Kelly Neil's research focuses on early modern drama, gender, and law. Her dissertation project questions how representations of suicide in English drama of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries make visible the ways early modern culture perceived the gendered subject's relationship to the home and state. 

Selected Presentations:

"The Maternal Body and its Boundaries," panel co-organizer, Attending to Early Modern Women Interdisciplinary Conference, Milwaukee, June 2012.

" 'God Before Her Eyes Not Having': Suicide and the Discourse of Possession in Hamlet," Shakespeare Association of America Conference, Boston, April 2011.

"Suicide, Infanticide, and Paternal Identity in King Lear." Shakespeare Association of America Conference, Seattle, April 2011.

"The Performing Suicidal Body and Kaleidoscopic Space." Shakespeare Association of America Conference, Chicago, April 2010.

"Suicide and Samson Agonistes." Group for Early Modern Cultural Studies Conference, Dallas, TX, Oct 2009.

“Suicide, Masculine Self-Identity, and The Tragedie of Bonduca.” PAMLA Conference. Pomona, CA, Nov 2008.

“When the Eyes are Larger than the Stomach: Visual Representation, the Authenticity of Exotic Cuisine, and the Nation.” Home and Abroad: Transnational England 1750-1850 Conference. University of Oxford English Department. Oxford, England, July 2006.

“Traversing the Body: Mary Carey’s Reciprocal Relationship with the Divine.” Group for Early Modern Cultural Studies Conference. San Antonio, TX, Dec 2005.

Awards:

Graduate Student Travel Award, Consortium for Women and Research, UC Davis, 2012

Mellon Fellowship in Early Modern Studies, UC Davis and the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, 2011-2012

Professors for the Future Fellowship, Department of Graduate Studies, UC Davis, 2011-2012

Research Fellowship, Department of Graduate Studies, UC Davis, 2011-2012

Dissertation Quarter Fellowship, English Department, UC Davis, Spring 2011

Graduate Student Travel Award, Shakespeare Assoication of America Conference, April 2010 & April 2011

Research Fellowship, English Department, UC Davis, Summer 2009

Alva Englund Fellowship, English Department, UC Davis, 2007-2008.

Teaching:

Primary Instructor: 

     Enl 10A, English Literature to 1700, 2011

     Enl 3, Introduction to Literature, 2010-2011

     UWP 101, Advanced Composition, 2011

     UWP 01, Expository Writing, 2008-2010

Teaching Assistant:
     RST 1, World Religions, 2009

     Enl 117A, Early Shakespeare, 2008

     Enl 111, Medieval Litearture, 2008

     Enl 115, Great Works of the Renaissance, 2007

 Related Professional Activites:

Teaching Assistant Consultant, Center for Excellence in Teaching and Learning, UC Davis, 2011-2012

Co-chair, UC Davis Early Modern Research Cluster, 2008-2010

Member, Social Events Committee, English Graduate Student Association, UC Davis, 2008

Project Coordinator, UC Davis ArtsBridge Program, 2007-2008