Board Member of IAF,
scholar, writer, singer.
Mt. Pleasant, MI

Dr. Kris McDermott is an Associate Professor of English Literature at Central Michigan University, specializing in Early Modern English Studies (particularly Drama and Theater History) and Shakespeare. Kristen came to CMU after seven years of teaching Renaissance Literature and Shakespeare at Spelman College in Atlanta, Georgia. She holds a Ph.D. in English from the University of California, Los Angeles, and she received her B.A. in English and Drama from Furman University in South Carolina.

Kris has dedicated her teaching to bridging the gap between scholarly research and an appreciation for the living arts of drama, music, and storytelling. In the classroom, her students explore the physical staging of Shakespeare's plays as well as the texts, using drama games, creative writing, music, and film, among many other media. Her forthcoming book, Masques of Difference: Power, Race and Gender in the Masques of Ben Jonson, which will be published in 2007 by Manchester University Press, also makes use of her interdisciplinary background in music, drama and literature. She has published scholarly articles on Shakespeare and Ben Jonson, and popular articles on the folklore of the theater in Realms of Fantasy magazine.

Outside the classroom, Kris studies classical voice and has performed as soprano soloist in choral masterworks around Atlanta and elsewhere. She is married to Professor Ari D. Berk, who also teaches at CMU.