Professor, Director, Graduate Studies
University Hall 5028
(205) 934-8594
Research and Teaching Interests: Shakespeare, animal studies, sexuality, feminism, masculinity, Harry Potter, theory, Terry Pratchett
Office Hours: By appointment
Education:
- Ph.D., University of Pennsylvania
Rebecca Ann Bach is Professor of English, specializing in Shakespeare and Renaissance Drama. She is the author of Birds and Other Creatures in Renaissance Literature: Shakespeare, Descartes, and Animal Studies (Routledge, 2018; paperback 2020), Shakespeare and Renaissance Literature before Heterosexuality (Palgrave, 2007), and Colonial Transformations: The Cultural Production of the New Atlantic World 1580-1640 (Palgrave, 2000). With Gwynne Kennedy, she co-edited Feminisms and Early Modern Texts: Essays for Phyllis Rackin (Susquehanna University Press, 2010).
Dr. Bach has published many articles on Shakespeare, Renaissance drama, animals, sexuality, masculinity, and race. Her most recent essay, “Avian Shakespeare,” was published in The Routledge Handbook of Shakespeare and Animals, edited by Karen Raber and Holly Dugan (Routledge, 2021). “‘Chuck’ in Shakespeare’s Plays” also came out in Notes and Queries 2021.
Dr. Bach has served as the English Department’s Undergraduate Director and Director of Honors. She has won the University’s Ireland Award for Scholarly Distinction (2011), Exceptional Innovator’s Award (2011), and Outstanding Faculty Advisor Award (2006). As Associate Dean, she coordinated and ran the College of Arts and Sciences’ 2013 Civil Rights Commemorative celebrations.
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Recent Courses
- Harry Potter: Ethics and the Imagination
- Shakespeare for High School Teachers
- Shakespeare: Page and Stage
- Animal Studies/Animality Studies
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Select Publications
Books
- Birds and Other Creatures in Renaissance Literature: Shakespeare, Descartes, and Animal Studies (Routledge, 2018) Paperback 2020.
- Birds and Other Creatures in Renaissance Literature: Shakespeare, Descartes, and Animal Studies (Routledge, 2017).
- Rebecca Ann Bach and Gwynne Kennedy, eds., Feminisms and Early Modern Texts: Essays for Phyllis Rackin (Susquehanna University Press, 2010).
- Shakespeare and Renaissance Literature before Heterosexuality (Palgrave, 2007).
- Colonial Transformations: The Cultural Production of the New Atlantic World 1580-1640 (Palgrave, 2000).
Book Chapters
- "Avian Shakespeare" in The Routledge Handbook of Shakespeare and Animals, edited by Karen Raber and Holly Dugan (Routledge 2021)
- “Falstaff Becomes the (Hu)man at the Expense of The Merry Wives of Windsor,” in The Merry Wives of Windsor: New Critical Essays, Evelyn Gajowski and Phyllis Rackin, eds. (Routledge, 2014).
- “Foreign Travel and Exploration,” in Ben Jonson in Context, Julie Sanders, ed. (Cambridge University Press, 2010): 263-70.
- “The ‘Peerless’ Macbeth: Friendship and Family in Macbeth," in Macbeth: New Critical Essays, Nick Moschovakis, ed. (Routledge, 2008) 104-17.
Articles
- “The Animal Continuum in A Midsummer Night’s Dream,” Textual Practice 24 (No. 1, 2010): 123-47.
- “(Re)placing John Donne in the History of Sexuality,” ELH 72 (2005): 259-89.
- “Tennis Balls: Henry V and Testicular Masculinity, or, According to the OED, Shakespeare Doesn’t Have Any Balls” Renaissance Drama 30 (2001): 3-23.
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Academic Distinctions and Professional Societies
- University’s Ireland Award for Scholarly Distinction, 2011
- Exceptional Innovator’s Award, 2011
- Outstanding Faculty Advisor Award, 2006