Jeffrey Masten
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Jeffrey A. Masten (born June 10, 1964) is an American academic specializing in Renaissance English literature and culture and the history of sexuality. He is the author and editor of numerous books and scholarly articles. Masten's book ''Queer Philologies'' was awarded the 2018 Elizabeth Dietz Prize for the best book in the field of early modern drama by the journal ''SEL: Studies in English Literature 1500–1900.'' He was named a Guggenheim Fellow in English Literature for 2022.


Education and career

Masten earned a B.A. in English literature and music at
Denison University Denison University is a private liberal arts college in Granville, Ohio. One of the earliest colleges established in the former Northwest Territory, Denison University was founded in 1831. The college was first called the Granville Literary and ...
in 1986. He received M.A. and Ph.D. degrees in English literature at the
University of Pennsylvania The University of Pennsylvania (also known as Penn or UPenn) is a private research university in Philadelphia. It is the fourth-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and is ranked among the highest-regarded universitie ...
in 1991, with a Ph.D. dissertation under the direction of Margreta de Grazia and Peter Stallybrass. At Pennsylvania, he was a Mellon Fellow in the Humanities. He began his teaching career in the English Department at Harvard University, where he was Gardner Cowles Associate Professor in the Humanities. At Harvard, Masten was executive secretary and a board member of the English Institute. He became an Associate Professor of English at
Northwestern University Northwestern University is a private research university in Evanston, Illinois. Founded in 1851, Northwestern is the oldest chartered university in Illinois and is ranked among the most prestigious academic institutions in the world. Charte ...
in 1998 and is currently Professor of English and Gender and Sexuality Studies at Northwestern. He has also taught at the Folger Institute of the
Folger Shakespeare Library The Folger Shakespeare Library is an independent research library on Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C., United States. It has the world's largest collection of the printed works of William Shakespeare, and is a primary repository for rare material ...
in Washington, DC. Masten was Director of Northwestern's Gender Studies Program from 2005-2008.


Scholarly publications

Masten's published books and articles include influential and "controversial" writing on Renaissance dramatic collaboration and authorship by Shakespeare and his contemporaries, as well as on the early history of sexuality. In 2012 Masten discovered a previously unknown first-edition copy of
Christopher Marlowe Christopher Marlowe, also known as Kit Marlowe (; baptised 26 February 156430 May 1593), was an English playwright, poet and translator of the Elizabethan era. Marlowe is among the most famous of the Elizabethan playwrights. Based upon the ...
's 1594 play ''
Edward II Edward II (25 April 1284 – 21 September 1327), also called Edward of Caernarfon, was King of England and Lord of Ireland from 1307 until he was deposed in January 1327. The fourth son of Edward I, Edward became the heir apparent to t ...
'', only the second existing copy of the play. He has written influentially on early women's writing in English and on the language of sexuality in early English history. His selected publications include: *
Textual Intercourse: Collaboration, Authorship, and Sexualities in Renaissance Drama
' (Cambridge University Press, 1997) * Editor, with Peter Stallybrass and Nancy J. Vickers,
Language Machines: Technologies of Literary and Cultural Production
' (Routledge, 1997) * Editor, ''An/The Old Law'', by Thomas Middleton, William Rowley, et al., in
Thomas Middleton: The Collected Works
', and
Thomas Middleton and Early Modern Textual Culture: A Companion to the Collected Works
', gen. ed. Gary Taylor et al. (Oxford University Press, 2007) * "Bound for Germany: Heresy, sodomy, and a new copy of Marlowe's ''Edward II''". ''Times Literary Supplement''. Dec. 21 & 28, 2012, pp. 17–19. *
Queer Philologies: Sex, Language, and Affect in Shakespeare's Time
' (University of Pennsylvania Press, 2016). Winner of the 2018 Elizabeth Dietz Memorial Prize for best book in Tudor and Stuart drama. Since 1997 Masten has been a co-editor of the scholarly journal ''Renaissance Drama''.


Awards

Masten is the recipient of fellowships from the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation, Folger Shakespeare Library, Newberry Library, the Mellon Foundation, and the National Endowment for the Humanities (2017). Masten is the recipient of Denison University's Alumni Citation award (2017). At Northwestern, Masten was awarded the E. LeRoy Hall Award for Distinguished Teaching in the Weinberg College of Arts and Sciences (2002–03), named Charles Deering McCormick Professor of Teaching Excellence in 2006, and named Herman and Beulah Pearce Miller Research Professor in Literature in 2009.


Other activities

In Shakespeare studies, Masten served as a trustee of the
Shakespeare Association of America The Shakespeare Association of America (SAA) is a non-profit organization founded in 1972 of professional and independent scholars for the advanced academic study of William Shakespeare's plays and poems and their cultural and theatrical contexts. ...
(2001–03), chairperson of the
Modern Language Association The Modern Language Association of America, often referred to as the Modern Language Association (MLA), is widely considered the principal professional association in the United States for scholars of language and literature. The MLA aims to "st ...
(MLA) Division on Shakespeare, and member of the MLA Committee on the New Variorum Edition of Shakespeare. Masten was a member of the
Denison University Denison University is a private liberal arts college in Granville, Ohio. One of the earliest colleges established in the former Northwest Territory, Denison University was founded in 1831. The college was first called the Granville Literary and ...
board of trustees from 2010-16 and was reappointed to the board in 2017.


References


External links


Masten's Northwestern English Department webpage

MLA Commons webpage
{{DEFAULTSORT:Masten, Jeffrey 1964 births Living people University of Pennsylvania alumni Denison University alumni Harvard University faculty Northwestern University alumni