Dr. Megan Isaac enjoys teaching courses in Shakespeare, English literature, composition, and children's and young adult literature.

Ph.D., English Literature,  University of California, Los Angeles

M.A., English Literature, University of California, Los Angeles

B.A., English Literature, Lawrence University, Appleton, Wisconsin

2007-present    Associate Professsor of English, Elon University; Elon, North Carolina

2001-2006        Independent Scholar and new mother of two young children; Auburn, Alabama

1998-2001         Associate Professor of English, Youngstown State University; Youngstown, Ohio

1994-1998         Assistant Professor of English, Youngstown State University; Youngstown Ohio

ENG 342 Shakespeare

ENG 322 Medieval Literature

ENG 323 Renaissance Literature

ENG 221 British Literature 1

ENG 255  Utopias and Dystopias

ENG 255  Playing with Shakespeare

ENG 255  Witchcraft on Stage and in the Court

ENG 274 American Authors Now: Ursula Le Guin

ENG 110 College Writing

HNR 134 Forging Cultures
 

Associate Chair of the Department of English

My current projects include a study of surveillance culture in children's and young adult literature.  I am interested in how the growing technologies that simultaneously provide information for us and report information about us are being represented in texts for young readers.  Are these technologies portrayed as something authorities control or that an individual controls?  Are they harmful or helpful?  Who is represented as having the power to make decisions about the structure and use of surveillance technologies? To put this in pop culture terms--the vampire hero from Twilight, Edward Cullen, can read the minds of every character except his love interest, Bella.  By the end of the series, though, she joyfully discovers the ability to open her mind to him.  How does Edward's ability to spy on nearly anyone at nearly any time affect his character and a reader's perception of him?  How important is privacy?  Should we view the absence of it as romantic or threatening or something else?

I am also working on a study of how performance activities in the Shakespeare classroom impact student learning.  Does standing up and working out an interpretation of a scene help students think critically about a text?  Do the skills students develop while practicing such activities transfer to their interpretations of scenes that they merely read and write about?