Faculty & Student Research

CPS faculty Michelle Hamilton and staff member Lydia Brosnahan consult a text from the UMN Library’s Special Collections.

The Center for Premodern Studies takes great pride in the research achievements of our students and faculty. See below for a selection of our community’s recent research and publications.

Book cover of "In the Wake of Medea: Neoclassical Theater and the Arts of Deconstruction" by Dr. Juliette Cherbuliez.
Juliette Cherbuliez

Dr. Cherbuliez is a professor of French and Italian in the College of Liberal Arts at the University of Minnesota Twin Cities. She is the first director of the Center for Premodern Studies. Her research specialties include:

  • 17th-century French literature and culture
  • The ethics and experience of violence
  • Theater history and performance studies

In 2020, Dr. Cherbuliez published In the Wake of Medea: Neoclassical Theater and the Arts of Deconstruction (Fordham UP).

Visit Dr. Cherbuliez's profile page to learn more about her work.

Book cover of "A Rainbow Thread: An Anthology of Queer Jewish Texts from the First Century to 1696" by Dr. Noam Sienna.
Noam Sienna

Dr. Sienna is a scholar of Jewish culture and history. He received his PhD in Jewish history & museum studies at the University of Minnesota in 2020. He holds regular lecture positions in the Minneapolis area and is currently a junior fellow of the Andrew W. Mellon Society of Fellows in Critical Bibliography and an adjunct assistant professor in the Department of History at the University of Minnesota. His research specialties include:

  • Jewish art & material culture of the Medieval and Early Modern periods 
  • Interfaith communities
  • Manuscript illumination and calligraphy

In 2019, Dr. Sienna published his first book, titled A Rainbow Thread: An Anthology of Queer Jewish Texts from the First Century to 1696 (Print-o-Craft Press).

Visit Dr. Sienna's website to learn more about his work.

Jenna is smiling and crossing her arms
Jenna Dreier

Dr. Dreier is the coordinator of the College in Prison Program at the University of Minnesota. She received her PhD in English at the University of Minnesota in 2020. She currently holds a postdoc teaching fellowship in English and writing at the University of Minnesota Twin Cities. Her research specialties include: 

  • Shakespearian literature

  • Prison-arts programming

  • Ethical appropriations of dominant premodern themes in contemporary art and pedagogy

Dr. Dreier’s latest article, “Decolonizing Pedagogies in Prison Performance Programs: Making Shakespeare Secondary,” appeared in the summer 2021 special issue of Research in Drama Education.

Visit Dr. Dreier's website to learn more about her work.