
Sue Starke, Ph.D.
- Associate Professor
- Graduate Faculty
Department: English
Office: The Great Hall Annex 510
Office Hours: Tuesdays, 3:00-4:00 p.m.; Thursdays, 2:00-3:00 p.m.; Fridays, 3:00-4:00 p.m.; and by appointment.
Phone: 732-571-4418
Email: sstarke@monmouth.edu
Sue Starke is an Associate Professor and Undergraduate Program Coordinator in the Department of English. She teaches a range of courses from general education literature surveys on epic and legal literature to graduate courses in Shakespeare and the Renaissance. Major interests include 16th and 17th-century British drama and epic, the Victorian novel, medieval and early modern romance, and the intersections of literary and art criticism. Her publications include The Heroines of English Pastoral Romance (Boydell and Brewer, 2007) and several journal articles on William Shakespeare, Edmund Spenser, Philip Sidney, Mary Wroth, and Abraham Cowley. She received her BA from Wellesley College and her PhD in English from Rutgers University.
Education
Ph.D., Rutgers University
B.A., Wellesley College
Research Interests
Major interests include Renaissance literature and culture, medieval literature, Victorian literature, and genre theory.
Books
The Heroines of English Pastoral Romance. Studies in Renaissance Literature: Volume 20. (Boydell and Brewer, 2000).
Scholarly Articles
“Lost in Translation: Cleopatra, Tamora, and the Gendered Critique of Translatio Imperii in Shakespeare’s Roman Plays.” Shakespeare Newsletter. Forthcoming in 2023.
“Salvatore Rosa’s Influence on Emily Brontë.” Brontë Studies vol. 47, no. 2, 2022, pp. 113-27.
“Companion of Camps: Sir Philip Sidney as a War Poet,” Sidney Journal vol. 27, no. 1-2, 2019, pp. 69-88.
“Glauce’s ‘Foolhardy Wit’ and the Revision of Romance in The Faerie Queene.” Spenser Studies: A Renaissance Poetry Annual Vol. 31, No. 1, University of Chicago Press, 2018, pp. 189-214.
Presentations/Invited Talks
“Dueling Confessions: Elizabeth Cary, Christopher Marlowe, and the Poetics of Apostasy.” Sixteenth Century Society and Conference, San Diego, CA, Oct. 28, 2021.
“Invasion of the Empire Snatchers: Cleopatra, Tamora, and Translatio Imperii in Shakespeare’s Roman Plays.” Renaissance Society of America 67th Annual Meeting , April 14, 2021.
“Shakespearean Mythmaking in All Is True,” FilmOneFest, Atlantic Highlands Arts Council, NJ, Sep. 27, 2019.
“Fool Upon Fool: The Legacy of Robert Armin in Lear’s King Lear and Moore’s Fool.” Sixteenth Century Society and Conference, Albuquerque, NM, Nov. 3, 2018.
Forthcoming
“Lost in Translation: Cleopatra, Tamora, and the Gendered Critique of Translatio Imperii in Shakespeare’s Roman Plays.” Shakespeare Newsletter, vol. 71, no. 23, Spring 2023.
Professional Associations
Folger Shakespeare Library Teacher Member
National Council of Teachers of English (NCTE)
The Renaissance Society of America (RSA)
The Sixteenth Century Society
The Spenser Society
American Association of University Professors/American Federation of Teachers (AAUP/AFT)
Courses
Recently Taught Classes
2025 Spring
2024 Fall
- Foundations of British Literature – EN 227
- Literature I: Ancient Through Renaissance – EN 201
- Seminar in English – EN 491
2024 Spring
2023 Fall
2023 Summer E
- Literature I: Ancient Through Renaissance – EN 201
2023 Spring
2022 Fall
2022 Summer E
- Literature I: Ancient Through Renaissance – EN 201
2022 Spring
Frequently Taught Classes
- Cooperative Education: English (EN 488)
- Foundations of British Literature (EN 227)
- History of the English Language (EN 443)
- Legal Fictions: Literature and the Law (EN 225)
- Literature I: Ancient Through Renaissance (EN 201)
- Seminar in English (EN 491)
- Shakespeare I (EN 305)
- Shakespeare II (EN 306)
- Shakespeare, His Contemporaries and Renaissance Society (EN 513)
- Superheroes: Echoes of Epic (EN 222)
- The English Renaissance (EN 511)