EDUCATION
Ph.D. English, The Graduate Center, CUNY, 2019
Dissertation: “Queer Pregnancy in Shakespeare’s Plays”
M.A. English, Appalachian State University, 2012, summa cum laude
Thesis: “‘I kissed thee ere I killed thee’: Performing Race and Gender in William Shakespeare’s Othello and Richard Wright’s Native Son”
B.A. English, minor in Psychology, Mars Hill University, 2010, summa cum laude
ACADEMIC PUBLICATIONS
“Teaching Premodern Texts in “Race, Science, and Reproduction.” Reproductive Justice after Roe: Lessons from the Premodern Classroom. Eds. Valerie Traub, Maeve Callan, and Emma Maggie Solberg. Medieval Academy. (abstract accepted, in process)
“Beyond Failure: Women and Addiction in the Academy.” Women, “Failure” and Academia Post-2020, a Kick Ass Project. Eds. Rosa García-Periago and Marina Cano. Bloomsbury Gender and Education. (abstract accepted, in process)
“Meanings and Representations.” Cultural History of Pregnancy and Childbirth in the Early Modern World. Ed. Jennifer Kosmin. Bloomsbury. (forthcoming)
“Hippolyta; Aegle; Amazons; Antiopa; Ariadne; Janus; Penthesilea; Perigenia; Theseus.” Shakespeare’s Dictionary of Classical Myth. Arden, Bloomsbury. (forthcoming)
“Postpartum Exhaustion in William Shakespeare’s The Winter’s Tale.” Culture and Medicine: Critical Readings in the Health and Medical Humanities. Eds. Rishi Goyal and Arden Hegele. Bloomsbury. 2022.
“Giving Shape to “Airy Nothings”: The Indian Votaress in Julie Taymor’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream.” Special Issue: Offending Spirits: Traditions of Performance and A Midsummer Night’s Dream. Eds. Natalia Khomenko and Sarah Crover. Shakespeare Bulletin, volume 4, issue 2, 2022.
“‘For her sake’: Queer Pregnancy in A Midsummer Night’s Dream.” Shakespeare Studies, vol. 47, 2019, 105-11.
“Blue Roses and Other Queer Energies in Tennessee Williams’s The Glass Menagerie.” The Tennessee Williams Annual Review, vol. 16. 2017, 36-56.
Public Facing ScholarshiP AND MEDIA APPEARANCES
New Books Network (Academic Life Podcast). “Inside Addiction and Sobriety in Academia: A Discussion with Alicia Andrzejewski.” 2024
The Huffington Post. “I’m Struggling To Get Sober, And Working In Academia Only Makes It Harder.” 2023
Insider. “My own mother said I was a bad mom, but I chose to forgive her for mom-shaming me.” 2023
Write or Die Mag. “Big Enough to Hold All of the World’s Tears: On Losing a Literature Teacher.” 2023
Electric Lit. “In Defense of Sophie Turner, It’s Nearly Impossible to Be a ‘Good Mother.’” 2023
The Chronicle. “Academics Don’t Talk About Our Mental Illnesses. We Should.” 2023
The Boston Globe. “Ode to Bad Mothers.” 2023
New Books Network (Academic Life Podcast). “Academic Ghosting: A Discussion with Alicia Andrzejewski.” 2023
The Chronicle. “The Sad Humiliations of Academic Ghosting.” 2023
The Huffington Post. “What Black Playwrights Taught Me About Shakespeare.” 2022
Electric Lit. “Shakespeare Already Wrote About What Happens When Women Don’t Have Bodily Autonomy.” 2022
The Chronicle. “When Students Harass Professors.” 2022
American Theater. “Contemporary Plays, Teaching From the Page as Well as the Stage.” 2021
The Chronicle. “The ‘Combover Subject’: What Lauren Berlant Taught Me About the Academy.” 2021
Literary Hub. “The (Semi-Hidden) History of Queer Pregnancy in Literature: on Torrey Peters’s Detransition, Baby, and the Future of Queer Families.” 2021
revue Prostor. “(Tak trochu skryté) literární dějiny queer těhotenství.” 2021
Tropics of Meta. “Pedro’s Theory in the Classroom & the Ongoing Project of Crafting an Otherwise.” 2021
That Shakespeare Life. “Alicia Andrzejewski and 16th Century Pregnancy Tests.” 2020
Virginia Humanities (With Good Reason Podcast). “Friendsgiving: Shakespeare’s Queer Families.” 2019
Synapsis, Contributing Writer. 2017-2020
An interdisciplinary online journal housed at Columbia University that bridges the biological sciences and the humanities, edited by scholars in medicine and literature. I was selected as a regular writer from over 100 applicants and have written fourteen articles for the journal so far. Based on this work, I have been invited to speak for the podcasts Remixing the Humanities and That Shakespeare Life, as well as the public radio show With Good Reason. I have also been interviewed about early modern postpartum practices for a documentary, Always Bring Chocolate, and about the future of “Public Shakespeare” for Jeffrey Wilson’s (Harvard) keynote at the Ohio Valley Shakespeare Conference.
Notable articles:
o “Postpartum Exhaustion in William Shakespeare’s The Winter’s Tale and Now” (April, 2018): resulted in an interview in Vice magazine and is forthcoming in an edited collection compiled by the journal’s editors.
o “An Elegy to Breastfeeding, from Titus Andronicus to Now” (August, 2018): shared by Nicole Cliffe, writer for Slate, Vulture, ELLE, Catapult, and the Guardian, in her weekly newsletter with a link to my author’s page.
o “The Then and There of Transmasculine Pregnancy” (June, 2018): shared by Autostraddle, the world’s most popular lesbian website and cited in two academic publications.
Fellows’ Corner, Contributing Writer. 2016-present
An online journal for Writing Across the Curriculum Fellows at the New York City College of Technology to publish advice and resources for faculty across disciplines incorporating writing into their classrooms.
Notable contributions:
o “Back to Basics: WAC Philosophy and Course Design” (February, 2018): resulted in an invited talk for City Tech’s First Year Immersion program faculty.
o “Dreaming, Blogging, and Inviting Students into the Academic Ballroom” (September, 2016): was assigned to faculty participating in a workshop run by the WAC coordinators.
Visible Pedagogy, Contributing Writer. 2017
A platform for discussions about teaching and learning at CUNY, highlighting the diverse range of teaching and learning activity that takes place across the nation’s largest urban public university system. I was selected to serve as a contributing writer based on my proposal for the series, “Pregnancy and Pedagogy,” which addresses the particular challenges of teaching while pregnant. I have also contributed to the series “Ableism in the Classroom.”
BOOK AND THEATER REVIEWS
“Taylor Mac’s Gary: A Sequel to Titus Andronicus.” Shakespeare Bulletin, vol. 37.4. 2020, 561-564.
“The Child in Shakespeare, by Charlotte Scott.” Renaissance Quarterly. vol. 73. 3. 2020, 1128-1120.
“Premodern Rulers and Postmodern Viewers: Gender, Sex, and Power in Popular Culture, eds. Janice North, Karl C. Alvestad, and Elena Woodacre.” Early Modern Women: An Interdisciplinary Journal. vol. 16, no. 2, Spring 2022, pp. 323–27.
“Humoral Wombs on the Shakespearean Stage, by Amy Kenny.” Renaissance Quarterly. vol. 75. 1. 2022, 361-363.
INVITED TALKS AND HONORS
2023 “Mad Women in Shakespeare: Lady Macbeth’s Rage.” William & Mary’s Gender Studies Women Studies Colloquia. Williamsburg, Virginia.
2023 “Academic Ghosting: Towards an Academy of Truth Telling.” Brain Health Alliance Conference. Zoom.
2023 “Ophelia’s Rue: Shakespeare in Post-Roe America.” The Society for the Study of Women in the Renaissance.
2023 “Contrapower Harassment: When Students Harass Faculty.” University of Michigan. Ann Arbor, Michigan.
2022 “Reproductive Justice in Shakespeare’s Plays.” Stanford Humanities Center’s Arts & Justice Workshop Series. Zoom.
2022 “Contrapower Harassment: When Students Harass Faculty.” James Madison University. Harrisonburg, VA.
2022 “Contrapower Harassment: When Students Harass Faculty.” Keynote Speaker: Fourth Annual Public Summit, Action Collaborative on Preventing Sexual Harassment in Higher Education. The National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, Washington, DC.
2022 “Queer Pregnancy in Shakespeare’s Plays.” Mary Martin McLaughlin Memorial Lecture. University of Nebraska-Lincoln’s Medieval and Renaissance Studies Program.
2021 “Rude-Growing Briars: Queer Pregnancy in Shakespeare’s Plays.” The San Diego Shakespeare Society.
2020 “‘Forbidden Acts”: Teaching Sex, Race, and Queer Family Formations in Titus Andronicus. The Future of Teaching Shakespeare. The Strode Program at the University of Alabama. Tuscaloosa, AL.
2019 “Queer Pregnancy in William Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream. William & Mary. GSWS’s Brown Bag Talks. Williamsburg, VA.
2018 “Trans Bodies and Queer Pregnancy in John Webster’s The Duchess of Malfi.” Bryn Mawr College. Bryn Mawr, PA.
2018 “‘For her sake’: Queer Pregnancy in A Midsummer Night’s Dream.” Next Generation Plenary. Shakespeare Association of America Annual Conference. Los Angeles, CA.
2018 “Who are Today’s Urban Learners?” Panelist. Workshop Series: First Year Learning Communities at the New York City College of Technology. Brooklyn, NY.
2017 “Denotation and Connotation: How Language Shapes Lived Experience.” Townsend Harris High School Lecture Series. Queens, NY.
2016 “Queer Pregnancies in William Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream.” The Society for the Study of Women in the Renaissance. New York, NY.
CONFERENCE PRESENTATIONS AND LEADERSHIP
2023. “Mad Women in Shakespeare: The Jailer’s Daughter.” Seminar: The Two Noble Kinsmen: State of the Play. Shakespeare Association of America. Minneapolis, Minnesota.
2023 “Fruition: Queer Pregnancy in William Shakespeare’s The Winter’s Tale.” Panel (organizer): “Queer Pregnancies and Reproduction: Then and Now.” The Modern Language Association, San Francisco.
2022 “Internal Division: Pregnancy and Passing in William Shakespeare’s Titus Andronicus.” Barnard Medieval and Renaissance Studies Conference, New York.
2022 “Critical Race Theory: Pregnant People of Color in Shakespeare’s Plays.” Panel (organizer): “Reorientations: Critical Theory and Pregnancy.” The Renaissance Society of America, online conference.
2021 “Ophelia’s Rue: Signaling and Staging Early-Stage Pregnancies in Shakespeare’s Plays.” Panel: “Portrayals of Pregnancy in Shakespearean Drama.” The European Shakespeare Research Association, Athens.
2020 “Trifles and Gossip: The Indian Votaress as Favourite in A Midsummer Night’s Dream.” Seminar: The Favourite. Shakespeare Association of America. Denver, CO.
2020 “‘the boy’s with child!: Queer Pregnancy in Thomas Middleton’s More Dissemblers Besides Women.” Queer Pregnancies on the Early Modern Stage. Organizer. The Modern Language Association of America. Seattle, WA.
2019 “Hermione’s “Slippery” Pregnant Body and Sexual Knowledge in The Winter’s Tale.” Seminar: Early Modern Sexual Knowledge. Shakespeare Association of America. Washington, DC.
2019 “The Feminist Ethics of Reading Pregnancy on the Early Modern Stage.” Feminist Ethics on the Early Modern Stage. Renaissance Association of America. Toronto, CA.
2019 “Better to Speak: Strategies for Women and Gender Non-Conforming People Teaching at CUNY.” One-Stop Civil Resistance & GC Student Coalition Day. CUNY Graduate Center, NY.
2018 “Tamora’s ‘Detested Vale’: Monstrous Generation in William Shakespeare’s Titus Andronicus.” MARGIN: Messy Bodies. New York University, NY.
2017 “Abortive Imagery in Richard III.” Seminar: Queer Meter. Shakespeare Association of America. Atlanta, GA.
2016 “Better to Speak: Teaching Workshop.” Co-organizer. The Graduate Center, CUNY.
2016 “Better to Speak: Strategies for Women Teaching in the Humanities.” Co-organizer. The Graduate Center, CUNY.
2015 “‘Gunpowder and Lead’: Attending to Female Anger.” Critical Karaoke. The Graduate Center, CUNY.
2014 “Caravaggio’s ‘David and Goliath’: Communicating Across the Void.” Critical Visualities. The Graduate Center, CUNY.
2013 “‘Planted in Ill’: The Womb and Garden as Collaborative Spaces in Lady Mary Wroth’s Pamphilia to Amphilanthus.” Minding the Body: Dualism and its Discontents. The Graduate Center, CUNY.
2011 “‘I’ll lead’: Restoring the Jailer’s Daughter’s Agency in The Two Noble Kinsmen.” Ohio Valley Shakespeare Conference. Michigan State University.
2009 “‘Unaccustomed Earth’: Illuminations of Human Nature in Jhumpa Lahiri’s Body of Work.” Southern Appalachian Student Conference on Literature. East Tennessee State University.
2009 “Social Psychology and Shakespeare.” State of North Carolina Undergraduate Research & Creativity Symposium. Wilmington, NC.
TEACHING AND OTHER ACADEMIC APPOINTMENTS
William & Mary (2019-present)
Instructor of Record
Black Lives in Shakespeare’s Plays and Beyond
Queer Shakespeare
Black Playwrights, Then and Now
Acts of Care in Early British Literature
Senior Seminar: Queer History and Hauntings (Graduate / Undergraduate)
Queer Memoir and Life Writing
Senior Seminar: Race, Science, and Reproduction
Writing Seminar: Dream Interpretation
Representations of Violence in Shakespeare’s Late Plays
Interpreting Literature: Queer Utopias
Interpreting Literature: Bad Mothers
Supervision
Graduate Committees
Meagan Thompson, American Studies: Comprehensive Examination List: “Queer Theories and Contemporary American Literature”
Undergraduate Committees
Sarah Richman (English): Honors Thesis, Director
Kate Dragonetti (English, Creative Writing): Honors Thesis, Committee Member
Delaney Simchuk (English): Honors Thesis, Committee Member
Jake Beardsley (Philosophy): Honors Thesis, Committee Member
Natalie Berner (English, Creative Writing): Honors Thesis, Committee Member
The Graduate Center, CUNY (2018-19)
Research Assistant for Cathy N. Davidson, Distinguished Professor and Founding Director of the Futures Initiative
New York City College of Technology, CUNY (2016-19)
Writing Across the Curriculum, Senior Fellow
Developed “WAC Digital Initiatives: Writing Intensive Certification,” an online forum allowing faculty to complete the writing intensive certification process and designed and presented numerous faculty and student workshops, from “Developing Your Syllabus for Writing-Intensive Courses” to “Writing Lab Reports.”
Instructor of Record
College Writing: Dream Interpretation
Queens College, CUNY (2012-19)
Instructor of Record
Violent Economies in Shakespeare’s Tragedies and Romances
Aspects of Fiction: Tales of Terror
Gender and Sexuality in Early British Literature
Literature and Place: The Stage
Great Works of British Literature: Ghosts and Ghouls
Great Works of British Literature: Reading Violence
Introduction to Narrative: Human Rights
Introduction to Narrative: Tales of Terror
Introduction to Poetry: Violent Matters and Movements
Writing about Literature: Controversial Texts
Writing about Literature: The Life and Death of the Author
One of the first four sections taught at Queens College, and the materials are available online for future instructors.
Writing about Literature: Writing Violence, Then and Now
College Writing: The Visual World
College Writing: Dream Interpretation
Writing Fellow, College Preparatory Program for Townsend Harris High and Queens College
Co-organized the program’s annual symposium; created and presented workshops on numerous topics, from developing Calls for Papers to preparing and presenting conference papers; and conducted personal statement writing workshops for college application season.
Assistant Director of First Year Writing
Scheduled and managed the department’s observations; developed and ran workshops for new teaching fellows and adjuncts, most notably “Challenges in Web-Enhanced Composition Courses”; and maintained the college writing website.
Instructor, Queens School of Inquiry College Immersion Program
Taught and developed a week-long “Introduction to Poetry” course for 7th graders, teaching them a wide variety of poems and songs, from Shakespeare’s “Sonnet 130” to Beyoncé and Kendrick Lamar’s “Freedom.”
The Harry Van Arsdale Jr. Center for Labor Studies, SUNY (2012-19)
Instructor of Record
Children’s Literature
Introduction to College Learning
Gender and Sexuality in 18th Century Literature
Introduction to Literature: Short Stories
“I defy you”: American Poetry’s Women of Color
Writing Coach
Appalachian State University (2010-12)
Instructor of Record
College Writing
Graduate Teaching Assistant
Renaissance Literature and the Bible
Renaissance Literature: Gender and Sexuality
British Literature Survey II
Mars Hill University (2006-10)
Teaching Assistant
Freshman Seminar: Globalization
Freshman Seminar: How to Make Straight A’s in College
Editor of The Cadenza, MHU’s literary and art publication