Ann Christensen in the Department of English | UH CLASS
Professor
- Phone: 713.743.2948
- Email: achrist@uh.edu
- Office: 223A Roy Cullen Building
Ann C. Christensen is professor of English, a faculty affiliate in the Women, Gender, and Sexuality Studies Program (WGSS) and founding member of the Empire Studies Research Collective at UH. Specializing in the literature and culture of early modern England, Professor Christensen teaches and writes on the theatre of William Shakespeare, Ben Jonson, Thomas Heywood and others, using feminist historicist methods and attending to economic structures 鈥 from kitchen labor to global traffic.
Christensen鈥檚 new book is a modern critical edition of "A Warning for Fair Women," a 1599 play that deserves to be read, taught and performed 鈥 and thanks to her edition, it is! "A Warning for Fair Women: Adultery and Murder in Shakespeare's Theater" is available in paperback and e-book in the Early Modern Cultural Studies Series from the University of Nebraska Press (2021). Her first monograph, "Separation Scenes: Domestic Drama in Early Modern England 1590-1630" (University of Nebraska Press, 2017), argues that the popular genre of domestic tragedy deliberated the ways in which the increase in men鈥檚 commercial travel impacted the home.
Christensen鈥檚 work on such topics as the ambivalent roles of tradesmen鈥檚 wives in city comedy, adaptations of the Aeneas and Dido story from Virgil to Marlowe, representations of women鈥檚 work, the discursive and labor practices of the East India Company and the history of economic criticism in the field has appeared in Early Modern Studies Journal, SEL, Marlowe Studies Annual and Early Modern Women as well as the collections, "Gendered Routes and Spaces in the Early Modern World" (Ashgate, 2015) and "Global Traffic: Discourses and Practices of Trade in English Literature and Culture from 1550-1700" (Palgrave, 2008).
Education
- Ph.D., University of Illinois
- M.A., University of Illinois
- B.A., Quincy College
Selected Publications
Books
- "A Warning for Fair Women: Adultery and Murder in Shakespeare's Theater" (University of Nebraska Press, 2021).
- 鈥淪eparation Scenes: Domestic Drama in Early Modern England 1590-1630鈥濃 (University of Nebraska Press, 2017).
Chapters and Essays
- (2021) With Laura Turchi, 鈥淓diting the Renaissance for an Anti-Racist Classroom鈥, in "Teaching Race in the Renaissance", edited by Matthieu鈥疌hapman and Anna Wainwright, forthcoming from Arizona Center of Medieval and Renaissance Studies Press.
- (2020) 鈥淪ettled and Unsettling: Home and Mobility in Heywood鈥檚 King Edward IV (1599)" Early Modern Literary Studies鈥(ISSN 1201-2459). Special Issue 29: 鈥淒oor-Bolts, Thresholds, and Peep-Holes: Liminality and Domestic Spaces in Early Modern England鈥 Edited by R. W. Daniel and Iman Sheeha. 1-27.
- (2019) 鈥溾橮arting is such鈥︹: Those who stay and those who go in early modern drama.鈥 Special issue of Early Modern Literary Studies. Co-authored with Jessica Slights, Acadia University, Canada. 鈥
- (2018-2019) 鈥疌olumn Editor with Laura Turchi, 鈥淭eaching Shakespeare鈥 English Journal鈥(publication of NCTE). 6 issues September 2018-July 2019鈥
- (2014) 鈥淕uides to Marriage and 鈥楴eedful Travel鈥 in Early Modern England鈥 in鈥"Gendered Routes and Spaces in the Early Modern World. Ashgate Press". Merry E. Wiesner- Hanks, editor. In press.
- (2014) 鈥淲ords about Women鈥檚 Work; The Case of Housewifery in Early Modern England鈥 in鈥疎arly Modern Studies Journal鈥(EMSJ) formerly鈥疎arly English Studies鈥(EES). (2014) Volume 6. 鈥淲omen鈥檚 Writing/Women鈥檚 Work in Early Modernity鈥濃
- (2012) 鈥淢en (Don鈥檛) Leave: Aeneas as Departing Husband in鈥Dido Queen of Carthage.鈥濃疢arlowe Studies Annual.鈥2 (2012): 5-24.
Work in progress
- 鈥淪tudent-Friendly Editions 鈥 a Pedagogical and Scholarly Experiment with A Warning for Fair Women鈥 forthcoming special issue of Studies in the Literary Imagination鈥 鈥淒eath and Domesticity: Reassessing Domestic Dramas in the Renaissance鈥 volume 53, number 1, Spring 2020. edited by Brent Griffin.
Recent Honors, Awards, and Grants Received
- (2020) Department of English Houstoun grant (book subvention) $2,500
- (2018) CLASS Project completion grant: 鈥A Warning for Fair Women鈥 performance and videography $3,000 (professional theatrical production of the play I edited).
- (2018) Department of English Houston grant: $5,000 鈥A Warning for Fair Women鈥 performance and videography $4,000
- (2017-2018) TIP grant ($40,000) Chair and convener of the department鈥檚 OME (Online Minor in English) Planning Group. Served as PI, recruited staff, created ad hoc committee, met with campus-wide constituents, organized and help conduct workshops (I continue to consult on this.)
- (2017) Division of Research Small Grant 鈥淭eaching Shakespeare in Houston鈥 (with Laura Turchi, College of Education ($4,900).
Invited Lectures and Conference Presentations
- 鈥淭he Loss of Gloss: Re-Editing the Renaissance鈥, Executive Committee for the MLA Forum on Shakespeare, January 2020.
- 鈥淣ew Approaches to Domestic Drama I: Space, Stage and Colony鈥,&苍产蝉辫;Durham Early Modern Studies Conference, July 2019
- 鈥淎 Warning for Fair Women in Performance鈥攁 view, an interview, and a review鈥 Durham Early Modern Studies Conference, July 2019
- 鈥淲hat a Lord Chamberlain鈥檚 Men Playwright Did with Sources鈥, Shakespeare Association of America (SAA), April 2018.
- Collaboration with Resurgens Theatre Company, Atlanta, GA. Production of 鈥A Warning for Fair Women鈥, November 2018.
- 鈥淪hakespeare for Teachers Workshops鈥 (with Laura Turchi), Humanities Texas, April 2018.
- "Pedagogical Shakespeare: Text, Performance, and Digitalization", Modern Language Association, (MLA)) January, 2016.
Teaching
Graduate
- Shakespeare鈥檚 Tragedies: Gender/Nation/Empire; Shakespeare's Comedies and Histories; Gender and/as Performance; Shakespeare on Film鈥
- Feminist Theory and Methodology (Women, Gender and Sexuality Studies)
- Graduate Pre-seminar in Renaissance Literature鈥
- Elizabethan and Jacobean Drama: City, State, and Household on the Elizabethan and Jacobean Stage; New Historicism, Labor and Leisure; Economies; Fair Maids and Dark Ladies: representations of early modern English women; 鈥淭raffic on the English stage鈥
- Graduate Special Problems courses: Women Writers and Feminist Criticism, Early Modern Women Writers, Gender and Power in Shakespeare's Problem Plays, Shakespeare and Globalization, The History of Sonnet Sequences
- Empire Studies: England Before Empire
Undergraduate
- First-year Composition I and II; Freshman Honors, The Human Situation (Antiquity and Modernity)
- Sophomore level: Introduction to Poetry; Writing in the Discipline
- Upper level: English Renaissance Literature; Elizabethan and Jacobean Drama: Drama and Social History; Carnival and Marketplace in Early Modern Drama; Others on the English Stage
- Senior Seminar: Shakespeare and the Place of the Stage; England Before Empire. Undergraduate Independent Studies and fellowships: 鈥淗ere Enter Murder,鈥欌 The Shakespearean History Play; Marlowe and Jonson.