Dr Jemima Matthews is a Teaching Fellow in Early Modern English Literature. Before joining King’s as a Teaching Fellow in 2016, Jemima taught at the University of Kent, on the ‘Shakespeare and Early Modern Drama’ module, ‘Early Modern Literature’ module, ‘Early Drama’ module and ‘Marriage, Desire & Divorce in Early Modern Literature’ module; at Queen Mary, on the ‘Shakespeare’ module; at the University of Nottingham, on the ‘Crime, Conscience and Correction 1603-1700’ module, the ‘Resistance and Obedience: Literature 1485-1625’ module, the ‘Shakespeare’s Histories’ module, the ‘Studying Literature’ survey course; and at Birkbeck as a visiting lecturer on the ‘Milton and Civil War England’ module.
Jemima completed her BA in English Language and Literature at St Anne’s College, Oxford. She studied for an MA in ‘Shakespeare Studies’ at King’s College London, followed by an AHRC-funded PhD on the river Thames between 1550 and 1650 at the University of Nottingham.
Jemima’s doctoral thesis explored the river Thames on and off the stage and page between 1550 and 1650. Her research includes poetry, prose, drama, and a broad range of archival records. Jemima is currently preparing her monograph Habitat and Habitation: The River Thames 1550 to 1650 for publication. Challenging the divide between riverine texts and contexts in new ways, this study unsettles the distinction between written and physical geographies.
Jemima’s interdisciplinary research combines archival work with an approach shaped by disciplines such as cultural geography. Her research continues to focus on literary geographies and falls into three broad categories. She explores how place and mobility shaped early modern landscape writing, she continues to be interested in the material culture surrounding writing and performance in early modern London, and her work contributes to the emerging field of water studies.