Professor Sabbatical Check-In: Penelope Geng

by Sydney Ellison ‘24

Penelope Geng is an associate professor of Shakespeare and Renaissance Drama, British Literature c.1500-1700, Law and Literature, Religion and Literature; The Reformation, Affect and Emotions, Disability Studies, and Race and Property Law. In 2021, Prof. Geng published her first book Communal Justice in Shakespeare’s England: Drama, Law, and Emotion, and is currently on sabbatical working on her next project provisionally titled “Disabled by Law.” I caught up with Professor Geng to hear all about her day-in-and-out activities of her sabbatical this year.

Professor Geng paints a charming picture of sabbatical, “I spend all day chatting with my cat, drinking tea, and meditating in nature,” only for it to be an illusion! She insteads offers that the reality of her sabbatical, while still pleasant, to be a bit more mundane, “Most weeks, I’m just reading, writing, and workshopping.” She expressed gratitude for the experience, as her post-tenure sabbatical is a great opportunity for her to be able to really focus on her research for her second book, which she hopes to complete over the rest of her sabbatical period. “Disabled by Law” is described by Geng as a “literary study of able nationalism which moves across interlocking histories of dis/ability race, and property law”. The project is supported by a fellowship Geng was awarded by The Renaissance Society of America, which helped her fund her first round of research which she did in London last summer.

While abroad, in addition to her research, Geng got the opportunity to connect with some of Mac’s own, seeing former students in London, while keeping up with her research Assistants, Cat Terres and Zoe Scheuerman via Slack. Geng also got to connect with several friends from the Shakespeare and Early Modern Studies community who were also in London, to share and hear about all of the excellent research they were up to themselves.

Professor Geng shares that sabbatical hasn’t been all tea parties and walks along the Thames; she documents that there can be serious challenges to having more unstructured time, whether or not these challenges are of  her own doing. She says, “As the projects multiply, I’ve repeatedly fallen behind on my deadlines. I continue to underestimate how long it takes to complete a new writing project. I’ve had to ask editors for extensions.” She is glad though that as she continues to overcome this challenge that people remain being very understanding.

Ending on a positive note, Prof. Geng briefly talked about the surprising or unexpected experiences she had on sabbatical. She starts her story with, “Many, many years ago in my ENGL 115 class, a student, Conor, told her about the “wonders of improv,” and this memory would stay with Professor Geng all the way up until last spring, when Matt Burgess, another lovely English Department professor, offered Geng an extra ticket to see an improv show at Huge Theater in Minneapolis. She took up Burgess on the offer and loved the experience. She loved it so much, in fact, that last September, Professor Geng took an 8-week improv class, and then another, and is now soon starting Improv 301 at the very Huge Theater where it all began. Geng says she is learning so much about voice, physicality, and emotions, as well as lots of improv jargon like “status,” “puking dinosaur,” “sound ball,” and “French Braid,” to name a wacky few. Geng says she especially enjoys how improv is not just about being the funniest in the room, but about being the best scene partner.

The Words would like to say a huge thank you to Penelope Geng,  for taking time out of her sabbatical to check back in with us here in Old Main.