Edel Lamb

My research focuses on early modern literature (especially drama), Shakespeare, Renaissance theatre, and childhood studies. 

Renaissance childhoods and performance cultures are central to my research.   I have received fellowships from the Australian Research Council, the Irish Research Council, the Arts and Humanities Research Council (UK) and the Huntington Library (USA) to pursue my work on these topics.  I have written two books, Performing Childhood in the Early Modern Theatre (2009) and Reading Children in Early Modern Culture (2018), which offer new understanding of early modern childhood through an analysis of the children’s playing companies and the child as reader.  Findings of this research have also been published in Ben Jonson Journal (2008), Literature Compass (2010), The New Companion to Renaissance Literature and Culture (ed. Michael Hattaway, 2010), The Child in British Literature (ed. Adrienne Gavin 2012), and Renaissance Drama (2016).  Further essays are forthcoming in Shakespeare Bulletin (2020) and The Cambridge History of Children's Literature (2022).  I am currently working on a new project on girls and early modern literary cultures.

I have developed my interest in Shakespeare and performance through essays on 1 Henry IV (2011) and ‘Shakespeare and the Renaissance Stage’ in The Edinburgh Companion to Shakespeare and the Arts, ed. Mark Burnett, Adrian Streete and Ramona Wray (2012) .  I am developing a project with Dr Kate Flaherty (ANU) and Assoc. Prof. Fiona Ritchie (McGill University) on Shakespeare and riot.  Early findings of this research have been published in a special issue of Shakespeare (2018) and Australian Studies (2012), and are forthcoming in an essay for Shakespeare's Audiences, ed. Peter Kirwan and Matteo Pangallo.

I teach on the following modules:

ENG1001 English in Transition

ENG2050 Shakespeare & Co.

ENG3181 Renaissance Performance, Gender, Space

ENG7024 Shakespearean Childhoods

I am PGR Lead for English.