Image of Dr Rachel Willie

Dr Rachel Willie

Humanities and Social Science

Faculty of Arts Professional and Social Studies

My research covers seventeenth century literary history and culture. My first book, "Staging the Revolution: drama, reinvention and history, 1647-72" (shortlisted for the University English Early Career Book Prize, 2016) offers a reappraisal of drama, both in terms of live performances and performances on the paper stage. My book argues that, far from 1660 marking a watershed moment as is often asserted in the texts transmitted in the Restoration and assumed to be true by later critics, late seventeenth-century England was concerned with the continuing legacies of recent history and this is revealed in literature printed and disseminated in the period. While researching this book, I became intrigued by the number of anonymous scurrilous pamphlets ‘by the man in the moon’ and I have begun a wider study on ‘long seventeenth-century’ responses to the moon as an embodied and as a philosophical construct. With Kevin Killeen and Helen Smith, both based at the University of York, I co-edited "The Oxford Handbook of the Bible in Early Modern England, c. 1530-1700" (winner of the Roland H. Bainton Prize in Reference Works, 2016). More recently, my research has broadened to consider emotions and the senses by drawing from my interests in material cultures and the relationship between literature and the epistemologies that underpin politics, religion and natural philosophy; this is supported by considering the relationship between literature and history. I have ongoing interests in early modern drama, music, cheap print, publicness, the early modern soundscape, history and cultural history, and the history of ideas.

Before joining LJMU in 2016, I taught at Bangor University, the University of Manchester and the University of York. I have taught extensively across all periods of English literary history and interdisciplinary modules on the relationship between music and text. My teaching is fundamentally dialogic, encouraging students to explore ideas through discussion and analysis as a way to extend and stimulate critical thinking. I would be happy to receive proposals for postgraduate research on early modern literature and culture, especially on early modern drama; early modern prose; seventeenth century political thought; early modern science and religion; performance and the paper stage; adaptation; myth and cultural memory; writing history; materialities.

Degrees

University of York, United Kingdom, PhD in English
King's College London, United Kingdom, MA in English
University of Roehampton, United Kingdom, BA (hons) in English Literature and Music

Certifications

2021, English Association, Fellow
2020, Royal Historical Society, FRHistS
2015, Higher Education Academy, United Kingdom, FHEA

Academic appointments

Reader in Early Modern Literary Studies, Liverpool John Moores University, 2019 - present
Senior Lecturer, Liverpool John Moores Unversity, 2016 - 2019

Highlighted publications

Group TF. 2020. Travel and Conflict in the Early Modern World Gélleri G, Willie R. Routledge 9780367524210

Willie R. 2015. Staging the Revolution Drama, Reinvention and History, 1647-72 Manchester University Press. Manchester 9780719087639 Publisher Url

Killeen K, Smith H, Willie R. 2015. The Oxford Handbook of the Bible in Early Modern England, C. 1530-1700 Oxford University Press. Oxford 9780199686971 Publisher Url

Books (authored)

Preedy CK, Willie R. 2024. Thomas Nashe and Literary Performance Willie R, Preedy CK. Manchester University Press. Manchester 978-1-5261-4946-6

Group TF. 2020. Travel and Conflict in the Early Modern World Gélleri G, Willie R. Routledge 9780367524210

Willie R. 2015. Staging the Revolution Drama, Reinvention and History, 1647-72 Manchester University Press. Manchester 9780719087639 Publisher Url

Killeen K, Smith H, Willie R. 2015. The Oxford Handbook of the Bible in Early Modern England, C. 1530-1700 Oxford University Press. Oxford 9780199686971 Publisher Url

Journal article

Depledge E, Willie R. 2022. Introduction: Performance and the Paper Stage, 1640-1700 Huntington Library Quarterly, 85 :1-10 DOI Publisher Url

Willie RJ. 2022. Ballads, Tudor Vagabonds and Roundhead Reputations: the Restoration After-Life of Cook Laurel Depledge E, Willie R. Huntington Library Quarterly: studies in English and American history and literature, 85 :91-111 DOI Publisher Url Public Url

Clarke D, Li P, de Groot J, Willie RJ, Oakley-Brown L, O'Neill S, Junqueira J, Herrold M, Conti B, Chaudhuri S, Shrank C, Al-Azami L. 2021. How has (or might) social media change(d) our understanding of Spenser and Renaissance literature? Spenser Review, 51 Publisher Url Public Url

Willie RJ. 2017. Sensing the visual (mis)representation of William Laud SPELL: Swiss Papers in English Language and Literature, 34 Publisher Url Public Url

Willie RJ. 2011. Sacrificial Kings and Martyred Rebels: Charles and Rainborowe Beatified Études Épistémè, 20 Publisher Url

Willie RJ. 2008. Spiritual Union and the Problem of Sexuality Milton Studies, 47 :168-184

Book review

Willie R. 2022. Jennifer Linhart Wood, "Sounding Otherness in Early Modern Drama and Travel: Uncanny Vibrations in the English Archive" Archiv, 258 :139-140

Willie R. 2019. Dennis Austin Britton and Melissa Walter, eds, "Rethinking Shakespeare Source Study: Audiences, Authors and Digital Technologies" (Routledge, 2018) Renaissance Quarterly, 72 :1158-1159

Willie R. 2019. Review of Laurenz Lütteken, Music of the Renaissance: Imagination and Reality of a Cultural Practice, trans. James Steichen, (University of California Press, 2019) European History Quarterly, 49 :682-683 DOI Publisher Url

Willie R. 2019. Leah Orr, "Novel Ventures: Fiction and Print Culture in England, 1690-1739" (The University of Virginia Press, 2017) Modern Language Review, 114 :853-854

Willie RJ. 2018. Thomas Traherne in Seventeenth Century Thought, edited by Elizabeth Dodd and Cassandra Gorman (DS Brewer) MLR, :224-226 DOI Publisher Url

Willie RJ. 2017. Paul D. Stegner, "Confession and Memory in Early Modern English Literature: Penitential Remains" Renaissance Quarterly, 70 :399-401 DOI Publisher Url

Willie RJ. 2016. Richard Meek and Erin Sullivan, The Renaissance of Emotion: Understanding Affect in Shakespeare and his Contemporaries Shakespeare Bulletin: a journal of performance, criticism, and scholarship, 34 :187-192 DOI Publisher Url

Willie RJ. 2016. Cary DiPietro and Hugh Grady (eds), "Shakespeare and the Urgency of Now" Modern Language Review, :849-850 DOI Publisher Url

Willie RJ. 2016. Neil Rhodes (ed.) with Gordon Kendal and Louise Wilson, "English Renaissance Translation Theory" Modern Language Review, 111 :536-538 DOI Publisher Url

Willie RJ. 2016. Michael Bryson, "The Atheist Milton" Modern Language Review, 111 :540-41 DOI Publisher Url

Willie RJ. 2016. Sophie Chiari (ed.), "The Circulation of Knowledge in Early Modern English Literature" Renaissance Quarterly, :1572-1574 DOI Publisher Url

Willie RJ. 2015. Maria Teresa Micaela Prendergast, "Railing, Reviling and Invective in English Literary Culture, 1588-1617: The Anti-Poetics of Theater and Print" Modern Language Review, 110 :526-527 DOI Publisher Url

Willie RJ. 2012. Review of West Yorkshire Playhouse’s production of William Shakespeare’s "King Lear", dir. by Ian Brown Shakespeare, 8 :97-91 DOI Publisher Url

Willie RJ. 2010. Kathryn Lowerre, "Music and Musicians on the London Stage, 1695-1705" NTQ: New Theatre Quarterly, 26 :302-303 DOI Publisher Url

Willie RJ. 2009. Review of The Mooted Theatre Company’s production of John Ford’s "’Tis Pity She’s a Whore", dir. by Mark France Shakespeare, 5 :194-197 DOI Publisher Url

Willie RJ. 2008. Ayanna Thompson, "Performing Race and Torture on the Early Modern Stage" Cahiers Elisabethains: late medieval and renaissance English studies, 74 :87-88 DOI Publisher Url

Report

Willie R. 2021. SRS Crowdcast Report Bulletin of the Society for Renaissance Studies

Willie R. 2018. 'SRS in Wales' Bulletin of the Society for Renaissance Studies :11-12

Willie R. 2016. 'The Great Fire of London' as part of ‘Roundtable: Annus mirabilis 2016 Anniversiaries’ The Bulletin of the Society for Renaissance Studies :5-7

Willie RJ, Gelléri G. 2016. Travel and Conflict in the Medieval and Early Modern World Bulletin of the Society for Renaissance Studies :14-15

Willie RJ. 2015. Rediscovering the Sounds of the Renaissance Bulletin of the Society for Renaissance Studies :30-32

Internet publication

Willie R. 2019. Game of Thrones: a song of revenge and redemption Author Url

Willie RJ. 2017. SRS at English Shared Futures Publisher Url

Willie R. 2014. William Shakespeare, "The Two Gentlemen of Verona’" Publisher Url

Willie RJ. 2014. Edmund Spenser, "The Shepherdes Calendar" Publisher Url

Chapters

Willie RJ. 2015. 'All Scripture is given by inspiration of God' : Dissonance and psalmody Killeen K, Smith H, Willie R. The Oxford Handbook of the Bible in Early Modern England, C. 1530-1700 Oxford University Press, USA. Oxford Publisher Url Public Url

Willie RJ. 2013. Viewing the Paper Stage: Civil War, Print, Theatre and the Public Sphere Vanhaelen A, Ward J. Making Space Public in Early Modern Europe Performance, Geography, Privacy Routledge 9781135104665 DOI Publisher Url

Willie R. 2013. Viewing the Paper Stage: Civil War, Print, Theater and the Public Sphere Making Space Public in Early Modern Europe: Performance, Geography, Privacy :54-75 9780415661096 DOI Publisher Url

Willie RJ. Translation Hiscock A, Wilcox H. The Oxford Handbook of Early Modern English Literature and Religion Oxford University Press 9780199672806 Publisher Url Public Url

Willie RJ. Inscribing Textuality: Milton, Davenant, Authorship and the Performance of Print Depledge E, Garrison J, Narcosia M. Making Milton: Writing, Publication, Reception Oxford University Press DOI Publisher Url Public Url

Willie RJ. Lunar travel and lunacy: reading conflict in Aphra Behn’s The Emperor of the Moon (1687) Gélleri G, Willie R. Travel and Conflict in the Early Modern World Routledge 9780367524210 Publisher Url Public Url

Willie RJ. William Cavendish: Virtue, Virtuosity and the Image of the Courtier Hopkins L, Rutter T. A Companion to the Cavendishes Writing, Patronage, and Material Culture Arc Humanities Press Public Url

Willie RJ. "I thought my blood derived a Crown to us, / But now I find it derives only Treason": Remembering and Forgetting the civil war Bayer M, Navitsky J. Shakespeare and Civil Unrest in Britain and the United States Routledge 9780367741952 DOI Publisher Url Public Url

Willie R. Thomas Nashe beyond the grave Preedy CK, Willie R. Thomas Nashe and Literary Performance Manchester University Press. Manchester 978-1-5261-4946-6 Publisher Url

Books (edited)

Performance and the Paper Stage, 1642-1700 Willie R, Depledge E.

Performance and the Paper Stage, 1642-1700 Willie R, Depledge E.

Conference organisation:

Society for Renaissance Studies 10th Biennial Conference, Co-Organiser, https://www.rensoc.org.uk/event/srs-10th-biennial-conference/. 2023

Soundscapes in the Early Modern World, Organiser, https://emsoundscapes.co.uk/conference/. 2021

Performance and the Paper Stage, 1640-1695 seminar, Shakespeare Association of America 45th Annual Meeting, Atlanta. 2017

Early modern Wales: Space, Place and Displacement, Organiser. 2016

Travel and Conflict in the Medieval and Early Modern World, co-organiser. 2015

Conference presentation:

‘Worldmaking, soundmaking, moonmaking’, ‘Lend an Itching Ear’: Ubiquitous Music in Early Modern England Conference, Newcastle University, Oral presentation. 2023

‘Knowledge, Doubt and "The Man in the Moon"’, Sheffield Hallam – Bangor Early Modern Studies Seminar, Online, Oral presentation. 2022

‘Trust, Risk, and Vulnerability in Paradise Lost, ‘Vulnerability and Pastoral Care: John Milton, Richard Baxter, and Roger L’Estrange’ panel, Renaissance Society of America Annual Meeting, Dublin, Oral presentation. 2022

Chair and respondent, ‘Renaissance Music: Performativity and Failure’,, Renaissance Society of America Annual Conference, Dublin, Oral presentation. 2022

‘Discord untie her tongue’: sounding (e)motion in John Lyly’s The Woman in the Moon (1597),, Soundscapes in the Early Modern World, LJMU/Online, Oral presentation. 2021

Bodies and (e)motion in John Lyly’s "The Woman in the Moon (1597)"’, CUSO Workshop: Literary Utopia / Dystopia, Online, University of Neuchâtel, Switzerland (invited), Oral presentation. 2021

Bodies and (e)motion in John Lyly’s "The Woman in the Moon" (1597), CUSO Workshop: Literary Utopia / Dystopia, University of Neuchâtel, Switzerland (online, invited speaker), Oral presentation. 2021

“The Obiect of the Eare, doe affect the Spirits”: Meditation, Memory, and Reading with your Ears, Edinburgh Early Modern Network, Edinburgh/online, Oral presentation. 2020

Respondent: Acoustic Heritage and Hearing Archives, Sound Affects 1, York/Online, Oral presentation. 2020

Prorogation, Exclusion and Crisis: Shakespeare appropriation in John Crowne’s "The Misery of Civil War" (1681), Shakespeare Association of America 48th Annual Conference, Denver (moved online), Oral presentation. 2020

Nicolas Bownde, "The Doctrine of the Sabbath", (1595): reading with your ears, Reading the Reformation Conference (Invited Speaker), Chetham’s Library, Mancheste, Oral presentation. 2019

‘“His Time was short, and yours is coming on; Old Oliver had his”: remembering and forgetting the civil war’, Bangor Conference on the Restoration, Bangor University, Oral presentation. 2019

‘“both of one humour”: excess passion in The Rover’, Approaches to Aphra Behn’s The Rover: Text, Teaching and Performance’, Shakespeare Association of America 47th Annual Conference (invited speaker), Washington DC, Oral presentation. 2019

‘William Cavendish, Virtue, Virtuosity, and the Image of the Courtier’, Literature and the Early Modern State (invited speaker), Magdalene College Cambridge, Oral presentation. 2019

Under the Rose: Architecture and Secrecy at Speke Hall, Public lecture with Serena Korda, The Bluecoat, Oral presentation. 2019

Chair, moderator and closing remarks, roundtable discussion, The Architecture of the Soundscape Workshop, University of British Columbia, Oral presentation. 2019

‘Voices, Books and Music’s Effects’ panel, Early Modern Global Soundscapes’, University of York, Chair and Respondent. 2019

‘Rogues, Roundheads and Royalist Satire: Singing the Restoration’, Centre for Renaissance and Early Modern Studies Research Seminar (invited speaker), University of York, Oral presentation. 2019

Early Modern Sermons: Performances and Afterlives, closing roundtable discussion, Early Modern English Preaching c.1500-c.1700, University of Sheffield, Roundtable. 2018

‘“I found then by this experience that which no Philosopher ever dreamed of”: Knowledge, Doubt and the Moon’, Plague, Pastors and Lunatics: Religion and the Circulation of Knowledge panel, Society for Renaissance Studies 8th Biennial Conference, University of Sheffield, Oral presentation. 2018

‘“These be the humours that content me best”: time and [e]motion in John Lyly’s "The Woman in the Moon"’,, Time and Emotion Seminar, Shakespeare Association of America 46th Annual Conference, Los Angeles, Oral presentation. 2018

Inscribing Textuality: Milton, Davenant, Authorship and the Performance of Print, Making Milton: Print, Politics and Genre, Renaissance Societry of America Annual Conference, New Orleans, Oral presentation. 2018

Rumps, Songs and Revelry: the Stuart Restoration and Arbitrary Period Boundaries, CUSO Workshop: Restoration and the Long Eighteenth Century: Concept and Metaphor (Invited Speaker), University of Geneva, Switzerland, Oral presentation. 2017

‘he must be a Prelate as the Beast is’: Pope Laud, Remembering the Reformation, University of Cambridge, Oral presentation. 2017

‘he must be a Prelate as the Beast is’: Anti-Laudian Revelation, English Research Seminar (invited speaker), LJMU, Oral presentation. 2017

Private Grief and Public Passions: Anatomising the King's Two Bodies, QMCRLE / CEMMN.net joint Research Seminar (invited speaker), Queen Mary, University of London, Oral presentation. 2016

”Were not their eares to them, as pretious as your nostrils can be to you”: Sensing Trust, Sensing Authority, Trust and Risk in Literature network meeting (invited speaker), University of Yamanshi, Kofu, Japan, Oral presentation. 2016

Primates and portraits: the Visual (Mis)representation of William Laud, SAMEMES Conference: What is an Image in Medieval and Early Modern England?, University of Zurich, Oral presentation. 2016

Family Ties and Textual Ruptures: Representing Rupert of the Rhine in the English Civil War, Society for Renaissance Studies 7th Biennial Conference, Glasgow University, Oral presentation. 2016

'Against his better knowledge not deceived': Trust, risk and the rhetoric of affect in "Paradise Lost", Trust and Risk in Literature network meeting, Aarhus University, Denmark, Oral presentation. 2016

Anatomizing the King’s Two Bodies: Regicide and Bloody Passions, Bloody Passions: Extreme Emotions in Early Modern Literature and Culture, University of Portsmouth, Oral presentation. 2015

Private Grief and Public Passion: Remembering and Reinventing the English Civil War, Compassion in Early Modern Culture conference (1550-1700), University of Amsterdam, Oral presentation. 2015

“Without meditation all reading is vaine”: Hearing, Seeing and Sensing Words, Voices and Books 1500-1800, University of Newcastle, Oral presentation. 2015

Re/De-Polluting the Body Politic: Ballads on the Stage and Page, Shakespeare Association of America 43rd Annual Conference, Vancouver, Oral presentation. 2015

Lunar Travel and Lunacy: Reading the Early Modern Moon, School of English Literature Research Seminar (invited speaker), Bangor University, Oral presentation. 2015

Old/New World Immunity: Mediating Kingship in "The History of Sir Francis Drake" (1659), Renaissance Society of America 61st Annual Conference, Berlin, Oral presentation. 2015

The past, present and future of Milton Studies Roundtable Discussion, British Milton Seminar (invited speaker), Birmingham, Oral presentation. 2014

‘“this reading of books is a pernicious thing”: Journeys of the Mind in The Emperor of the Moon (1687), Society for Renaissance Studies 6th Biennial Conference, University of Southampton, Oral presentation. 2014

Restoring Rogues: Tudor Vagabonds and Roundhead Reputations, Early Modern Soundscapes, Bangor University, Oral presentation. 2014

Allegorical Uncertainty in "The Cruelty of the Spaniards in Peru" (1656), Images of Kingship in Britain and Ireland, 1649-1714, Bangor University, Oral presentation. 2013

Pope Laud, Popes and the Papacy in Early Modern English Culture, University of Sussex, Oral presentation. 2013

“The isle is full of noises”: Reconceptualising The Tempest, Shakespeare Association of America 41st Annual Conference, Toronto, Oral presentation. 2013

“Of two good playes to make one bad”: Restoring Shakespeare, On Page and Stage: Shakespeare, 1590-1890, Bangor University, Oral presentation. 2012

:‘New-Modelled Masques: (Re)presenting Colonialism in Late Seventeenth Century Entertainments, Institute for Medieval and Early Modern Studies (IMEMS), (invited speaker), Wales-wide videolink, Oral presentation. 2012

Reformed Drama: William Davenant and Literary Aesthetic, Society for Renaissance Studies 5th Biennial Conference, University of Manchester, Oral presentation. 2012

The Royal Actor Revisited: Regicide, Narrative and Cultural Memory, Shakespeare Association of America 40th Annual Conference, Boston, Oral presentation. 2012

Two Kings and No Bodies: Debating the Body Politic, The Royal Body conference, Royal Holloway, University of London, Oral presentation. 2012

:Inscribing Textuality: Milton, Anti-theatricalism and the Performance of Print’, British Milton Seminar, Birmingham, British Milton Seminar (invited speaker), Birmingham, Oral presentation. 2012

Editorial boards:

Renaissance Studies, Editorial Board Member, https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/journal/14774658. 2023

Renaissance Studies, Book Reviews Editor, http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/journal/10.1111/(ISSN)1477-4658. 2014

Etudes Epistémè, Member of Scientific Committee, http://episteme.revues.org/. 2011

Membership of professional bodies:

Fellow, English Association, http://www.englishassociation.ac.uk/. 2021

Fellow, Royal Historical Society, https://royalhistsoc.org/. 2020

Member (and Council Member), Society for Renaissance Studies.

Member, Renaissance Society of America.

Member, Shakespeare Association of America.

Other invited event:

CUSO Workshop: Literary Utopia / Dystopia, University of Neuchâtel, Switzerland (invited speaker), Lecture and the facilitating of a seminar mainly for PhD candidates and postdoctoral researchers as part of a workshop organised under the auspices of the Conference Universitaire de Suisse Occidentale (CUSO) network of Swiss Universities. 2021

CUSO Workshop: Restoration and the Long Eighteenth Century: Concept and Metaphor, University of Geneva, Switzerland, Lecture and the facilitating of a seminar mainly for PhD candidates and postdoctoral researchers as part of a workshop organised under the auspices of the Conference Universitaire de Suisse Occidentale (CUSO) network of Swiss Universities.. 2017

Award:

London Renaissance Seminar Contributor Award, Winner in the mid-career category, awarded to scholars who have made a significant contribution to research and also in recognition of collegiality, creativity and openness to ideas beyond the mainstream.. 2020

Roland H. Bainton Prize in Reference Works for "The Oxford Handbook of the Bible in Early Modern England, c. 1530-1700", Sixteenth Century Society Prize and Conference, https://www.sixteenthcentury.org/prizes/bainton/. 2016

External committees:

Council, Society for Renaissance Studies, Honorary Secretary, https://www.rensoc.org.uk/. 2020

Council, Society for Renaissance Studies, Trustee, http://www.rensoc.org.uk/. 2018

Research Grants Awarded:

Arts and Humanities Research Council, Soundscapes in the Early Modern World, Emilie Murphy, University of York, Grant value (£): 45,474, Duration of research project: 19 Months. 2018

External collaboration:

Lancaster University, ESSE Bid-Writing Workshop: Trust and Risk: Early Modern Experiences. 2017

http://projects.au.dk/trust-and-risk-in-literature-network/, Aarhus University, Trust and Risk in Literature Research Network (funded by the Danish Research Council). 2015

https://academicbookfuture.org/, UCL, The Academic Book of the Future (individual collaborator). 2015

http://makingpublics.mcgill.ca/, McGill University, Making Publics Project (joined project in 2009). 2005

External PGR Supervision - completed students:

Bangor University, PhD, Identity, Language and Landscape in Early Modern Literature from Wales and the Marches.. 2017

Teaching qualification:

FHEA. 2015

Fellowships:

Folger Short Term Fellowship, Folger Shakespeare Library, Washington DC. 2011

MaPs Summer Fellow, McGill University, Montreal. 2009

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