Position Title
Professor of English
Position Title
Professor of English
Office Hours
M 11am-1pm in the DataLab, 3rd floor, Shields Library and by appointment
Bio
Biography:
Ph.D., University of Michigan
M.A., University of Michigan
Certificate in Women's Studies, University of Michigan
B.A., University of Pennsylvania
Gina Bloom joined the UC Davis English faculty in 2007 and has since become affiliated faculty with the PhD programs in Education and Performance Studies. Her areas of interest include early modern English drama (especially Shakespeare), gender and feminist theory, theater history and performance studies, game studies, digital arts/humanities, and education.
Books:
Edited Volumes:
Selected Digital Projects and Publicly Engaged Research:
- Gina Bloom, Evan Buswell, Nicholas Toothman, Colin Milburn, and Michael Neff, Play the Knave. Software for 3D motion capture digital game about Shakespeare performance (ModLab, 2020). Open access at https://www.playtheknave.org/download.html.
- Awards:
- Winner, Best AR/VR Game, Meaningful Play Conference (2022)
- Finalist, GEE! Learning Game Award, Small & Indie Studio division, Play Make Learn Conference (2023).
- Winner, Shakespeare Publics Award, Shakespeare Association of America (2025)
- International press "Reimagining Shakespeare's Plays as Virtual Reality Game." BBC News (Apr. 16, 2016).
- Awards:
- Gina Bloom and Lauren Bates, “Blood Will Have Blood.” Available at https://shakesperiment.tome.press/chapter/teaching/ . Comprehensive curriculum that uses theatre-based activities, the video game Play the Knave, classroom discussions, and creative assignments to teach critical reading, thinking, writing, and listening skills while also helping students explore violence in Shakespeare’s tragedies and in their own communities today. Designed for use primarily in secondary schools in the United States and South Africa, though adaptable to other contexts. Outreach to classrooms involves working directly with teachers to implement the lessons and organizing free loans of the equipment. Outreach to teachers involves organizing and running workshops on play-based pedagogy.
- Nicholas Toothman, Gina Bloom, Evan Buswell, and Colin Milburn: "Mekanimator Scriptmaker," software program for creating karaoke scripts (ModLab, 2020). Open access at http://modlab.ucdavis.edu/scriptmaker.
Selected Articles and Book Chapters:
- Gina Bloom, “Classroom Play: Strategies for Teaching Shakespeare with Games.” In Shakespeare/ Play, ed. Emma Whipday (The Arden Shakespeare, 2023).
- Gina Bloom and Amanda Shores, “Play the Knave Theatre Videogame in Schools: From Glitchy Connections to Virtual Collaboration.” In Reimagining Shakespeare Education: Teaching and Learning through Collaboration, ed. Liam E. Semler, Claire Hansen, and Jacqueline Manuel (Cambridge University Press, 2023).
- Gina Bloom and Lauren Bates, “Play to Learn: Shakespeare as Decolonial Praxis in South African Schools.” Shakespeare in Southern Africa 34 (2021): 7-22.
- Gina Bloom, Nicholas Toothman, and Evan Buswell, “Playful Pedagogy and Social Justice: Digital Embodiment in the Shakespeare Classroom.” Shakespeare Survey 74 (2021), special issue on Shakespeare and Education.
- Gina Bloom, “Play the Knave.” In Learning, Education, and Games, Volume 3: 100 Games to Use in the Classroom and Beyond. Ed. Karen Schrier (ETC Press, Carnegie Mellon University, 2019).
- Gina Bloom,“Theater History in 3D: The Digital Early Modern in the Age of the Interface.” English Literary Renaissance, special issue on “The State of Renaissance Studies II,” 50.1 (2019).
- Gina Bloom, Sawyer Kemp, Nicholas Toothman, and Evan Buswell, “‘A Whole Theatre of Others’: Amateur Acting and Immersive Spectatorship in the Digital Shakespeare Game Play the Knave.” Shakespeare Quarterly 67.4 (2016), special issue on “#Bard,” ed. Douglas Lanier.
- Gina Bloom, “Time to Cheat: Chess and The Tempest’s Performative History of Dynastic Marriage.” In A Handbook of Shakespeare and Embodiment: Gender, Sexuality, Race, ed. Valerie Traub (Oxford University Press, 2016).
- Gina Bloom, “The Historicist as Gamer.” In Shakespeare in our Time: The SAA 2016 Volume, eds. Dympna Callaghan and Suzanne Gossett (Bloomsbury/Arden, 2016)
- Gina Bloom. “Videogame Shakespeare: Enskilling Audiences through Theater-Making Games,” Shakespeare Studies 43 (2015), special forum on “Skill,” ed. Evelyn Tribble.
- Gina Bloom, Anston Bosman, and William N. West. “Ophelia’s Intertheatricality, or, Why Performance is History.” Theatre Journal 65 (2013).
- Gina Bloom, “Games,” in Early Modern Theatricality, Oxford Twenty-First Century Approaches to Literature, Henry S. Turner, ed. (Oxford University Press, 2013).
- Gina Bloom, "'My Feet See Better Than My Eyes: Spatial Mastery and the Game of Masculinity in Arden of Faversham's Amphitheatre." Theatre Survey 53.1 (2012).
- Gina Bloom, “‘Boy Eternal’: Aging, Games, and Masculinity in The Winter’s Tale,” in English Literary Renaissance 40:3 (2010).
- Gina Bloom, “Manly Drunkenness: Binge Drinking as Disciplined Play,” in Masculinity and the Metropolis of Vice, 1550-1650, Amanda Bailey and Roze Hentschell, eds. (Palgrave, 2010).
- Gina Bloom, "Words Made of Breath: Gender and Vocal Agency in King John." Shakespeare Studies 33 (2005).
- Gina Bloom, "Localizing Disembodied Voice in Sandys' Translation of 'Narcissus and Echo.'" In Ovid and the Renaissance Body, ed. Goran Stanivukovic (Toronto University Press, 2002).
- Gina Bloom, "'Thy Voice Squeaks': Listening for Masculinity on the Early Modern Stage." Renaissance Drama 29 (2000).