Dr. Donna Woodford-Gormley
Professor of English
English & Philsophy
Professor
Phone: 505-454-3253
Room: DH-144
Email: dwoodford@nmhu.edu
Faculty Information
Overview
Education:
Ph.D. in English, Washington University, August 1999
Specialization: Sixteenth-Century English Literature
Dissertation: “Rent from the native tree”: The Fostering of Children in Early Modern English Literature
Director: Professor Joseph Loewenstein
M.A. in English, Washington University, December 1994
B.A., cum laude, Honors in English and Spanish Literature, California State University, Northridge, May 1993
Research Interests: Shakespeare in Cuba; Early Modern Women Writers; Orphans and Foster Children in Renaissance Literature; Motherhood in Renaissance Literature; Harry Potter
Romeo Y Julieta Cigars -One primary research interest is Shakespeare in Cuba
Publications
Books:
- Understanding King Lear: A Student Casebook to Issues, Sources, and Historical Documents, Literature in Context Series (Westport, CT: Greenwood, 2004).
Articles:
- “‘Exit, Pursued by a bear’: Maternal Imagery in Shakespeare’s The Winter’s Tale,” English Language Notes 39.3 (March 2002): 27-31.
- “Disillusionment in Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix,” Topic: The Washington and Jefferson College Review 54 (September 2004): 63-72.
- “Nursing and Influence in Pandosto and The Winter’s Tale,” Accepted for inclusion in Performing Maternity in Early Modern England. Ed. Kate McPherson and Kate Moncrief. [forthcoming]
- “‘The Admonition, by the Author’ Isabella Whitney (1567).” Companion to Pre-1600 British Poetry. Ed. Michelle M. Sauer. New York: Facts on File, 2007. [forthcoming]
- “‘Careful Complaint by the Unfortunate Author’ Isabella Whitney (1573).” Companion to Pre- 1600 British Poetry. Ed. Michelle M. Sauer. New York: Facts on File, 2007. [forthcoming]
- “‘I.W. to her Unconstant Lover’ Isabella Whitney (1567).” Companion to Pre-1600 British Poetry. Ed. Michelle M. Sauer. New York: Facts on File, 2007. [forthcoming]
- “A Sweet Nosegay Isabella Whitney (1573).” Companion to Pre-1600 British Poetry. Ed. Michelle M. Sauer. New York: Facts on File, 2007. [forthcoming]
- “‘Will and Testament’ Isabella Whitney (1573).” Companion to Pre-1600 British Poetry. Ed. Michelle M. Sauer. New York: Facts on File, 2007. [forthcoming]
Book Reviews:
- Review of Maternal Measures: Figuring Caregiving in the Early Modern Period, Ed. Naomi J Miller and Naomi Yavneh. JEMCS 2.1, Fall 2001.
- Review of Motherhood and Mothering in Anglo Saxon England, by Mary Dockray Miller, Journal for the Association of Research on Mothering 3.1, Spring, 2001.
- Review of The Image of America in Montaigne, Spenser, and Shakespeare, by William Hamlin. EMLS 2.1, April 1996.
Conferences and Presentations
“In Fair Havana, Where We Lay Our Scene”: Romeo And Juliet in Cuba, GEMCS, San Antonio, TX, December 2005. [forthcoming]
Her “chiefest staff”: Isabella Whitney and Family Ties, Renaissance Society of America, San Francisco, CA, March 2006. [forthcoming]
“Isabella Whitney and London,” Renaissance Society of America, New York, NY, April 2004.
Workshop Participant in “Professional Shakespeare” at the Shakespeare Association of America in New Orleans, LA, April 2004.
“Shakespeare for my Grandmother: Healing, Art, and Nature in King Lear,” Creative Scholarship Day, Shenandoah University, March 2004.
Workshop Organizer, “The Personal is Pedagogical,” Attending to Early Modern Women: Structures and Subjectivities, College Park, MD, November 2003.
“‘To give her so much grief and not a tongue’: Philomela, Lucrece, and the Silent Rape Victim in Early Modern Literature,” Group for Early Modern Cultural Studies, Newport Beach, CA, October 2003.
Workshop Participant, “Performing Maternity in Early Modern England,” Shakespeare Association of America, Victoria, BC, April 2003.
“Memorializing Tragedy: Teaching King Lear in the Wake of September 11,” Group for Early Modern Cultural Studies, Tampa, FL, October, 2002.
“The Office Becomes a Woman Best”: Mothers, Midwives, and Men in The Winter’s Tale, Women in Shakespeare Series, Handley Regional Library, Winchester, VA, October, 2002.
“Isabella Whitney and the Modern Student: Teaching Gender and Class in the classroom,” Renaissance Society of America, Tempe, AZ, April 2002.
“King Lear: A Tale Retold,” Willa Cather Institute, Winchester, VA, March, 2002.
“‘In the Womb of Time’: Time, Desire and The Monstrous in Othello,” Group for Early Modern Cultural Studies, New Orleans, LA, October 2000.
Panel Chair of “Blood, Theft, and Time in Othello,” Group for Early Modern Cultural Studies, New Orleans, LA, October 2000.
“Anne Newdigate: Master of Herself and Mistress of Her Children,” International Congress on Medieval Studies, Kalamazoo, MI, May 2000.
“‘Evermore in Subjection’: The Royal Wards and All’s Well That Ends Well, ” Renaissance Society of America, Florence, Italy, March 2000.
“Women’s Work?: Childbirth and Nursing in Shakespeare’s The Winter’s Tale, ” Group For Early Modern Cultural Studies, Coral Gables, FL, October 1999.
“Fostering Dissent: The Apprentice as Foster Child in Early Modern English Drama,” Renaissance Society of America, L.A., CA, March 1999.
“Changing Gold-ends for Play-ends: Theater, Fosterage, and Apprenticeship in Early Modern England,” Arizona Center for Medieval and Renaissance Studies, Tempe, AZ, February 1999.
“No Innocent Milk: Fear of Female Agency in The Winter’s Tale,” International Congress on Medieval Studies, Kalamazoo, MI, May 1998.
“Fostering Children and Fashioning Gentlemen: The Shaping of Foundlings in Spenser’s The Faerie Queene,” Renaissance Society of America, College Park, MD, March 1998.
“‘Mad mountain of flesh’: The Gendered New World in The Comedy of Errors” International Congress on Medieval Studies, Kalamazoo, MI, May 1997.
“‘Tis new to thee’: Old World Competition in The Tempest,” The Sixteenth Century Studies Conference, St. Louis, MO, October 1996.
Session Chair of “Constructing Social Order in the Literature of Early Modern England,” The Sixteenth Century Studies Conference, St. Louis, MO, October 1996.
Professional Development:
National Endowment for the Humanities Summer Institute for College and University Faculty: Shakespeare’s Playhouses Inside and Out. Director: Ralph Cohen. Summer, 2004.
National Endowment for the Humanities Summer Institute for College and University Faculty: A Literature of Their Own? Women Writing-Venice, London, Paris- 1550-1700. Director: Albert Rabil, Jr. Lecturers: Virginia Cox, Laura Gowing, Anne Schutte, Karen Newman, and Joan de Jean. Chapel Hill, NC, July 2001.
Mellon Dissertation Seminar, Politics, Material Culture, and Intellectual Production in the Early Modern Period. Director: Steven Zwicker. Washington University, St. Louis, MO, July 1998.
Newberry Library Renaissance Center Consortium Seminar, The Self in Anglo-Saxon Prose. Instructor: Katherine O’Brien O’Keeffe. Chicago, IL, Spring 1996.
Grants and Awards:
New Mexico Highland University Faculty Research Grant, June 2005, for research in Cuba.
Shenandoah University Fund For Excellence Grant, Summer 2004, for research in Cuba.
Shenandoah University Faculty Development Grants, Fall 2003 and Fall 2002, for travel to conferences
Shenandoah University Fund For Excellence Grants, Spring 2004, Fall 2003, Spring 2003, for travel to conferences
Shenandoah University Fund For Excellence Grant to fund a field trip for my English Renaissance Poetry class, Fall 2002
Virginia Foundation for the Humanities grant for “The Wiles and Guiles that Women Work”: Multidisciplinary Programs on Shakespeare’s Women, Fall 2002
Shenandoah University Fund For Excellence grant for research and book project, Summer 2002
Dean’s Dissertation Fellowship, Washington University, 1998-9
Washington University Dramatics Club Prize for the best essay on a dramatic subject for “‘Such another world’: The Suppressed Narrative in Othello,” 1996
NMHU Service: Academic Affairs Committee; American Literature and Composition Director Search Committees; Director of Undergraduate Studies in English
Languages:
Spanish – fluent Italian – reading
Latin – reading Anglo Saxon – reading
Memberships:
Modern Language Association
Renaissance Society of America
Shakespeare Association of America
Society for the Study of Early Modern Women
Sigma Tau Delta
Golden Key National Honor Society