Title: Graduate Student

Department: English

Office: Buttrick 3-21: Office Hours M & TH 10-11
Email: bethany.m.packard@vanderbilt.edu

Degrees

• A.B., summa cum laude, Washington University in St. Louis 2005
• M.A. Vanderbilt University 2006

Research Area

• Early Modern, principally drama

Current Research

• Early Modern childhood and hybridity in educational, childrearing, and medical texts and literary ones (as of now, especially Shakespeare and Webster).

Current Courses

• 102W-02: Out of Place, Misplaced, Displaced
• The primary objectives of this course are increased writing confidence and capability. Our work will aim to enrich your writing and critical thinking skills and will focus on the fundamentals necessary for writing thoughtful and articulate college-level papers in this and future courses in all subjects. The readings include travel writing, short stories, investigative pieces, and personal and humorous essays all centering around the theme of being out of place, encountering something unusual, and/or being outside a comfort zone. We will explore writing as a process that includes invention, drafts, and revision. We will also focus on three skills that are key to effective academic writing and the development of critical thought: analysis, argumentation and research.

Current Positions

• Graduate Instructor
• English Graduate Student Association

Professional Societies

• Modern Language Association
• Renaissance Society of America
• Shakespeare Association of America
• Marlowe Society of America
• Southeastern American Society for Eighteenth-Century Studies

Professional Honors

• The College of Arts and Science Summer Research Award 2008
• Graduate Student Paper Prize Winner, Southeastern American Society for Eighteenth Century Studies 2008
• Phi Beta Kappa, Washington University in St. Louis

Biography

Bethany is originally from Ohio and is enjoying her first southern experience.