Research Areas
Early modern drama and literature; gender; women writers
Current Research
My research currently centres on early dramatic representations of soldiers. I am interested in cultural perceptions of soldierly identity – especially as they entwine with constructions of gender – at a time when soldiership was becoming newly professionalized, as evinced by the first significant proliferation of printed manuals in English pertaining to martial training and conduct. My works-in-progress stemming from this research include a book project, Staging Soldiers in Early Modern England, and a scholarly edition of John Fletcher’s play The Tragedy of Bonduca. This seventeenth-century play is the first known dramatic portrayal of the ancient Celtic warrior queen Boudica.
Selected Publications
- “Fletcher’s Humorous Lieutenant, Soldierly Identity, and Disability.” The Ben Jonson Journal 32.2 (2025): 159-75.
- Sarah E. Johnson, ed. "This Stately Ship, Emblem 43" by Hester Pulter (Poem 108, Amplified Edition. The Pulter Project: Poet in the Making, edited by Leah Knight and Wendy Wall, 2026. https://pulterproject.northwestern.edu/poems/ae/this-stately-ship-emblem...
- “The Heretical Woman, the ‘Raging Turk,’ and Martial Figures in Fletcher’s The Tamer Tamed and The Island Princess. Early Modern Literary Studies vol 24, no 1.
- Sarah E. Johnson and Georgina Lucas, eds. Atrocity and Early Modern Drama. London: Bloomsbury, 2025.
- “The Erasure of War Crimes in John Fletcher’s Bonduca,” Atrocity and Early Modern Drama, ed. Johnson and Lucas, pp. 63-91.
- Sarah E. Johnson, ed., “The Caucasines, Emblem 52” by Hester Pulter (Poem 117, Amplifed Edition). The Pulter Project: Poet in the Making, edited by Leah Knight and Wendy Wall, 2025. https://pulterproject.northwestern.edu/poems/ae/the-caucasines-emblem-52...
- “Militant Complaint in Margaret Cavendish’s Bell in Campo.” Women’s Writing, 28.3 (2021):352-67.
- “Pride and Gender in Fletcher’s Bonduca.” Modern Philology 115.1 (2017): 80-104.
- Staging Women and the Soul-Body Dynamic in Early Modern England. Farnham, Surrey: Ashgate, 2014.
- "The Female Body as Soul in Queen Anna's Masques." SEL Studies in English Literature 1500-1900 53.2 (2013): 357-77.
- "'A Spirit to Resist' and Female Eloquence in The TamerTamed." Shakespeare 7.3 (2011): 309-24.
- "'Away, Stand off, I Say': Women's Appropriations of Restraint and Constraint in The Birth of Merlin and The Devil Is an Ass." Early Modern Literary Studies 15.1 (2009): 30 paragraphs.
- "Female Bodies, Speech, and Silence in The Witch of Edmonton." Early Theatre 12.1 (2009): 69-91.
Teaching
Metaphors about writing in the early modern period liken texts to mirrors, feasts, contracts, and bouquets. These metaphors suggest methods of engaging with texts that fit with some of my aims in the classroom: to examine what a text reveals about our culture and society; to approach texts collaboratively, with an appetite, and with an expectation for growth; to consider what demands a text might make on us as readers, and what it means to read and write responsibly; and to cultivate our capacity to appreciate literary creations as works of art.
Courses
- ENE 111-112/121-122: Introduction to Literary Studies and University Writing Skills
- ENE314: Shakespeare’s Peers
- ENE316: From Beowulf to Lancelot: Warriors, Visionaries, and the Medieval World
- ENE318: Medieval Roadtripping: The Canterbury Tales
- ENE428: Screening Shakespeare