EDUCATION

University of California, Davis, California

PhD, MA, English

Louisiana State University, Baton Rouge, Louisiana

BA, Major: English & Minors: Political Science & French; Graduated with highest honors

Lafayette High School, Lafayette, Louisiana

RESEARCH INTERESTS

My dissertation, Not a Whore: The Defense against Sexual Slander in Early Modern English Romances, investigates literary representations of sexual slander that are influenced by both gender and genre.  Whereas female characters in certain genres like tragedy are likely to face ignominious or catastrophic outcomes if they are sexually slandered (whether or not they have done anything to provoke reputation-damaging gossip), female characters in other genres, especially those written in the mode of romance, are able redeem their reputations after facing sexual slander.  My dissertation argues that romance’s engagement with a defense against sexual slander works in two directions: it aligns romance with the genre of the literary defense and it further establishes the link between genre of romance and the feminine that both early modern and contemporary literary theorists have postulated.

I argue that authors used representations of sexual slander to explore potential problems for their own literary reputations.  Representations of slandered women are a locus for poets who contemplate how their own work could make them vulnerable to slander, but additionally, women’s defenses against slander become a way for the author to structure his or her own defense against a variety of anticipated criticisms or judgments.  A dual representation of slander emerges in this study: reputation is something an author can never fully control (in reality); however, turns of plot and characterization allow for reputation to be restored via an authorial fantasy that is itself a defense against historical realities.

 I focus on romance because this genre, through its formal characteristics of dilation and deferral, is uniquely adapted to representing a variety of viewpoints, including the grievances of the slandered women, a viewpoint that is often silenced in other genres during the early modern period.  My project focuses on a set of writers who explored significant analogies between charges against innocent women and charges against poets and playwrights: Sir Philip Sidney, Edmund Spenser, William Shakespeare, and Lady Mary Wroth. Building on M. Lindsay Kaplan’s argument that certain early modern English authors use a “paradigm of slander” to respond to criticisms of their art and their value to society, I argue that genre impacts the way that slander redefines power relationships between an author and his or her critics.

RESEARCH EXPERIENCE 
 
University of California, Davis, California

• Dissertation Research, under direction of Prof. Margaret Ferguson  

 Dissertation title: Not a Whore: The Defense against Sexual Slander in Early Modern English Romances

• M.A. Thesis Research, under direction of Prof. Margaret Ferguson

 Thesis title: "'I'll use that tongue I have': Contested Feminine Speech and Genre in The Winter's Tale."  

• Junior Specialist for ENL 10a, 2013
  

• Graduate Student Research Assistant for Prof. Frances E. Dolan, 2007, 2009

• Graduate Student Research Assistant for Prof. Margaret Ferguson, 2012
  

              
Louisiana State University, Baton Rouge, Louisiana        

• Upper Division Honor’s Thesis, under supervision of Dr. Michelle Zerba    

 Thesis title: "Stella, Elizabeth and the Dark Lady: The Character of the Beloved Mistress in Elizabethan Sonnet Sequences" 

• Research Assistant for Amanda LaFleur, Coordinator of Cajun Studies  

 Project: Transcription and editing of databases for The Louisiana Lexicographical Database

• Undergraduate Research Assistant for Dr. Rita Culross,      

 Project: "Student perceptions of the International Baccalaureate Program: A First-Year  Perspective"

TEACHING EXPERIENCE 

Lecturer

FRE 1, Elementary French, 2013 (Spring)

ENL 3, Introduction to Literature, 2013 (Winter)

Teaching Assistant Consultant

Pedagogy Workshop, "Power Writing the Paragraph," 2012 (Fall)

Associate Instructor

ENL 10a, Literature in English before 1700, 2012 (Winter)

ENL 3, Introduction to Literature, 2011 (Fall)

UWP 101, Section 10, Advanced Expository Writing, 2011 (Summer)

ENL 10a, Literature in English before 1700, 2011 (Winter)

UWP 001, Section 8, Expository Writing, 2010 (Fall)

UWP 001, Section 8, Expository Writing, 2010 (Fall)
ENL 003, Section 21, Introduction to Literature, 2010 (Summer)
ENL 003, Section 7, Introduction to Literature, 2010 (Spring)
ENL 003, Section 6, Introduction to Literature, 2010 (Winter)
ENL 003, Section 6, Introduction to Literature, 2009 (Fall)
ENL 003, Section 12, Introduction to Literature, 2009 (Spring)
ENL 003, Section 8, Introduction to Literature, 2009 (Fall) 
 
Instructor
UWP 001, Section 22, Expository Writing, 2008 (Summer)
UWP 001, Section 5, Expository Writing, 2008 (Spring)
UWP 001, Section 5, Expository Writing, 2008 (Winter)
UWP 001, Section 8, Expository Writing, 2007 (Spring)
UWP 001, Section 3, Expository Writing, 2007 (Winter)
UWP 001, Section 17, Expository Writing, 2006 (Fall)
 
Teaching Assistant 
ENL 46a, Masterpieces of British Literature, Literature before 1700, 2006 (Spring)
ENL 117a, Survey of Shakespeare, Early Shakespeare, 2006 (Winter)
ENL 42a, Introduction to Literary Theory, Approaches to Reading, 2005 (Fall)
 
SacramEducate Learning Center, Sacramento, California        
Lead Writing Instructor
Developed and taught the writing curriculum for students grades 4 through 12

HONORS AND AWARDS 

Outstanding Graduate Student Teaching Award, UC Davis 2012

English Department Summer Dissertation Fellowship Competition, UC Davis 2011

Nominated for the ASUCD Excellence in Education Award, UC Davis, 2011

English Department Dissertation Quarter Fellowship, UC Davis 2011

Office of Graduate Studies Graduate Student Travel Award, UC Davis 2011

Nominated for Outstanding Graduate Student Teaching Award, UC Davis 2011

Research Award for the Consortium of Women and Research, UC Davis 2011
English Department Summer Competitive Grant, UC Davis 2010
Miller Fund Travel Grant, UC Davis 2007-2011 
Mondavi Center Artsbridge Scholar, UC Davis 2006-2007 
Phi Beta Kappa, LSU 2005
Summa Cum Laude, LSU 2005 
Upper Division Honors Distinction in English, LSU 2005 
Sophomore Honors Distinction, LSU 2003
Mu Sigma Rho Junior Year Scholarship from Phi Beta Kappa, LSU 2003 
Chancellor's Future Leaders in Research, LSU 2001-2005 

 PUBLICATIONS AND PRESENTATIONS 

Dawkins, Claire. "Victorious Service in Lady Mary Wroth's Love's Victory." Accepted for publication in Sidney Journal 31.1 (2013).

Dawkins, Claire.  “Female Alliances in the Defense against Sexual Slander.”  The 39th Annual Meeting of the Shakespeare Association of America (SAA).  Bellevue, Washington.  April 7-9, 2011 (Upcoming Conference). Seminar paper for the conference seminar, “The Politics of Female Alliance.”
 
Dawkins, Claire.  “‘I’ll use that tongue I have’: Contested Feminine Speech and Genre in The Winter’s Tale.”  MA Thesis, University of California at Davis, 2010.
 
Dawkins, Claire.  “Paulina's Authorship: Female Authority in The Winter's Tale.” 16th Annual Meeting of the Group for Early Modern Cultural Studies (GEMCS).  Dallas, Texas.  October 22- 25, 2009.  Conference Presentation.
 
Dawkins, Claire.  “The Lost Woman in Shakespeare’s Romances: Perdita and Genre.”  The 36th Annual Meeting of the Shakespeare Association of America (SAA).  Dallas, Texas.  March 13-15, 2008. Seminar paper for the conference seminar, “Romance on the Early Modern Stage.”

Klingler, Thomas A., Amanda J. LaFleur, Laurence Clerfeuille, Claire Dawkins, Ben Forkner, Linda Lehmil, David Rojas. (2008). The Louisiana Lexicographical Database, based on Louisiana French Dictionary & Lexicographical Research (LADICO), ed. Albert Valdman. In La base de données lexicographiques panfrancophone, <http://www.bdlp.org>.
 
Dawkins, Claire.  “‘[As] many as are English, are my children’: Elizabeth I as Mother and the Development of her Subjects’ Subjectivity.”  14th Annual Conference for the Group for Early Modern Cultural Studies (GEMCS).  Chicago, Illinois.  February 22-25, 2007.  Conference Presentation
 
Dawkins, Claire.  “Norton and Sackville’s Gorboduc and Elizabeth I.”  Medieval and Renaissance Studies, Graduate Student Conference.  California State University, Sacramento.  October 14, 2006.  Conference Presentation.
 
Dawkins, Claire. "Stella, Elizabeth and the Dark Lady: The Character of the Beloved Mistress in Elizabethan Sonnet Sequences."  Undergraduate Senior Honors Thesis, Louisiana State University, 2005.
 
Culross, Rita, Claire Dawkins, and Emily Tarver.  “Student perceptions of the International Baccalaureate Program: A First-Year Perspective.” Gifted Education Press Quarterly. 18.3 (2004): 2-6.