Staff profile

Overview

I joined the Department of English Studies as Assistant Professor in Early Modern Literature, 1500-1700 in September 2021. My main research interests include Shakespeare, early modern drama, and theater history, as well as the intellectual culture and classical heritage of the early modern period. My first monograph, Shakespeare and University Drama in Early Modern England, was published by Oxford University Press in 2023. This book explores the relationship between the Shakespearean stage and the tradition known as ‘university drama’: student theatrical performances at universities during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. By placing Shakespeare’s works in conversation with these student plays, Shakespeare and University Drama in Early Modern England provides both new readings of canonical plays and fresh insight into the theatrical activities of the early modern English universities. My published articles have appeared in a number of academic journals including The Review of English Studies, Renaissance Quarterly, and Renaissance Studies. I have also written about Shakespeare and theater for the Los Angeles Review of Books, the Times Literary Supplement, the Folger Library's Shakespeare & Beyond Blog, OUPblog, and Harvard Magazine.

Among other administrative roles, I am the Department's Chair of the International Committee and International Exchange Coordinator, roles in which I serve as an advisor for all incoming and outgoing exchange students. If you are a current Durham student interested in studying abroad, or if you are an international student interested in coming to Durham on an exchange, please feel free reach out to me with questions or for general advice. 

I received my BA in English and Political Science from Columbia University, and I then received my masters from the University of Oxford on a Euretta J. Kellett Fellowship. I completed my PhD in English at Princeton University in 2018. Before coming to Durham, I spent three years as a Junior Fellow in the Harvard Society of Fellows.

• Early modern drama
• Shakespeare
• Theater history
• Performance studies
• Classical reception
• Intellectual history
• Manuscript studies
• History of the book

• 2022: Sassoon Fellowship, Bodleian Library:
• 2020: William F. Milton Fund Award, Harvard University:
• 2018: Quin Morton Teaching Fellowship, Princeton Writing Program:
• 2017: Graduate School Teaching Award, Princeton University:
• 2016: Graduate Research Fellowship, Center for the Study of Religion, Princeton University:
• 2015: Graduate Prize Fellowship, Center for Human Values, Princeton University:
• 2014: Donald and Mary Hyde Academic Year Research Fellowship, Princeton University:
• 2009: Euretta J. Kellett Fellowship, Columbia University:

Authored book

• Blank, D. (2023). Shakespeare and University Drama in Early Modern England. Oxford University Press

Book review

• Blank, D. (2021). 'Early Shakespeare, 1588-1594', edited by Rory Loughnane and Andrew J. Power. Renaissance Quarterly, 74(4), 1412-1413
• Blank, D. (2021). 'Hamlet's Choice: Religion and Resistance in Shakespeare's Revenge Tragedies' by Peter Lake. The Review of English Studies, 72, 591-593

Chapter in book

• Blank, D. (2023). Cultural and Celestial Representations in Goffe's "The Courageous Turk". In M. Ogutcu, & A. Hussain (Eds.), Materializing the East in Early Modern English Drama. Bloomsbury

Journal Article

• Blank, D. (2024). An Early Reference to Penelope Devereux as ‘Stella’. Notes & Queries, https://doi.org/10.1093/notesj/gjae032
• Blank, D. (2022). Attributing Authorship to Bodleian MS Douce 171: A Seventeenth-Century Comedy by Arthur Wilson. The Library, 23(3), 346-372. https://doi.org/10.1093/library/fpac035
• Blank, D. (2022). Debating Drama in the Early Modern University: John Case, Aristotle's 'Politics', and a Previously Unknown Disputation. Journal of the History of Ideas, 83(3), 387-406. https://doi.org/10.1353/jhi.2022.0019
• Blank, D. (2020). "Our Fellow Shakespeare": A Contemporary Classic in the Early Modern University. The Review of English Studies, 71, 652-669
• Blank, D. (2017). Actors, Orators, and the Boundaries of Drama in Elizabethan Universities. Renaissance Quarterly, 70(2), 513-547
• Blank, D. (2016). Performing Exile: John Foxe's "Christus Triumphans" at Magdalen College, Oxford. Renaissance Studies, 30(4), 581-601
• Blank, D., & Whittington, L. (2012). John Hales' Funeral Oration for Sir Thomas Bodley: An Edited Translation

Newspaper/Magazine Article

• Blank, D. (2022). Modelled on the Master: The Origins and Authorship of a Seventeenth-Century Comedy

Other (Digital/Visual Media)

• Blank, D. 'University Drama Performed at 17th Century Colleges' (Interview). [That Shakespeare Life Podcast]
• Blank, D. (2022). John, Paul, Pyramus, and Thisbe: The Beatles Performing Shakespeare. [Folger Library Blog]
• Blank, D. (2022). 'Ephemeral Documents and Enduring Debates' (Interview). [Journal of the History of Ideas Blog]
• Blank, D. (2021). Not of an Age: The History Behind Ian McKellen’s Hamlet. [Folger Library Blog]
• Blank, D. (2020). Shakespeare at a Distance: When the Playhouses Close but Performance Continues. [Folger Library Blog]
• Blank, D. (2020). Making Shakespeare a Classic. [OUP Blog]

Other (Print)

• Blank, D. (2022). Bookhood: On Emma Smith's "Portable Magic"
• Blank, D. (2020). In Search of Shakespeare's Mind
• Blank, D. (2019). Harry Elkins Widener: Brief Life of a Theater-Loving Bibliophile