Research Interests

16th century poetry; historiography; iconography; translations of classical literature

Education

• BA: History; Literature minor, University of California Santa Cruz - Santa Cruz, CA
  Dissertation/Thesis Title: Dictated Democracy: Standardizing the American High School, 1890-1930
• MA: English and American Literature, University of New York - New York, NY
  Dissertation/Thesis Title: The Spirit and the Body in Legacies of Troilus and Cressida
• Ph D: English, (2012), University of Massachusetts Amherst - Amherst, MA
  Dissertation/Thesis Title: : Elizabeth's Fruitless Crown: Ovidian Poetry, The End of Tudor Genealogy, and the Incomplete Past

Biography

My Ph.D. is in early modern literature, and I research sixteenth century poetry’s uses of history and classical literature. Currently I have essays forthcoming in edited collections and have presented my work at a number of national and international conferences. During 2016 I was an organizing faculty member of the First Folio event at the Currier Museum, and I participated in the World Shakespeare Congress in England. My current book project explores Ovidian poetry during the last fifteen years of Queen Elizabeth’s reign as a method to reevaluate political uses of the past and to challenge paradigmatic historiography.

I serve as the Coordinator of the Core Curriculum for the University (www.uml.edu/core).

I am also an advisor for the Bachelor of Liberal Arts Program (www.uml.edu/FAHSS/BLA/).

Selected Awards and Honors

• Dissertation Fellowship (2007) - University of Massachusetts Amherst
• Teaching Fellowship, English (2006) - Stonehill College
• Walter Chmielewski Fellowship (2002) - University of Massachusetts
• Joseph Langland Prize (2001) - University of Massachusetts Amherst
• Chancellor's Award for Academic Excellence (1995) - University of California Santa Cruz

Selected Publications

• Petersen, K.L. (2017) "Shakespeare and Sententiae: The Use of Quotation in Lucrece", UK: Cambridge University Press pp. Shakespeare and Quotation

Selected Contracts, Fellowships, Grants and Sponsored Research

• Dissertation Fellowship (2007), Fellowship - University of Massachusetts Amherst
  
• Teaching Fellow, English (2006), Fellowship - Stonehill College