Dr. Joshua Held

Assistant Professor

English, Humanities, & Languages

Morrison 313

Education

BA, English and English / Education, Trinity International University
MA, English, Indiana University
PhD, English, Indiana University

Biography

Joshua R. Held teaches and researches early modern English literature with a focus on Shakespeare and Milton. His Bold Conscience: Luther to Shakespeare to Milton (Univ. of Alabama Press, 2023) chronicles the shifting of conscience in early modern England from a faculty of restraint—“coward conscience”—to one of forthright self-assertion. He has published essays in _English Literary History_, _Essays in Criticism_, _Modern Philology_, and elsewhere.

He is working on three monographs:
1 | “Milton’s Pauline Universalism: Theologies of Race in Early Modern England” argues that Milton uses Paul to stimulate his own thinking about the relation between individual and society. A portion of this appears in _Milton Quarterly_.
2 | “Dialogic Conscience: Figurations of Inwardness in Shakespeare’s England” shows that literary figuration unveils a voluble inwardness in dramatic and other texts. Some of this work appears in _SEL Studies in English Literature, 1500–1900_, and in _Milton Studies_.
3 | “Quarto, Folio, Race: Revising Sympathy in Shakespearean Tragedy” reveals Shakespeare’s tinkering with constructions of race through the instability of his own texts. Pieces of this project appear in _Shakespeare Survey_ and _Journal for Early Modern Cultural Studies_.

At Southeastern OSU, Dr. Held coordinates the English Education program and serves as University Mentor for student teachers in English Language Arts.

Courses Taught

CV

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