Sandra Logan

logans@msu.edu
5175151702

Linton Hall
479 West Circle Dr
East Lansing, MI 48824

FacultyEnglishGlobal Studies in Arts and Humanities

Professor Emeritus
Early Modern Literature and Culture; Shakespeare; Political Theory; Gender

Biography

Sandra Logan is Professor Emeritus in the Department of English, having served actively on the faculty from 2002-2022. Her administrative work includes serving as director of the founding Citizen Scholars program from 2016-2019, and as the founding director of the Global Literary and Cultural Studies Research Cluster from 2004-2009, and as Acting Director of Global Studies in the Arts and Humanities in 2008. She has been core faculty in the GenCen since its founding, has twice served as chair of the GenCen Advisory Committee, has been a Fellow of the HUB for Innovations in Teaching and Learning (now the Center for Innovation in Teaching and Learning), and has undertaken Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion training through a variety of programs.

Her early research includes the history and theory of drama (including Shakespeare), poetry and poetics, historiography, and women writers; her recent research focuses on questions of political theory and political formations across early modern and contemporary contexts. Her first book,Text /Events in Early Modern England: Poetics of History (Ashgate, 2007) explores early modern strategies of authority, authorship, and social formation, undertaking comparative analysis of historiographic and dramatic records of events, as a means more clearly assess the nature of historical events documented therein, and offering insight into the challenges of interpreting historical accounts. Her second book, Shakespeare’s Foreign Queens: Drama, Politics, and the Enemy Within (Palgrave, 2018), brings contemporary and early modern theories of sovereignty to bear on Shakespeare’s depictions of women from ‘enemy nations’ who marry into foreign royal families as queens consort or empresses. She considers their vexed relationship to their new political contexts and families and explores the implications of four key terms in contemporary political theory: fragmented identity, hospitality, citizenship, and exile, focusing on a particular foreign queen in each chapter. She is currently developing an invited monograph for Arden’s ‘Shakespeare and Theory’ series (editor Evelyn Gajowski), titled Shakespeare and Political Theology, which will offer an introduction to the key concepts and theorists of ‘political theology’, provide a an overview of scholarship related to this theoretical approach, and undertake an analysis of Shakespeare’s history plays through the lens of political theology. Projected publication date Spring 2025. Additionally, related to her interest in sociopolitical formations, she is planning a longer-range research project on ‘Commons, Commoning, and the Common Good’, which will link early modern and historical theories and practices related to these three concepts, with the aim of making visible the long historical project of thinking, living, and working in cooperative, collaborative, and mutually sustaining ways.

She has received research awards including the Intramural Research Grant from MSU (2004-5 and 2009-10), a Fellowship from the Folger Shakespeare Library (2007), and Newberry Library Early Modern Studies Consortium funding, which have supported research residencies at the Newberry Library, the Folger Library, the British Library, and the British Film Institute. In both her teaching and research, she endeavors to use theoretical and literary texts of the past to reflect on critical, social, and political questions of the present.

Courses

“Gender in Medieval and Renaissance Europe”

“Early Modern Utopias”
(Integrative Studies Program)

“English Literature to 1660”

“Shakespeare”

“Women Playwrights in Early Modern England”

“Poetry and Poetics”

“The Problem of History”

“Emergent Modernity”

“England as Colony and Colonizer”

“Sovereignty and State Violence”

Team-taught Interdisciplinary Graduate Seminars

“Women and the Problem of Agency in the Pre-Modern World”

“Self and Other in the Medieval and Early Modern World”

“The Nature of Nature”

University News

Citizen Scholars Program Graduates Its First Students
Published May 1, 2019 in College of Arts & Letters
group of young people all wearing green graduation robes and caps who are smiling and clapping
The Citizen Scholars program, which launched in Fall 2016 to prepare the next generation of diverse, high-achieving, and engaged citizen leaders, has graduated its first three students. A…Read now »
ATD Major One of the First to Graduate from Citizen Scholars Program
Published April 26, 2019 in College of Arts & Letters
Photo of girl with long brown hair smiling wearing a green turtleneck with a gold necklace
Allison Steffen will be one of the first three students to graduate from the College of Arts & Letters’ Citizen Scholars program, which launched in the fall 2016 to help prepare the…Read now »
Citizen Scholars Install Sexual Assault Awareness Public Art
Published May 2, 2018 in College of Arts & Letters
Photo of teal ribbon art installation on chain link fence
Students from the College of Arts & Letters Citizen Scholars Program recently proposed and installed a public art piece, titled Reweaving our Social Fabric: Fiber Installation…Read now »
Course Helps to Save Wildlife Through Interdisciplinary Collaboration
Published April 13, 2018 in College of Arts & Letters
art of elephants made out of wire and beads standing on polished wood
An experiential, interdisciplinary, and entrepreneurial problem-based class, Michigan State University’s Snares to Wares course explores issues concerning the conservation of wildlife and…Read now »
Citizen Scholars Learn from Unique Forms of Artistic and Cultural Expression
Published January 4, 2018 in College of Arts & Letters
students taking notes on posters at the exhibit
During their first semester at Michigan State University, students in the Citizen Scholars program were exposed to unfamiliar forms of artistic and cultural expression and asked to…Read now »
AAHD Class Creates Mural for Downtown East Lansing
Published November 1, 2017 in College of Arts & Letters
Man with headphones, a hat, and glasses painting a brightly colored mural.
A Department of Art, Art History, and Design class project is now on permanent display in downtown East Lansing. The Public Art: Understanding and Practice class, taught by Ben…Read now »
Shakespearean Theatre Conference Offers Student Great Learning Experience
Published October 2, 2017 in College of Arts & Letters
Sam Meade's paperwork from the Shakespearean Theatre Conference
Sam Meade, Theatre and History double major.  For five days this past summer, Sam Meade, a Citizen Scholar and sophomore double majoring in Theatre and History, attended the Shakespearean…Read now »
Citizen Scholars Program Receives $50,000 Gift
Published May 3, 2017 in College of Arts & Letters
man in glasses posing with blonde woman
The Citizen Scholars program in Michigan State University’s College of Arts & Letters has received a $50,000 gift to help support students in the program. The gift, from MSU alumnus Dr….Read now »
Citizen Scholars Program Launches
Published August 22, 2016 in College of Arts & Letters
beaumont tower at nighttime next to glowing lantern
The College of Arts & Letters’ Citizen Scholars program, which kicks off this fall with more than 90 students enrolled, is at the center of a strategic initiative to enrich the…Read now »
CAL Alumni Association Presents Faculty Awards
Published April 22, 2016 in College of Arts & Letters
group picture of faculty with awards
Joined by the College of Arts & Letters Alumni Association Board (photo bottom right), and CAL staff members, Acting Dean Elizabeth H. Simmons presented the 2015 CAL Alumni Association Faculty…Read now »