Curriculum Vitae
Melissa D. Aaron
Work:
Dept. of English and Foreign Languages
California Polytechnic State University at Pomona
Pomona CA 91768
(909) 869-3839
email: maaron@csupomona.edu
CURRENT POSITION:
Associate Professor
California State Polytechnic
University at Pomona, Department of English and Foreign Languages
RESEARCH INTERESTS:
History of Early Modern theater business and technology, women as producers
and performers in Early Modern theater, use of multimedia technology for teaching
Shakespeare.
EDUCATION:
University of Wisconsin-Madison
Ph.D, English, 1998
- Area of Concentration: English Literature, 1500-1660
- Minor: Theater and Drama
Dissertation: Global Economics: An institutional economic history of
the Chamberlain’s/King’s Men and their texts, 1599-1642.
Dissertation Director: Dr. Richard A. Knowles
Committee: Dr. Standish Henning, Dr. Suzanne Wofford
M.A., English, 1993
Indiana University at Bloomington
M.S. in Music, Stage Direction for Opera, 1990
Cambridge University
M.A., English Literature, 1993
B. A., English Literature, 1988
- Comedy and drama, medieval romance, thesis on cross-dressing
in Shakespeare
Sarah
Lawrence College
B.A., Liberal Arts, 1986
FELLOWSHIPS , AWARDS, AND GRANTS:
NEH Summer Institute
Shakespeare’s Playhouses,
Inside and Out. Staunton, VA and London England, July-August 2002.
Research and Sponsored Creative Activities Grant
California Polytechnic State University
at Pomona, 2000.
Steenbock Dissertation Fellowship
University of Wisconsin, Madison, 1997.
National Endowment for the Humanities Younger Scholars Grant
Research on “The Travesti Role
in Opera History,” 1984.
TEACHING EXPERIENCE:
California State Polytechnic
University at Pomona
Department of English and Foreign
Languages
Associate Professor, 2002-
Assistant Professor, 1999-2002
Courses Taught:
- Developed and designed online Introduction to Shakespeare:
website, Flash, multimedia, and video lectures
- Freshman Composition. Special topic:
California, Computers, and Cal Poly, computer-mediated
course
- Introduction to Shakespeare
- Chaucer
- Shakespeare to 1600
- Shakespeare after 1600
- 16th and 17th century Literature
- Drama to 1890
- Special topics: Magic, Religion,
and the Supernatural in Medieval and Renaissance Literature
- Graduate Renaissance Literature
- Graduate Studies in Drama
- London Quarter Abroad
Mary Baldwin College
M.Litt Program in Shakespeare
Guest faculty, Summer 2003
- Distance Learning for Shakespeare
University of Michigan
Lecturer, 1998-99
- Medieval and Renaissance Literature
- Argumentative Writing
University of Wisconsin-Madison
Lecturer, 1998
Teaching Assistant, 1993-98
- Introduction to Literature to 1900
- Introduction to Literature after
1900
- English Literature to 1800
- Intermediate Composition
- Writing Center
Senior Summer School, Madison,
Wisconsin, 1994-98
Lecturer
- Shakespeare, Opera, Drama
Illinois State University, 1990
Guest faculty, 1990
- Directed Act II of Tales of
Hoffman
CONSULTING:
Los Angeles Women's Shakespeare Company
Dramaturg
Shenandoah Shakespeare/Blackfriars Theatre
Distance learning/e-education consultant: videography and web
design.
PUBLICATIONS:
- Global Economics: A history of the theater business,
the Chamberlain’s/King’s Men, and their plays, 1599-1642.
University of Delaware Press, 2005
- Book review, “Theatre, Court,
and City.” Essays in Theatre, Spring 2003.
- Compendium of Renaissance Drama
(CORD), contributor; ten entries on non-Shakespearean Renaissance plays
for CD database, Brian Corrigan, editor.
- "Thomas Carew." Absolutism
and the Scientific Revolution, 1600-1720: An Interdisciplinary Biographical
Dictionary. Ed. Christopher Baker. Greenwood Press, Fall 2002.
- "John Fletcher." Ibid.
- "Robert Herrick." Ibid.
- "Inigo Jones." Ibid.
- "Philip Massinger." Ibid.
- "William Shakespeare."
Ibid.
- "Tethys takes charge; Queen Anne
as Theatrical Producer." Research Opportunities in Renaissance Drama,
Fall 2002.
- Streaming
Shakespeare: streaming video lectures on the World Wide Web. April, 2001.
- “Shakespearean Staging.”
- “The Globe.”
- The Globe and Henry V as
business document." Studies in English Literature 1500-1900,
Spring 2000.
- "Christiana and her train: Women
and the alternative society in the Second Part of The Pilgrim's Progress,"
Awakening Words: John Bunyan and the Language of Community. Ed. by
David Gay, James G. Randall, and Arlette Zinck. U of Delaware Press, 2000.
- "John Florio." Major Tudor
Authors: A Bio-critical sourcebook. Ed. Alan Hager. Greenwood P, 1997.
Forthcoming:
- “’Beware at what hands
thou receiv’st thy commodity’: The Alchemist and the King’s
Men fleece the customers, 1610.” Inside Shakespeare: Essays on the
Blackfriars’ Stage. Susquehanna University Press.
- “’ Said he was a wolf’: Professor Lupin
meets the Duchess of Malfi." Proceedings from The Witching Hour, Harry
Potter conference.
PAPERS AND PRESENTATIONS:
- “All female and original: women’s Shakespeare
and original practice. Blackfriars conference, Staunton VA, October 2005.
- “’ Said he was a wolf’: Professor Lupin
meets the Duchess of Malfi. The Witching Hour, Harry Potter conference, Salem
MA, October 2005.
- “’That instrument’: Wodehouse on the ukulele.”
PG Wodehouse national convention, August 2005.
- “’I am Viola: women’s voices in all-female
Shakespeare companies.” CSU Shakespeare Symposium, CSU Long Beach, November
2004.
- “A Queen in a Beard: a study of all-female Shakespeare
companies.” “Cross-Dressing in Contemporary Performances of Shakespeare.”
Shakespeare Association of America, New Orleans, April 2004.
- “’The Sweat of their Labors’: Reading the
Sharer’s Papers, 1635.” “Labor in Early Modern England.”
Modern Language Association, San Diego, CA, December 27-30, 2003.
- “’Lest the players should grow poor’: Aglaura,
the Blackfriars, and the Hollywood ending.” Blackfriars Conference.
Staunton VA, October 22-26, 2003.
- "Die by our imperial hand": the profits and perils
of patronage, The Roman Actor, and the King's Men." The Theatre,
the Market, the Economy. Shakespeare Association of America, April 2002.
- "The Globe Theatre as a performance venue." Lecture
for Globe Education, undergraduate program, February 6, 2002.
- Research seminar on The Alchemist given at King's
College, London, February 5, 2002.
- “Beware at what hands thou receiv’st
thy commodity: The Alchemist and the King’s Men fleece the customers, 1610.”
Blackfriars Conference, Staunton, VA, October 11-14, 2001.
- “’Is this a teleprompter I see before
me?’ RealStreaming Shakespeare: holistic or Hollywood.” California State University
Shakespeare Symposium, CSU Bakersfield, June 1-3, 2001.
- “’Squirting, bawdie comedians’: Marie
de Medici, commedia actresses, machinery and a cultural paradigm shift.” World
Shakespeare Congress, Valencia, Spain, April 18-23, 2001.
- “Dea ex machina or Queens and machines:
theater technology, royal female producers, and actresses.” Renaissance Conference
of Southern California, May 2000.
- "' A Strange sight, to see a
Queen act in a play' : Henrietta Maria and theatrical professionalism in early
Stuart England." "Women Players in and around Shakespeare."
Shakespeare Association of America, Montreal, April 2000.
- "Tethys takes charge; Queen Anne
as Theatrical Producer." "Women and the Theater Business, 1500-1700."
Modern Language Association, Chicago, December 1999. Also panel chair.
- "Masques and Machines."
"Theater History Online." Shakespeare Association of America, San
Francisco, CA, April 1999.
- "' Commodity, the bias of the
world': Sixteenth and Seventeenth Century English Trade Wars. Group for Early
Modern Cultural Studies, Newport, RI, November 1998. Panel chair.
- " 'I must bestow upon this young
couple some vanity of my art': The Tempest , the royal wedding and
economic opportunity, 1612/3. " Ohio Shakespeare Conference, Columbus,
OH, May 1997.
- " 'The unworthy Scaffold' or
'Now playing at a Theater near you' : The Curtain, the Globe, and Henry
V as advertisement. " Sixth World Shakespeare Congress, Los Angeles,
April 1996.
- "The unperfect actor: Playhouse
poetics in Shakespeare's Sonnets." Sixteenth-Century Society Conference,
San Francisco, October 1995.
- "Christiana and her train: Women
and the alternative society in the Second Part of The Pilgrim's Progress."
International John Bunyan Society Conference, September 1995.
- "'Hic et ubique?' Echoes of "Heaven"
and "Hell" in the revenge tragedy." Shakespeare Association
of America, Chicago, March 1995.
- "Putting on the garments of royalty:
Gender, material control, and the struggle for the theater in the court circle
of Henrietta Maria." Shakespeare Association of America, Albuquerque,
April 1994.
- "Enter the Bear: The intertextual
stage direction in Oberon, Mucedorus , and The Winter's Tale.
" Shakespeare Association of America, Atlanta, April 1993.
Panel Chair/Organizer:
- Panel chair, Continental Drama. Renaissance
Conference of Southern California, May 16-17, 2003.
- Seminar leader: “’ You
Can Never Bring In a Wall’: Shakespeare and Theater Technology.”
Shakespeare Association of America, Victoria, BC, Canada; April 10-12, 2003.
- Panel chair, Non-Shakespearean Drama,
Renaissance Conference of Southern California, May 18-19, 2001.
- "Had we but world enough and
time’: creating and maintaining an innovative curriculum in a fast-tracked
administrative world.” Panel chair, round table discussion/workshop.
Group for Early Modern Cultural Studies, New Orleans, Louisiana, November
2000.
- "Women and the Theater Business,
1500-1700.” Modern Language Association, Chicago, December 1999. See
Papers, above.
- "' Commodity, the bias of the
world': Sixteenth and Seventeenth Century English Trade Wars." Panel
chair. Group for Early Modern Cultural Studies, Newport, RI, November 1998.
PROFESSIONAL ASSOCIATIONS:
- Malone Society
- Modern Language Association
- Shakespeare Association of America
- Medieval and Renaissance Drama Society
LANGUAGES:
French--speak, read,
write
Italian--speak, read
German--read
Latin--read
Old English--read
REFERENCES:
Dr. Liliane Fucaloro, California State
Polytechnic University at Pomona, Chair, Dept. of English and Foreign Languages,
Chair
Dr. Andrew Gurr, Professor Emeritus,
University of Reading
Dr. Richard A. Knowles, Dickson-Bascom
Professor in the Humanities, University of Wisconsin-Madison
Dr. Terry Tinkle, Director of First and Second Year Studies, University of
Michigan
maaron@csupomona.edu