Christi Spain-Savage

I joined the English faculty at Siena in the Fall of 2014. I earned my M.A. in English at New York University (2007) and my Ph.D. in English at Fordham University (2014), where I also worked as a Teaching Associate for five years. A native Texan, I worked in theater in New York City for a number of years before going back to graduate school to specialize in Shakespeare/early modern literature.

My Siena Experience

What I Love About Siena

I consider it a privilege to teach at Siena! I love the compassionate community of students, faculty, administrators, and staff. My favorite part of my job is getting to know the students and watching them grow as scholars and citizens through their college careers.

My Favorite Courses to Teach

I love teaching many courses at Siena, but my favorite is definitely Shakespeare. It is a pleasure when students begin to master the language and develop an appreciation for the plays. And I learn something new each time I read the plays and teach the class.

My Professional Experience

Current Research

I specialize in Shakespeare/early modern literature, and my research interests include gender studies, labor, space/place theory, urban studies, and dramatic textual history. My book-in-progress, Narratives of Working Women in Early Modern London: Gendering the City, analyzes early modern representations of women's labor in relation to specific London neighborhoods.

Articles & Book Reviews

• 'An Honest Pair of Oars': Players, Watermen, and A Chaste Maid in Cheapside
  Early Theatre, vol. 19
  December, 2016
• The Gendered Place Narratives of Billingsgate Fishwives
  Studies in English Literature 1500-1900, vol. 56
  Spring, 2016

Awards & Distinctions

• DAC Curriculum Diversification Fellowship
  Category: Teaching
  Diversity Action Committee, 2019
• Outstanding Tenure-Track Teacher-Scholar Award
  Category: Teaching-Research
  School of Liberal Arts, 2019
• COTFD Research Fellowship
  Category: Research
  Committee on Teaching and Faculty Develpment, 2018
• Fr. Peter Fiore Excellence in English Fellowship
  Category: Research
  English Department, 2018
• Information Literacy Faculty Development Grant
  Category: Teaching
  Siena College Standish Library Informational Literacy, 2017

Books & Book Chapters

• Intersectionalities of Class in Early Modern English Drama
  Palgrave Macmillan
  2023
• Mapping Gendered Routes and Spaces in the Early Modern World
  Ashgate
  2015
• Lost Plays in Shakespeare's England
  Palgrave
  2014

Presentations

• 'Brave Captain Courageous': Gender, Crime, and Violence in Sir Thomas More
  2023
  Renaissance Society of America, San Juan, Puerto Rico
• 'Wiser than her Neighbors?': Cunning Reputation in The Wise Woman of Hogsdon
  2022
  Shakespeare Association of America, Jacksonville, Florida
• Gendering the Shop: Intersections of Gender, Class, and Geography in The Fair Maid of the Exchange and The French Garden
  2021
  Shakespeare Association of America, Austin (but met virtually), Texas
• The 'Muses Colonie': Rhetorical Strategies of Prince Charles's Men at the Salisbury Court
  2020
  Shakespeare Association of America, Denver (but ended up virtual), Colorado
• London Incorporated: Theater and Institutional Life
  2019
  Shakespeare Association of America, Washington, D.C., Unknown
• 'Brave Captain Courageous': Gender, Nationalism, and Violence in Sir Thomas More
  2018
  Shakespeare Association of America, Los Angeles, California
• Bodies of Authority: Contesting the Coercive Space in Early Modern England
  2018
  Attending to Early Modern Women Symposium, Milwaukee, Wisconsin
• 'She whom the Spital House': London Spital Houses and Timon of Athens
  2017
  Shakespeare Association of America, Atlanta, Georgia
• Sexuality, Space, and Spectacle in Bridewell Prison Narratives
  2016
  Shakespeare Association of America, New Orleans, Louisiana
• 'To spill my Husbands blood': The Influence of Gender in Early Modern Ballad Printing
  2015
  Shakespeare Association of America, Vancouver, Canada-British Columbia
• Getting Time on our Side: A Pedagogical Experiment
  2015
  Attending to Early Modern Women Symposium, Milwaukee, Wisconsin
• 'A Choice Pair of Noble-mens Oares': The Bankside Players and Thames Watermen
  2014
  Shakespeare Association of America, St. Louis, Missouri
• 'That Olde Hag Gillian of Braineford': Rethinking the Cultural Significance of a Lost Play
  2013
  Shakespeare Association of America, Toronto, Canada
• Attending to Fishwives: Views from Seventeeth Century London and Amsterdam
  2012
  Attending to Early Modern Women Symposium, Milwaukee, Wisconsin
• Gendered Place Narratives of Billingsgate Fishwives and their Dutch Counterparts
  2012
  Shakespeare Association of America, Boston, Massachusetts