Dr. Mary Jane Chaffee
Professor of English
Location
Main Campus
Building
Carter Hall
Room
216
UPO
914
Education:
1972 Cum Laude Bachelors of Arts from Vassar College, majoring in English literature and creative writing.
1980 320-page Master’s thesis in Shakespearean stage history, Five Political Productions of Coriolanus, from the Shakespeare Institute, University of Birmingham and Stratford-upon-Avon, England. Pursued research at the Shakespeare Centre, Birmingham Shakespeare Collection, Victoria and Albert Museum, Garrick Club, and National Theater.
1986 125-page PhD thesis, The Christian Hero in the Eighteenth-Century novel, from the University of Iowa. Specialized in Eighteenth-Century British Literature, World Drama, and Teaching College Writing.
Work in university-level instruction:
1983-85: Correspondence Course in Shakespeare; designing and teaching Literature Survey and Composition, University of Iowa.
1985-96: Tenured Associate Professor designing and teaching Shakespeare, American Literature Survey, World Literature Survey, Business Writing, and Composition, Westmar College / Teikyo Westmar University.
1996 – present: Tenured Full Professor designing and teaching in-seat or online Shakespeare, Shakespearean Stage History, Christian Fantasy, Chaucer, 17 C Literature, 18 C Literature, The Novel, Contemporary Drama, World Literature, Literary Studies, ESL, Business Writing, Basic Writing, Composition I, and Composition II. Proposed 2 Women’s Studies courses. Designing and teaching online graduate courses in Shakespeare, 17 C, 18 C, and 18 C Novel for Master of Arts program, Campbellsville University.
Awards:
1972: Graduate scholarship from Vassar
1980: Rhetoric Representative for University of Iowa, mentoring fellow graduate students
1994: Teikyo Westmar Faculty Representative for a semester-long teaching post in Maastricht, Netherlands – the one educator selected from a faculty of approximately 100 members
2003: NEH grant – Shakespeare’s Theater Inside and Out – one of 24 scholars nation-wide, with hands-on two-week course at Blackfriars, Staunton, VA and The Globe, London, England
Papers, conferences, and publications:
Presented papers on Lady Mary Wortley Montagu, the Christian Hero in 18 C novels, Rochester, John Kemble’s Coriolanus, and “Macbeth: By Self and Violent Hands.” Attended the World Shakespeare Conference in LA, for which I made a model webpage for teaching Shakespeare, the Ohio Valley Shakespeare Conference, the National Society for Eighteenth Century Studies, the Southeast Society for Eighteenth Century Studies, and the Northeast Society for Eighteenth Century Studies.
Published on the NEH experience with stage techniques, a review of a Cavendish edition for the Northeast Society for Eighteenth Century Studies, and, in the Campbellsville Review, “John Kemble’s Coriolanus” and “Macbeth: By Self and Violent Hands.”
Campbellsville University committees, community- and student-liaison work:
1996-7: Technology Committee
1996-7: Founder, community-based writer’s roundtable
1997: University representative at College English seminar, Florida. In charge of Writing Across the Curriculum survey.
1996 – 2020: member at various times of Christmas, Honors, or Wellness Committees
2010: Participant in North Carolina summer seminar for teaching, along with Sarah Sims, Stan McKinney, and colleagues. Also, participant in WEL weekend on writing, along with Chris Bullock and John Hurtgen.
2017-19: Organizer of Bard’s Birthday Bash – campus-wide event celebrating Shakespeare’s birthday and involving English Department with help from Music, Drama, Art, and Mass Comm departments
2021: Participant in QPR (Question, Persuade, Refer) suicide prevention webinar
2011- present: Co-founder of Mostly Waltz Dance Club for CU and community – club is currently dormant; member St. Mark United Methodist Church, serving as Trustee, on Nominating Committee, and as Sunday School helper
Travel:
Lived in Montevideo, Uruguay 1963-5; Birmingham or London, England 1972-7; studied Junior Year Abroad in York, England 1970-71; one semester in Maastricht, Netherlands 1994; co-sponsor of Paris-London student trip 1995; and have visited Brazil, Spain, France, Greece, Italy, Norway, Sweden, Denmark, Netherlands, Belgium, Luxembourg, Switzerland, England, Ireland, Wales, and Scotland. Speak beginning Spanish, French, and Dutch.