Background

Prior to my appointment as  Fellow of the Shakespeare Institute, where I have particular responsibility for the MA Shakespeare & Theatre and MA Shakespeare & Education programmes, I worked part-time as a Lecturer in Shakespeare Studies at the Shakespeare Centre (where I also edited Shakespeare at the Centre) and part-time as a Lecturer in the English Department on the main campus.

Teaching

I co-ordinate and teach the modules on the MA Shakespeare & Theatre and the MA Shakespeare and Education programmes and contribute to other Shakespeare postgraduate courses at the Institute. Many of the MA students are part-time or distance learning students and some may be returning to study as mature learners so it's important to have a range of appropriate teaching skills. I'm heading a project that makes module materials available via WebCT.

I spent two years as a Research Fellow working on the Johnson Dictionary Project at Birmingham (looking at Samuel Johnson's use of Shakespeare in the Dictionary) and, apart from Shakespeare in Performance, my main area of research continues to be Shakespeare in the Eighteenth Century. Having spent some years in the secondary sector I retain a professional interest in Shakespeare in education.

I currently supervise research students working in the areas of performance, eighteenth-century Shakespeare, Shakespeare and Art, Shakespeare and Music, the Gothic, and twentieth-century criticism

Conferences

For a number of years I’ve taught on the University of Cambridge International Shakespeare Summer School. Until the end of 2003 I was Executive Secretary of the International Shakespeare Association and was involved in the preliminary planning for the ISA conference at Brisbane in 2006. I’m a Director and Trustee of the English Association.

Other Activities

For a number of years I’ve taught on the University of Cambridge International Shakespeare Summer School. Until the end of 2003 I was Executive Secretary of the International Shakespeare Association and was involved in the preliminary planning for the ISA conference at Brisbane in 2006. I’m a Director and Trustee of the English Association.

Interests

Opera, visual art (particularly portraits, eighteenth-century work and modern art), the maritime coast and the countryside.

Selected Publications

Articles on 18th Century Shakespeare plus for Cambridge University Press: The Cambridge Shakespeare Library, Shakespeare and Politics and Shakespeare and Language and, co-edited with Stanley Wells, Shakespeare and Race and Shakespeare and Sexuality. Henry VIII for Penguin. Co-editing the forthcoming Cambridge Bibliography of English Literature vol 2, 1500-1700 and editing The Cambridge Companion to Shakespeare’s Last Plays. Working on a biography of Elizabeth Montagu. Recently completed the illustrated and documented Shakespeare: The Life, The Works, The Treasures for Andre Deutsch and the RSC.