Jessica Grace Sparks is a senior at the University of California at Santa Barbara and majoring in English and Renaissance Studies, with an Early Modern Specialization. Her central interests include the Italian Renaissance, conduct literature, and early modern broadside ballads.Past Research: Jessica has written on the institutions of community (i.e. city streets, alehouse, parish) in early modern England and how they influenced the popular perceptions of the poor. She has also written on the use of the “almost duel” in Shakespeare’s Richard II and its connection to the conflict between the nobility and the monarchy in the early modern period.
Current Research: Currently, in conjunction with the English Broadside Ballad Archive and the Arnhold Undergraduate Fellows Research Program at UCSB, Jessica is taking her research on Christopher Marlowe's ballad "The Passionate Shepherd to His Love" and forming it into a website that will work as an interactive multimedia research tool intended to facilitate the study of both the poem and the broadside ballad of "The Passionate Shepherd to His Love".
Come Live With Me: Living the History of a Ballad
The site will be live June 2016.
Sneak peek: Interactive Timeline
Where to find me:
Academia.edu
My Research Blog
My Personal Blog: Poetry
