Biography
Kristen L. Olson, Ph.D. is associate professor of English and an honors student adviser for the Schreyer Honors College. She teaches courses in writing and literature, from “Shakespeare” to “Banned Books” to “Apocalypse and Beyond.”
Students in Dr. Olson’s classes can expect an interactive experience, exploring ideas raised across centuries in different modes of writing through group discussions that connect students’ lives to literature and the art of writing. Literature courses explore questions like: What’s the difference between life and death? How do we know if someone loves us? Are humans and animals more alike or different? What is power and how do we experience it? Business writing students consider the shape of their own narrative reflected in building their resume and personal statement.
Whatever form writing takes, Dr. Olson’s classes help students understand the forms and patterns of literature and communicative problems that help students to build skills that employers value and start their careers and excel when they are presented with complex challenges and systems.
Students will enter their professional lives prepared to:
- Read and interpret complex material
- Form and express ideas clearly
- Navigate multiple perspectives
Research Interests
- 16th- and 17th-century poetry and drama
- Shakespeare
- Renaissance/Early Modern literature and culture
- Critical Theory
- Poetics
Publications
“Innovating the Early Modern: Pastoral Cycle and Epiphany in Sarah Orne Jewett’s The Country of the Pointed Firs” , Studies in American Fiction - July, 2024
Picture--Pattern--Poiesis: Visuality, the Emblem, and Seventeenth-Century English Religious Lyric, Emblematica - 2009
From Margin to Milieu: The Authorship of Le tombeau de Marguerite de Valois, Royne de Navarre, New Ways of Looking at Old Texts, A Journal of the Renaissance English Text Society - 2008
'Semper Eadem': The Paradox of Constancie in Shakespeare's 'Phoenix and the Turtle', Shakespearean International Yearbook - 2007
Innovating Tradition: Milton's Sonnet to the Nightingale, Pennsylvania English: Journal of the Pennsylvania College English Association - 2006
The Plurabilities of 'Parole': Giordano Bruno and the Cyclical Trope of Language in Finnegans Wake, James Joyce Quarterly - 2006
'Your play needs no excuse': Shakespeare and Language Development in Children, Reimagining Shakespeare for Children and Young Adults - 2003
Education
Ph D, English Literature
MA, English Literature
MA, Liberal Arts: Humanities
BA, English
Papers and Presentations
May 14, 2026
Papers and Oral Presentations
Session Chair: Overturning Expectation in Medieval and Early Modern English Literature
International Congress on Medieval Studies
Kalamazoo, Michigan
August, 2024 - June, 2025
Seminars
Shakespeares, Publics, and the Humanities
Washington, DC
May 9, 2025
Seminars
Pageantry, Publics, and Power: Political Iconography in the Coronation Procession of Elizabeth I
Shakespeares, Publics, and the Humanities
Washington, DC
March 21, 2025
Papers and Oral Presentations
Making Shakespeare Real: Teaching Strategies for Early Modern Literature
Shakespeare Association of America Annual Convention
Boston, MA
May 12, 2023
Papers
'A horse of that color': Equine Iconography in the Middle Ages and Renaissance
International Congress on Medieval Studies
Kalamazoo, MI
April 7, 2022
Papers
Shakespeare and the Ethics of Leadership: Women and Power in the Elizabethan Age
Shakespeare Association of America
May 12, 2021
Papers and Oral Presentations
Session Chair: Emotional Iberia: Varieties of Affective Experience in Medieval Iberian Cultures
International Congress on Medieval Studies
Kalamazoo, Michigan
April 2, 2021
Papers
'Be'st a good mooncalf': Challenging Essentialism in The Tempest
Shakespeare Association of America, Annual Convention
Virtual
December 11, 2020 - December 25, 2020
Papers and Oral Presentations
Sarah Orne Jewett and the Early Modern
English Fall Conference
Virtual
February 20, 2020
Guest Lectures
Discovering A Midsummer Night's Dream
Pre-Performance Lecture
Pittsburgh, PA
April 18, 2019
Papers
Less than Kind: Challenging Love and Literary Inheritance in Anglo-Iberian Exchange
Shakespeare Association of America, Annual Convention
Washington, DC
March, 2016
Papers and Oral Presentations
Pigment, Palette, Poiesis: Iconography of Color in The Faerie Queene
Renaissance Society of America, Annual Convention
Boston, MA
April, 2015
Papers and Oral Presentations
Penn State Beaver English Composition: Trial Balloon
Penn State English Division Spring Conference
University Park, PA
May, 2014
Papers and Oral Presentations
‘So Heavenly Hew to Paint’: Color Poiesis in The Faerie Queene
49th International Congress on Medieval Studies
Kalamazoo, MI
October, 2013
Papers and Oral Presentations
Milton's Ambivalence
Penn State English Division Fall Conference
University Park, PA
May, 2013
Session Chair: Spenser at Kalamazoo
48th International Congress on Medieval Studies
Kalamazoo, MI
October, 2012
Session Chair: Research in Databases and Other Digital Resources
Penn State English Division Fall Conference
University Park, PA
October, 2011
Session Chair: Special Reserach Session: Women Writers
Penn State English Division Fall Conference
University Park, PA
April 3, 2010
Mirroring in Measure for Measure
Shakespeare Association of America, Annual Convention
Chicago, IL
October, 2009
Session Chair: Research in British Literature
Penn State English Division Fall Conference
University Park, PA
April 9, 2009
"Modern Dramaturgy, Classical Theatre"
Shakespeare Association of America, Annual Convention
Washington, DC
October, 2007
Papers and Oral Presentations
Shakesphobia and the GenEd Student
Penn State English Division Fall Conference
University Park, PA
May 10, 2007
From Margin to Milieu: The Authorship of Le tombeau de Marguerite de Navarre
42nd International Congress on Medieval Studies
Kalamazoo, MI
October, 2006
Session Chair: Research in British Literature
Penn State English Division Fall Conference
Altoona, PA
April 13, 2006
A perfect forme of love and amitie': Poetics of Paradox in Spenser and Shakespeare
Shakespeare Association of America Annual Convention
Philadelphia, PA
December 29, 2004
Picture--Pattern--Poetry: The Visual Mimetic in Seventeenth-Century Religious Lyric
Modern Language Association (MLA) Annual Convention
Philadelphia, PA
April 10, 2004
The Tempest: Shakespeare's Eclogue of Imagination
Shakespeare Association of America Annual Convention
New Orleans, LA
2003
Seminars
Language and Visuality in the Renaissance: Aesthetics, Theology, Theatre
The Folger Shakespeare Library, Washington, DC
Year-long professional colloquium, 2002-2003.
October, 2003
Papers and Oral Presentations
Elizabethan Iconography in 'The Phoenix & Turtle'
Penn State English Division Fall Conference
University Park, PA