- Aidan Selmer
- Graduate Student
- ajs651@rutgers.edu
- Primary Areas of Specialization: Early Modern English poetry and drama in the context of post-Reformation church history
- Field of Interest: Book and Media History, Drama & Performance Studies, Early Modern, Poetry & Poetics
- About:
My research examines early modern English poetry and drama in the context of post-Reformation church history. I have working projects on religious nationalism and discrimination in Shakespeare's Titus Andronicus and Othello, John Milton's indebtedness in Paradise Lost to Paul's writings on religious mystery as a key way to realize religious "truth" in a faith community, and Edmund Spenser's ambivalence towards religious iconoclasm. I also work on the influence that music theory and media exerts upon early modern English literature. My work on this front includes research on the lyric "Take, o take those lips away," a likely non-Shakespearean song added to his play, Measure for Measure, which invites disruptive associations with popular revenge tragedy entiteld Rollo, Duke of Normandy; and a broad reassessment of the status of vocal songs within the poetry of Edmund Spenser.
- Awards:
Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada--Doctoral Fellow
Catherine Musello Cantelupo Prize--awarded for paper entitled, "The Body Politics of Kneeling in Titus Andronicus and the Book of Common Prayer"
- Membership Affiliations:
Renaissance Society of America
- Education: B.A. Summa Cum Laude, College of William & Mary M.A. University of Toronto