Peer-reviewed article
Early modern British literature
SYDNEYSHAMBLINANDERSON
01 / ResearchText · Body · Performance
STAGECRAFT
AND KNOWLEDGE.
How can dramatists use stage props to change what it means to know the body?
Dissertation in progress
University of Miami
Experimental Stagecraft: Stage Properties and the Female Interior in Early Modern Tragedy
My dissertation examines the intersections of experimental science, anatomy, and performance studies in early modern revenge tragedies. I investigate how Renaissance playwrights used stage properties as experimental technologies to challenge and reshape emerging anatomical and cultural conceptions of the female body.
In John Ford’s ’Tis Pity She’s a Whore, I argue that audiences negotiate the competing identities of Annabella’s heart as human organ and stage prop in what I call a theatrical experiment. This perceptual uncertainty unsettles anatomical knowledge as an expression of authority over the female body.
Discuss my researchEarly modern drama / Live performance
THE STAGE PROPERTY
AS AN EXPERIMENTAL
INSTRUMENT.
I examine how Ford uses the stage to test whether anatomical demonstrations reveal knowledge of the body or help create it.
02 / Selected writingPublished / 2025
03 / TeachingLiterature as a starting point
TEACHING
LITERATURE & WRITING.
I believe students learn literary analysis by reading sophisticated texts and taking intellectual risks. In my courses, they weigh conflicting interpretations against the evidence of a text and develop original, defensible claims.
2026English Composition IUniversity of Alabama at Birmingham · EH 101
Instructor of record, Fall 2026. First-year composition focused on evaluating evidence, developing arguments, and revising with a clear purpose.
Composition · Currently teachingSpring 2024
Fall 2023
Spring 2023Ecocritical ShakespeareUniversity of Miami · ENG 106
At the intersection of literature and environmental studies, students read Shakespeare’s plays alongside modern performances and films to develop rhetorical arguments about environmental ethics. Work by Walt Whitman, Claudia Rankine, Northrop Frye, and Julie Taymor helped them consider how literary interpretation shapes our understanding of the natural world.
Composition · Previously taughtFall 2022
Spring 2022
Fall 2020First-Year Writing IUniversity of Miami · WRS 105
In this introductory course in university writing, I asked students to think and write critically about a variety of topics.
Composition · Previously taught
Spring 2021
Fall 2021Bad Women in Medieval and Early Modern LiteratureUniversity of Miami · ENG 106
I ask students to reassess transgressive female characters such as Chaucer’s Wife of Bath and Lady Macbeth through close reading and thesis-driven arguments. Students compare these representations with the work of later female authors, including Emily Dickinson and Maya Angelou, and test familiar critical interpretations against textual evidence.
Composition · Previously taughtMy teaching experience also includes mentorship for first-generation college students and writing center tutoring.
Selected student feedbackUniversity of Miami
IN THEIR WORDS.
Selected excerpts from student correspondence and course evaluations.
“I can proudly say this has been the first course in my education career that has effectively opened my eyes to just why Shakespeare is so respected and praised, and for that, I would take this course again any day, as the amount I have learned is incredible. Further, it was clear to me that you truly cared about us students and our education.”
“I would highly recommend this course to another student because I found the theme of unlikable women really intriguing, and the class always kept my interest even at 8 am.”
“Previous to taking your class, I had the idea that Shakespeare was outdated and boring. After completing the course, however, I am excited about reading more Shakespeare and I believe that his work is extremely relevant to the world today.”
04 / A little more about meBirmingham, Alabama
A LIFE IN
THE HUMANITIES.
A commitment to
humanistic education.
I’m Sydney, an English Ph.D. candidate at the University of Miami with a Medieval and Early Modern Studies Concentration. My interdisciplinary approach to science studies, feminism, and Renaissance literature also shapes my teaching. As an instructor of record at Miami, I designed courses including “Bad Women in Medieval and Early Modern Literature” and “Ecocritical Shakespeare.”
My commitment to humanistic education also shapes my work beyond the classroom. As founding chair of the Shakespeare Association of America’s Graduate Committee, I helped establish a permanent body supporting graduate student scholarship and participation in the association.
2027 · Expected
PhD, EnglishUniversity of Miami
2024
MA, EnglishUniversity of Miami · Degree Honors
2022
English Literature Study AbroadUniversity of Oxford · Exeter College
Graduate study abroad program
2018
BA, EnglishUniversity of Mississippi · Cum Laude
Research. Teaching. Conversation.Based in Birmingham
LET’S TALK.
For research collaborations,
teaching, and scholarly conversation.