A 1990 alum, Karen Marsalek did her graduate work at Oxford and the University of Toronto before returning to St. Olaf to teach early English literature. Her passion is the study and performance of medieval and Renaissance drama; she directed, produced, and performed in a number of early plays in Toronto, and has worked as a dramaturg for the Guthrie Theater. At St. Olaf she has team-taught "Literatures in English to 1650," and has offered electives in Renaissance literature, Shakespeare, and linguistics, as well as the off-campus Interim "Theater in London."
In 2007-2009, she will be teaching in the Great Conversation Program.
When she isn't rhapsodizing about mystery plays, saints' lives, or the Great Vowel Shift, Karen is working on two editions of sixteenth-century comedies. She recently co-edited a collection of essays on early English drama, published by the University of Toronto Press. She is currently working on an edition of two sixteenth-century comedies, and co-editing a book of essays on early English drama. Avocationally, she loves to cook and to haunt auctions with colleagues Mary Titus and Karen Cherewatuk. She lives in south Minneapolis with her husband John, son Lukas, and their neurotic cat, Oliver.
