Sara Stamatiades

Graduate Student

Overview

Sara Stamatiades is a PhD Candidate in the Department of Literatures in English at Cornell University studying early modern drama and performance. Her dissertation project, “The Theater of Discovery: (Un)making the World on the Early Modern Stage,” argues that “discovery” is a useful lens for considering the particular worldmaking power of theater, one that shines a spotlight on the colonial violence that helped shape the early modern European imagination. Her research analyzes discovery scenes, spaces, and devices in a broad range of theatrical texts, from lesser-known Restoration masques and Spanish interludes to more widely recognized works by Shakespeare, Lope de Vega, and Aphra Behn.

In her teaching, Sara brings her enthusiasm for early modern theater into the classroom. Most recently, she has devised an advanced undergraduate course called “Shakespeare Offstage,” which studies Shakespearean myths, adaptations, and strives to answer the question: is Shakespeare still relevant? Additionally, Sara has served as the Assistant Director of the Cornell Writing Centers, demonstrating her commitment to writing pedagogy and supporting undergraduate students. As a 2020-2021 Public Humanities Fellow at Humanities New York, Sara began developing community-engaged projects in Ithaca, NY, including two playwriting workshops. The most recent workshop, “Stages of Life,” brought together teens and elders to write short plays based on each other’s lives, while fostering meaningful intergenerational connections. 

Research Focus

  • 16th & 17th-Century English and Spanish Literature
  • Early Modern Drama & Performance 
  • Global & Postcolonial Studies
  • Translation Theory
  • Religion & Political Theology
  • Early Modern Critical Race & Indigenous Studies 
  • Public Humanities & Community Engagement