Emma de Beus

PhD Thesis:

Shakespeare and Light: A New, Interdisciplinary Paradigm for Reading Adaptations through Physics.  

Forthcoming Publications:

• “A Bridge of Empathy: Communicating Science in the Theater in Next to Normal” in Theatre About Science: Performing and Communicating
  • University of Coimbra Press (in press - expected October 2025)
• “Empire Style: Anachronistic Postcoloniality in the Green World Romance of Bridgerton (2020-)” in Twenty-First Century Multiethnic Adaptations of American Literatures
  • SUNY Press (in process - expected 2027)

Queen's University Belfast

• Led weekly seminars for English in Transition (first year students) - Fall 2025
• Led weekly seminars for Issues in Contemporary Fiction: Gender, Race, Ecology (first year students) - Spring 2025
• Led weekly seminar for Shakespeare and Co. (second year students) - Fall 2023 & 2024
• Led weekly seminar for Adventures in the History of Ideas (first year students) - Spring 2024

Columbia University (2016-2018)

• Taught both a Gender and Sexuality themed section and a general one of University Writing
•  Assisted with “Theatre Traditions in a Global Context” 
• Assisted with “Western Theatre Traditions: Modern”

Barnard College - Pre-College Program (2016-2017)

• Created and taught “Shakespeare’s Sheroes” 
• Created and taught “Musical Theater as Literature”

Literary Adaptation (Shakespeare) and Optics (the Physics of Light)

• The benefits of using optics, including optical microscopy, to examine contemporary adaptations of Shakespeare
• Light–through reflection, refraction, polarization, diffraction, and entanglement–as a vehicle for and method of adaptation
• Avenues by which Adaptation Studies can leverage optical microscopy to interrogate its current state of exponential expansion
• Shakespeare and Adaptation Studies as a symbiotic connection between English and Physics

Recent Funding

• Emily Sarah Montgomery Travel Scholarship 2025-26,  Queen’s University Belfast
• Departmental Student Travel Bursary 2025-26,  Arts, English and Language Department at QUB
• Literature/Film Association Travel Award 2025-26,  LFA
• Boost Award 2024-25,  Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences Faculty at QUB
• DramaHE Postgraduate Research Support Scholarship 2024-25,  DramaHE
• Folger Shakespeare Library Travel Grant 2024-25,  Folger Shakespeare Library
• Jetset Award 2024-25,  Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences Faculty at QUB
• International Federation for Theatre Research Conference Bursary 2024-25, IFTR
• Departmental Student Travel Bursary 2024-25,  Arts, English and Language Department at QUB
• National Science Foundation Travel Grant 2024-25,  NSF
• Society for Literature, Science, and the Arts Travel Award 2024-25, SLSA
• Society for Theatre Research Grant 2023-24,  STR
• British Shakespeare Association Conference Bursary 2023-24,  BSA
• Local Skills Development Award 2023-24,  Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences Faculty at QUB
• Jetset Award 2023-24,  Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences Faculty at QUB
• Association of Adaptation Studies Travel Bursary 2023-24,  AAS
• Folger Shakespeare Library Scholarly Programs Grant-in-Aid 2023-24,  Folger Shakespeare Library
• Departmental Student Travel Bursary 2023-24,  Arts, English and Language Department at QUB
• Shakespeare Association of America Travel Grant 2023-24,  SAA
• Emily Sarah Montgomery Travel Scholarship 2023-24,  Queen’s University Belfast
• National Science Foundation Travel Grant 2023-24,  NSF
• Society for Literature, Science, and the Arts Travel Award 2023-24,  SLSA
• DramaHE Postgraduate Research Support Scholarship 2022-23,  DramaHE
• British Shakespeare Association Conference Bursary 2022-23,  BSA
• Emily Sarah Montgomery Travel Scholarship 2022-23,  Queen’s University Belfast
• European Society for Literature, Science, and the Arts Conference Bursary 2022-23,  SLSAeu
• Departmental Student Travel Bursary 2022-23,  Arts, English and Language Department at QUB
• British Society for Literature and Science Conference Bursary 2022-23,  BSLS