Chelsea McKelvey, PhD
Senior Lecturer
Contact
Department of English
Office: Strode 511
Website: https://chelseamckelvey.com/
Email: crmckel@clemson.edu
Education
Ph.D., English, Southern Methodist University (2018); M.A., English, King's College London (2012); B.A., English, University of Georgia (2010); B.S.Ed., English Secondary Education, University of Georgia (2010)
Courses
ENGL 1030: Composition and Rhetoric; ENGL 2130: British Literature; ENGL 2120: World Literature; HON 2210
Research Interests
Early Modern Literature; Shakespeare; Eighteenth-Century Literature
Dr. McKelvey is a teacher and scholar of early modern and eighteenth-century literature. Her most recent publication is her book,Preacher-Poets: Early Modern Sermons, Literature, and Gender (Routledge, 2026). Currently, her research focuses on performative spaces, from the playhouse to the pulpit, in early modern England. She teaches composition and literature courses focusing on power structures and poetry. Every day in her classroom looks different. One day students simulate the actor experience at the Globe Theater; on another day, students hold a mock trial based on Milton’s Paradise Lost. Her pedagogical focus is to have students engage with literature in a way that builds the real-life skills of critical thinking, project management, and leadership.
Awards
Holman Teaching Award; Humanities Hub Project Completion Grant; Pearce Service-Learning Fellowship
Selected Professional Works
Journal Articles & Book Chapters (Published)
“John Donne’s Scientific Observation of the Soul," College Literature (2022)
“The Economics of Salvation in Early Modern Devotional Poetry,” in Religion in the Early Modern British Marketplace (2022)
“Queen Anne’s Body in Stuart Court Sermons," Ben Jonson Journal 28.2 (2021)
“Video Responses as Sustained Analyses of Literary Texts," Sixteenth Century Journal 51.51 (2020)
Journal Articles & Book Chapters (Accepted or Submitted)
“Closet Catholicism, Private Entertainments, and Shakespeare in Seventeenth-Century Yorkshire” in Reconceptualizing Renaissance Performance: Beyond the Public Stage (forthcoming in 2022)
