Education

Bio

Alexandra E. LaGrand (she/her/hers) is a Ph.D Candidate studying English with certificates in Digital Humanities and Women’s and Gender Studies. She specializes in Shakespearean and British Romantic drama. Her dissertation, tentatively titled “Britain in Breeches: Gender and British Identity in the Romantic Theatre,” explores the phenomenon of women’s genderfluid performance in drama as conveying British culture and identity during the Romantic period. She currently serves as a co-convener of the Digital Humanities Working Group and as the Graduate Student Representative on the Department of English’s Graduate Studies Committee.

Research Interests

• Shakespeare
• Theatre History
• Eighteenth- and Nineteenth-Century British Literature and Culture
• Gender and Sexuality Studies
• Textual Studies
• Digital Humanities

Accomplishments

• “Taming the Tomboy: Child Actresses as Prince Arthur in King John (1842-52).” Nineteenth Century Theatre and Film, vol. 52.1 (invited contribution; manuscript submitted to editors; forthcoming).
• “‘From the text of Shakspeare’: William Charles Macready, King Lear, and the Theatrical Antiquarianism of Locrine.” Journal of the Wooden O, vol. 20.1, 2021

• “‘Mister Macready in little’: Charlotte Cushman, William Charles Macready, and Shakespearean Mentorship.” The Idea of the Shakespearean Actor, eds. Sally Barnden, Emer McHugh, and Miranda Fay Thomas (revisions submitted to editors).

• Shakespeare and the Royal Actor: Performing Monarchy, 1760-1952 by Sally Barnden (Oxford University Press, 2024). Journal of British Studies (forthcoming).
• “Crossdressed Characters in Early Modern European Theatre: A Database by Ana Valdemoros and David Amelang” in David J. Amelang, Rolecall: A Database of Characters in Early Modern European Theatre. Early Modern Digital Review (forthcoming).

• Project Director, Points Like A Man: The Shakespearean Breeches Performance Catalogue, 1660-1900
• Research Assistant, The Maria Edgeworth Letters Project, 2023-2024
• Research Assistant, Digital Restoration Drama, 2023
• Doctoral Fellow, Early Modern Dramatic Paratexts, 2022-2023
• Doctoral Fellow, The World Shakespeare Bibliography Online, 2022-2023

• Glasscock Center of Humanities Research Graduate Research Fellowship, 2024-2025
• Center of Digital Humanities Research Fellowship, 2023-2024
• Early Modern Dramatic Paratexts Doctoral Student Research Fellowship, 2022-2023
• New York Public Library for the Performing Arts Short-Term Research Fellowship, 2022-2023
• World Shakespeare Bibliography Online Doctoral Fellowship, 2022-2023
• Texas A&M Association of Former Students / College of Liberal Arts University Merit Fellowship, 2021

• Honorable Mention, Emerging Researcher Open Scholarship Award, Canadian Social Knowledge Institute (recognized as 1 of 5 international honorees for development of Points Like A Man database) 2024
• Dr. William Barzak Memorial Award for Best Essay in 16th- or 17th-Century Literature, 2023
• Dr. Stanley L. Archer Memorial Award for Best Essay in Renaissance of Early Modern Literature, 2023
• Gordone Creative Writing Award (Poetry), 2023
• Finalist, Best Graduate Student Essay Award, North American Society for the Study of Romanticism, 2023

• “‘And in a dungeon kept’: Gendered Imprisonments in Joanna Baillie’s The Family Legend.” North American Society for the Study of Romanticism Conference, 2023
• “Queen Victoria, William Charles Macready, and the Performance of Resentment in Cymbeline.” North American Victorian Studies Association Conference, 2022
• “Sexualizing Peg as Polly in The Beggar’s Opera.” TxETA Higher Education Research Conference, 2022
• “Staging Turkey on English Stages: Representational Stage Directions in A Mogul Tale and A Day in Turkey.” British Women Writers Association Conference, 2022
• “‘In his old lines again’: John Moore’s Prompt Books of The Merry Wives of Windsor.” All The World’s A Stage Conference, 2022
• “Reconstructing Shakespeare: The Prompt Books of John Moore.” C19: Society for Nineteenth-Century Americanists Conference, 2022
• “Queering Shakespearean Performance History: The Case of Charlotte Cushman.” Shakespeare Association of America Symposium, 2022
• “‘One of Shakespeare’s Queens, and one of our own’: Charlotte Cushman as Queen Katharine in Shakespeare’s Henry VIII.” British Graduate Shakespeare Conference, 2021