Dr Nora Williams

Biography

My first degree was jointly awarded the University of Toronto and Sheridan College, as the result of a unique combined programme in Acting, Theatre & Drama Studies, and English Literature. This conservatoire-style training led me to an MA in Staging Shakespeare at the University of Exeter, followed by a PhD in English Early Modern Drama at the same institution. My thesis, 'Between Performances, Texts, and Editions', considered the intersections of the print, performance, and archival histories of Thomas Middleton and William Rowley's 1622 play The Changeling. Since then, my work has pivoted towards Measure (Still) for Measure, a practice-as-research project that uses Shakespeare's Measure for Measure, feminist performance theory, and physical theatre techniques to facilitate conversations about consent and rape culture with young people. My first monograph project arises from this work, and is currently under contract with Edinburgh University Press. Canonical Misogyny: Dramaturgies of Sexual Violence in Early Modern Performance will be published in 2025. The thread linking my various projects is a unifying interest in afterlives, adaptations, and remediations of early modern drama. Under that umbrella, my work is best described as inter- and multi-disciplinary, with links to theatre, drama, and performance studies, English literature, feminist theory, (digital) cultural studies, fan and fiction studies, and theatre history and historiography. I would be excited to supervise PhD research that covers any of these areas.

Qualifications

• PhD University of Exeter,

• MA University of Exeter,

• BA(Hon) University of Toronto, Mississauga,

Appointments

University of Essex

• Co-Director of Admissions, Literature, Film, and Theatre Studies, University of Essex (1/4/2021 - present)

Other academic

• Teaching Associate, Theatre, University of Bristol (1/9/2019 - 10/6/2020)

• Associate Lecturer, Drama, University of Exeter (24/9/2018 - 1/6/2019)