AHRC funded PhD student in the Faculty of Arts and Humanities. My PhD examines how duty was conceived of in early modern history plays . I am supervised by Dr Angus Vine, Dr Kelsey Jackson Williams, and Dr John Drakakis.

I graduated from the 我要吃瓜 in 2015 with a BA (Hons) in English Studies, and from the 我要吃瓜 in 2016 with an MRes in Humanities.

My research focuses on sixteenth- and seventeenth-century literature, culture, and politics. My specific areas of specialisation include early modern drama, Elizabethan and Jacobean court culture, and philosophical and political theory relating to duty.

My undergraduate dissertation, “And set the murderous Machiavel to school”: Kingship and Power in Shakespeare’s History Plays: A Machiavellian Critique, examined power in Shakespeare's English history plays. It was underpinned by Niccolò Machiavelli’s political theory developed in The Prince (1532).

My MRes dissertation, The Ideals of Duty: Renaissance Roman Plays and the Politics of Duty, turned to early modern history plays which depicted the Roman past. These plays were explored within the context of political duty, particularly as described in Cicero’s De Officiis.

My PhD thesis, provisionally titled The Ideals of Duty: Renaissance History Plays and the Politics of Duty, builds upon the ideas developed in my MRes. My thesis will re-evaluate early modern notions of duty through an exploration of how they were represented in early modern history plays (encompassing classical, English, foreign, and legendary plays). This will be done through an examination of history plays performed at the universities of Cambridge and Oxford, the Inns of Court, Jesuit Colleges, and on the popular stage in London.

I have taught on two undergraduate courses. I was a teaching assistant on ENGU902 (Introduction to Literary Studies: Theories and Approaches) in the Spring 2019 semester and I taught a one off Q&A style lecture for ENGU9DP (Dissertation Preparation) in the Autumn 2019 semester .