Carolyn Sale

Carolyn Sale is an associate professor in the Department of English & Film Studies at the University of Alberta where she teaches courses in Shakespeare and other early modern writers. Her research specialization is in Shakespeare and the law, with an emphasis on how Shakespeare’s drama helped shape the potential for a more inclusive common law jurisprudence. Her work has appeared in leading journals such as ELH and Shakespeare Quarterly, as well as collections including The Law in Shakespeare (Palgrave 2007), The History of British Women’s Writing, Vol. II, 1510–1610 (Palgrave, 2010), the Oxford Handbook of Shakespearean Comedy (2018), and the Oxford Handbook of English Law and Literature, 1500–1700 (2017). Her essay “Eating Air, Feeling Smells: Hamlet’s Theory of Performance” was reprinted in Harold Bloom’s Modern Critical Interpretations: Hamlet (2009). She is currently completing the book manuscript “The Literary Commons: The Common Law and the Writer in Early Modern England, 1528–1628.”

In 2016, she was the first President of the Association of Academic Staff of the University of Alberta (AASUA) elected in open elections by the membership. Previously she served for several years as the director representing the faculty to the AASUA Executive. As Vice-President in 2015-16, she chaired the Association’s governance committee. She also served on the Association’s “Bylaws Amendment Committee,” which wrote a new set of bylaws for the Association after an extensive consultation process with members. Since 2014 she has also served as an elected representative of the Faculty of Arts to the General Faculties Council.