Teaching Areas: Shakespeare, 16th- and 17th-century English poetry and prose, pastoral, early modern English literature, ecocriticism, colonial literature, representations of space and place, landscape studies, close reading, composition, argumentative writing, research methods
Biography:
Jessie Herrada Nance researches and teaches in early modern English literature, with specific focus on representations of landscape management and cultivation in works by William Shakespeare, Philip Sidney, and Edmund Spenser, as well as in early English colonial promotions. Her recent research focuses on pedagogy, specifically on techniques for making courses in pre-modern English literature more inclusive. Her current project argues that incorporating place-based, student-centered pedagogy in classes on Shakespeare can enable students to engage with and challenge the traditional literary canon.
She graduated from the University of Oregon in 2014 with a Ph.D. in English and came to Portland State in 2015. At Portland State, she teaches core classes for the major; courses in early modern literature, including introductory and advanced Shakespeare; and courses in composition.
Publications/Conference Presentations:
- “Civil Wildness: Colonial Landscapes in Philip Sidney’s New Arcadia,” Studies in Philology, Spring 2019.
- “Teaching an Early Modern Ethics of Stewardship in a Time of Ecological Uncertainty.” Pedagogy Roundtable; Sixteenth Century Society and Conference; St. Louis, Missouri; October 2019.
- “Vagrancy in Early Modern Pastorals.” Shakespeare Association of America; Washington, District of Columbia; April 2019.
- “Vagrants and Rebels: Self and Other in Edmund Spenser’s Brigands.” Pacific Northwest Renaissance Society, Portland State University, October 2017.
- “Colonial Ecology in As You Like It.” Shakespeare Association of America, Atlanta, April 2017
- “The Magical Book: Teaching Colonial Power by Studying the Publication History of Promotional Travel Literature.” Shakespeare Association of America, New Orleans, April 2016
- “‘Go and Subdue’: Pastoral, Georgic, and the Control of Nature in Michael Drayton’s ‘Ode to the Virginian Voyage.’” Shakespeare Association of America; Vancouver, BC; April 2015.