Alma College: Faculty List

Dana E. Aspinall

Assistant Professor of English
Joined Alma College Faculty in 2007
Swanson Academic Center 335
(989) 463-7269
Office Hours: MWF 10:30-12:00; TR 9:00-12:00

I encourage students to realize and embrace two wonderful possibilities: that they may be capable of far more than they see in themselves, and that our connections to one another--through our experiences and desires--may provide some answers to our struggles with politics, religious belief, and cultural and personal difference. I use literature, particularly that of the English Renaissance, to illustrate how these possibilities have shaped and motivated us throughout much of our existence.

Although I expect a great deal from my students, I try to make myself available to them so that they do not feel alone in, or overwhelmed by, their studies, nor do they miss out on an opportunity to articulate and argue what they may discover through their reading and thinking. I welcome you to my office and to the world of Early Modern Literary Studies.

Education

Ph.D., University of Connecticut (1996)
M.A., University of South Carolina (1987)
B.A., University of Maine, Fort Kent (1984)

Research Interests

Shakespeare
Shakespeare's Contemporaries
Editing Shakespeare
The English Civil Wars

Recent Courses Taught

ENG 353: The English Renaissance.
ENG 132: Drama.
ENG 320: Critical Theory.

Selected Book Publications

Selected Articles

Dana E. Aspinall. "'I wol thee telle al plat’: Poetic Influence and Chaucer’s Pardoner." Mississippi Studies in English. 11 & 12 (1993-1996), pp. 230-242
Dana E. Aspinall. "The Role of Folk Humor in Seventeenth-Century Receptions of Beaumont’s The Knight of the Burning Pestle." Philological Quarterly. 76.2 (Spring 1997), pp. 169-192

Selected Reviews

Dana E. Aspinall. Review of The Merchant of Venice at The Theater at Monmouth, Shakespeare Bulletin. 27.1 (Spring 2009) March 28, 2009.
Dana E. Aspinall. Review of Shakespeare and Technology: Dramatizing Early Modern Technological Revolutions, by Adam M. Cohen. Sixteenth Century Journal. 39.2 (Summer 2008), 574-575
Dana E. Aspinall. Review of Shakespeare Remains. Theater to Film, Early Modern to Postmodern, by Courtney Lehmann. Sixteenth Century Journal. 34.4 (Winter 2003), pp. 1177-1178
Dana E. Aspinall. Review of Absolutism and the Scientific Revolution, 1600-1720: A Biographical Dictionary, by Christopher Baker, ed. Sixteenth Century Journal. 34.4 (Winter 2003), pp. 1187-1188
Dana E. Aspinall. Review of Elizabethan Literature and the Law of Fraudulent Conveyance: Sidney, Spenser and Shakespeare, by Charles Ross. Sixteenth Century Journal. 36.2 (Summer 2005), pp. 468-469
Dana E. Aspinall. Review of Staging Domesticity: Household Work and English Identity in Early Modern Drama, by Wendy Wall. The Shakespeare Newsletter. 55.3, no. 266 (Fall 2005), pp. 73, 76
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Recent Presentations

Dana E. Aspinall. "The Merchant of Venice at The Theater at Monmouth, as part of the "Reviewing Reviewed" session conducted by Lois Potter." Shakespeare Association of America. Washington, DC. April 9-12.
Dana E. Aspinall. "“The Place of Prologues and Epilogues in Editing Non-Shakespearean Drama”." Shakespeare Association of America Annual Meeting. Hamilton, Bermuda. March 17-20, 2005.
Dana E. Aspinall. "“The Birds and the Bees and the Wasps: Early Modern Representations of Work in The Taming of the Shrew”." Shakespeare Association of America Annual Meeting. Philadelphia, PA. April 13-15, 2006.

Service to the College

Search Committee, Digital Rhetoric Position, Department of English
Faculty Sponsor, Sigma Tau Delta, the International English Honors Society

Faculty List