Meet the 2024 BritGrad Committee

Saraya is a third-year M4C funded PhD candidate at the Shakespeare Institute. Her PhD explores how the queer body intersects with magic in Renaissance plays and culture. She was first on the BritGrad committee as Secretary in 2020, and took on the role of Publicist in 2023. She is over the moon to be returning to BritGrad this year as Co-Chair, and excited to work alongside Sarah and the rest of the team. She is so looking forward to hearing everyone's papers.

Sarah is a third-year PhD candidate at the Shakespeare Institute. Her current research, which is funded by the Midlands4Cities Doctoral Training Partnership, explores the impact of the sixteenth-century Reformations upon social attitudes towards death and eschatology, as depicted in early modern poetry and drama. This is Sarah’s second year on the BritGrad committee after serving as the Registrar in 2022. Sarah is enjoying working with such a great team and is very much looking forward to hearing this year’s conference papers!

Clare-Louise is a first year M4C funded PhD student at the Shakespeare Institute. Her PhD entitled ‘Shakespeare’s use of shared rhetorical devices in dialogue’ explores the benefits that an understanding of the function of shared devices of repetition may bring to the actor. Before embarking upon her MA at the institute in 2021, she owned her own theatre company and has a performance degree from LIPA. In her first year on the Britgrad committee, she is delighted to be supporting an event she has enjoyed attending in recent years and looks forward to hearing all your wonderful papers. 

Having recently finished my MA in Shakespeare Studies, I am keen to remain up to date with Shakespearean research and scholarship within the Renaissance era, as I wish to pursue a career in academia.  Having thoroughly enjoyed the opportunity to be the registrar for BritGrad 2023, I am thrilled to be able to bring my enthusiasm and experience to the role as a part of the BritGrad committee for 2024. I’m really looking forward to hearing everyone’s papers at the conference and working with a great team of people on the committee. 

This will be Tony’s fourth and final year as BritGrad Treasurer. Tony is honoured to have been invited to join yet another very strong committee and is eager to see how BritGrad 2024 will take shape. Now an alumnus of the Shakespeare Institute, Tony is concentrating upon his employed role as an Accountant, and his recent appointment as Chairman of the Cumberland Society of Chartered Accountants. However, in his free time he maintains his passion for Shakespeare and early modern literature. Quite appropriately for a finance specialist his reading centres upon Shakespeare’s representation of money and, in particular, interrogates the concept of woman as a commodity.

Jen Slager is from Goodsoil, Saskatchewan, Canada, a small rural community in the middle of several lakes. Jen is currently undertaking a Master's degree in Shakespeare Studies at the Shakespeare Institute, and plans to apply for a doctorate in due time. Besides Shakespeare, Jen's other passion has been working as a member of the Girl Guides of Canada for 7 years. Jen is very interested in historical costuming, particularly the fashion of the 1850s. Jen's favorite author besides Shakespeare is J. R. R. Tolkien.

Betsy is a first year MA Shakespeare student at the Shakespeare Institute. At the time of writing, Betsy is in the process of deciding their dissertation topic but has had previous research interests in early modern folklore and superstition. Aside from this, her interests include theatre, literature, If We Were Villains, and owning the entire Penguin-published Shakespeare complete works. She is thrilled to be returning to the conference this year as a committee member after attending last year and is looking forward to planning the events to celebrate Britgrad.