08/17/2026
Meet our new Department Chair!
This week's is J. Caitlin Finlayson!
Dr. J. Caitlin Finlayson is an Associate Professor of English, specializing in Shakespeare and Renaissance Civic Entertainments and Pageantry. She recently edited two Renaissance London pageants for the Malone Society’s Collections XVII, and her work in this field generally employs archival resources to investigate the material production of street theatre in Shakespeare’s age, and the contribution of civic pageants to the formation of London’s wealthy and politically powerful merchant class’ social identity. Her approach to Shakespeare is interdisciplinary with a keen interest in the transposition of Shakespeare’s plays from stage to film, graphic novels, television commercials, and popular digital media.
Her current research project focuses on the adaptation of Shakespeare’s plays in to graphic novels/comic books. Finlayson currently holds a three-month fellowship at the Folger Shakespeare Library in Washington D.C., where she is researching the illustrated history of Shakespeare’s plays. Finlayson’s interdisciplinary research in Shakespearean adaptation directly informs her teaching of courses such as LIBS115: Shakespeare on Page, Stage and Screen, ENGL/HUM343: Adaptations of Literary Texts, and ENGL/HUM358 Shakespeare on Film.
She has been honored with the UM-Dearborn Outstanding Student Organization Advisor Award for her work with the League of Extraordinary Poets (LEP), a student club that brings poets to campus for creative writing workshops and readings. She teaches in English, Humanities, and the First-Year Seminar program.
