Melinda Gough
Professor, English & Cultural Studies

Dr. Melinda Gough's research interests include early modern literature and culture; feminist, queer, and trans studies; Performance as Research; editing early modern plays; and early modern court studies.

She welcomes graduate supervisees interested in early modern studies; performance studies and performance history; and feminist and gender studies. She also serves on MA and PhD committees in areas ranging from medieval through contemporary studies.

Melinda is a lead investigator with Engendering the Stage in the Age of Shakespeare and Beyond, an international research project that highlights resonances between the history of gendered performance on the early modern stage and our contemporary drive to achieve gender equity in theatre today.

Her first book, Dancing Queen: Marie de Médicis’ Ballets at the Court of Henri IV (University of Toronto Press, 2019), draws on theories and methodologies from a wide variety of disciplines – including literary and cultural studies, history, musicology, dance studies, and women’s and gender studies – to examine the performing arts as a vehicle for politically early modern engaged queenship.

Melinda's recent teaching includes undergraduate courses on Shakespeare as well as graduate seminars such as Engendering the (Queer, Trans, Non-Binary) Early Modern Stage: Then and Now, and Gender, Civility, Race, and Courtliness in Early Modern Europe.

As Editor in Chief of the peer-reviewed journal ( Early Theatre), Melinda also enjoys supervising students (BA through PhD) who serve as paid Editorial Assistants.