Dr Julia Kotzur

Biography

I joined the University of Aberdeen in 2008 as an undergraduate student in English Literary Studies, and I graduated in 2017 with a PhD in early modern English drama, focussing on aspects of medicine, sacramentality, and eating in the drama of William Shakespeare and Ben Jonson. 

I worked as a Teaching Assistant on EL2011: Encounters with Shakespeare, and as a German Language Teacher both at university-level and at the Language Centre. I joined the School of Language, Literature, Music and Visual Culture in 2017 as an administrative assistant. As of 2021, I have been employed as Postgraduate and Research Administrator at SLLMVC.

Research Overview

I am interested in portrayals of Eucharistic and Galenic eating and healing in early modern English drama as a way of understanding the persisting importance of Catholicism in post-Reformation England. In connection with this research, I am further interested in the roles that spatiality, specifically boundaries and transformations of space, and medieval drama play. Other research interests include:

• literary displays of cannibalism 
• penance and reconciliation
• medieval moral plays

Current Research

I am currently writing up a research article on spatial transformations in the drama of Ben Jonson. I have also begun research into the lasting impacts of the plagues of 1603 and 1606 on early modern urban infrastructure and indoor spaces as explored in plays by Shakespeare and Jonson.

Collaborations

In October 2016, I co-organised a one-day symposium on Shakespearean legacies as part of the Shakespeare Week to mark the 400th anniversary of the playwright's death. The symposium was entitled ‘What Legacy shall I bequeath to thee?’: Shakespeare in the Context of his Time.

Funding and Grants

I have received travel grants from the University of Aberdeen's Centre for Early Modern Studies (CEMS) and from the Society for Renaissance Studies.