Kelly D. Williams, PhD

Education and Certification

Certificate in Business Communication (Present). Emory Continuing Education.

PhD, English, Emory University (2023). Dissertation: “War Pastoral: Martial Eco-spaces in Early Modern Literature.” Chair: Patricia Cahill, PhD. Committee: Ross Knecht, PhD, Deepika Bahri, PhD.

M.A. Irish Literature and Culture, with distinction, Boston College (2017). Thesis: “Betwixt Both: Tragicomedy, Masque, and the Old English in Henry Burnell’s Landgartha.” Director: James Smith, PhD.

B.A. English, summa cum laude, University of Florida (2010). Honors Thesis: “Bruce Wayne’s Traumatic Past and Batman’s New History: Ego-Ideal and Ideal Ego in the Batman Origin Myth.” Director: Terry Harpold, PhD. Reader: Donald Ault, PhD.

Professional Experience

Professional Consultant, Naugle Writing and Communication Center, Georgia Institute of Technology (January – May 2026)

Marion L. Brittain Postdoctoral Fellow, Writing and Communication Program, Georgia Institute of Technology (August 2023 – May 2026)

Dean’s Teaching Fellow, Center for Faculty Development and Excellence, Emory University (August 2022 – May 2023)

Graduate Assistant Editor, Center for Faculty Development and Excellence, Emory University (August 2018 – May 2022)

Freelance Researcher, Rose Manuscript, Archives, and Rare Books Library, Emory University (August 2018 – May 2022)

Academic Technology Consultant, Center for Teaching Excellence, Boston College (July 2015 – June 2017)

Instructional Coach, Holmes Elementary and Kelsey Pharr Elementary, Miami-Dade County Public Schools (August 2012 – May 2015)

K-6 Mathematics Teacher / TFA Corps Member, Miami-Dade County Public Schools (August 2010 – May 2012)

Publications

• Kelly Williams, Meryem Yilmaz Soylu, Jeonghyun Lee, and Alison Valk, “From Presence to Interpretation: How Confidence Shapes Immersive Literacy in VR.” Forthcoming, July 2026 in Immersive Learning Research Network 2026 Conference Proceedings.
• Kelly Williams, Meryem Yilmaz Soylu, Jeonghyun Lee, and Alison Valk, “Virtual Reality (VR) and Multimodal Communication,” TechStyle: A Forum for Multimodal Pedagogy and Research by the Brittain Fellows at Georgia Tech, April 2026.
• Kelly Duquette, “Disabled for England: Crip/Queer Veterans in Henry V,” Shakespeare, vol. 20.2 (2024), 191-217.
• Kelly Duquette, “Blackfishing Complexions: Shakespeare, Passing, and the Politics of Beauty.” Inclusive Shakespeares: Identity, Pedagogy, Performance, edited by Sonya Loftis, Mardy Philippian, and Justin Shaw (New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2023).
• John Gulledge, Kelly Duquette, Mary Taylor Mann, “The Puck Project: A Shakespeare Performance and Ethics Program for Kids,” Early Modern Culture Online vol. 7 (2019), 45 – 65.
• Kelly Duquette, “Environmental Colonialism,” Postcolonial Studies at Emory (2020).

Presentations, Panels, and Roundtables

Writing and Communication Pedagogy

• “Page to Presence: VR and Multimodal Communication.” Workshop sponsored by TechStyle Committee at Georgia Tech (May 2026).
• “From Presence to Interpretation: How Confidence Shapes Immersive Literacy in VR,” with Meryem Yilmaz Soylu, Jeonghyun Lee, and Alison Valk. Immersive Learning Research Network (iLRN) (June 2026).
• Panelist, “Decoding Advanced Research: Offering Feedback on Specialized Subjects.” Reflection and Praxis: Tutoring at the Writing Center Conference. NWCC Georgia Tech (April 2026).
• Panelist, “Rubrics for Writing: Responding to Quantitative Grading Requirements in a Qualitative Discipline” (April 2026).
• “From Page to Virtual Stage: VR in Multimodal Communication,” with Meryem Yilmaz Soylu, Alison Valk, and Ameya Sawadkar. Poster presented at the Center for Teaching and Learning’s Celebrating Teaching Day (March 2026).
• “Immersive Rhetorics: VR in the Composition Classroom,” with Meryem Yilmaz Soylu and Alison Valk. 47th Annual Spring Conference on the Teaching of Writing. Old Dominion University (February 2026).
• “Shakespeare-VR in the Composition Classroom,” poster presented at the Center for Teaching and Learning’s Celebrating Teaching Day (March 2025).

Faculty, Postdoctoral Scholar, and Graduate Student Development

• “Grant Writing Workshop for Postdoctoral Scholars,” with Dr. Anila Shree. Naugle Writing and Communication Center and WCP Grant Writing Committee (March 2026).
• “Navigating Difficult Conversations Informed by Melody Stanford Martin’s Brave Talk,” with Donna Troka. Faculty Workshop (April 2023).
• “Navigating Difficult Conversations” with Donna Troka. Presentation for Emory Department of English Graduate Students (March 2023).
• “Decolonizing and Indigenous Pedagogies” with Donna Troka. Presentation to School of Nursing Faculty (March 2023).
• “Gender Diversity in the Classroom and Workplace” with Donna Troka. Presentation to School of Nursing Faculty (January 2023).
• “Flexibility in the Classroom” with Donna Troka. Faculty Workshop (January 2023).
• “Writing a DEI Statement” with Donna Troka. Presentation for Emory Graduate Students (January 2023).
• “Managing Classroom Disruptions” with Donna Troka. Faculty Workshop (December 2022).
• “Writing Teaching Statements for the Academic Job Market” with Donna Troka. Workshop for Emory Graduate Students (November 2022).
• “Alternatives to Decolonizing the Classroom” with Donna Troka. CFDE Summer Teaching Intensive (August 2022).
• “Inclusive Pedagogy” with Donna Troka. Teaching Assistant Training and Teaching Opportunity Program (TATTO), Laney Graduate School, Emory University (August 2022).

English Literature Conferences

• “’I’the city of kites and crows:’ Corvids and Early Modern Sanitation.” Georgia Medieval Group. Atlanta, Georgia (April 2024).
• “Asphaltis Lake: Colonial Mining in Marlowe’s Tamburlaine II.” Seminar: Energy Transitions in Long Modernity. Shakespeare Association of America, Portland, Oregon (2024).
• “Disability Futures: Crip/Queer Veterans in Henry V.” Seminar: The World Must Be Peopled: Biopolitics and Early Modern Sexuality, Labor, and Race.” Shakespeare Association of America, Minneapolis, Minnesota (2023).
• “Shakespeare and the Anti-Racist Classroom,” panelist, Shakespeare Association of America, Jacksonville, Florida (2022).
• “’That must be private’: Concealing the Production of Whiteness in Ben Jonson’s Epicoene.” South Central Renaissance Conference, Texas Tech University (2019).
• “Mummies and Mother Tongues: Necropolitics in Ní Dhomhnaill’s ‘Oscailt an Tuama’.” American Conference of Irish Studies, Boston (2019).
• “Chaste and Warlike Maids: Shame and Allegory in Henry Burnell’s Landgartha (1640)” at the American Conference for Irish Studies (ACIS), University College Cork (2018).
• “Radical Networks: Locating Ireland in Marvell’s ‘The Loyal Scot’” at the South-Central Renaissance Conference, Atlanta (2018).
• “Ashamed and Tamed: Civilizing the Irish in Marvell’s ‘Horatian Ode’” at the South-Central Renaissance Conference, University of Texas at Austin (2017)
• “Navigating Nationalism: Female Self-Determination in Kate O’Brien’s The Land of Spices” at the “Women’s Right to Literature” Conference, Boston College Center for Irish Studies (2017).
• “Planted newly with the time: Husbandry and Sovereignty in Shakespeare’s Macbeth” at the Massachusetts Center for Renaissance Studies Graduate Conference, Amherst, MA (2016).
• “Shakespeare’s ‘uncivil kerns:’ Irish Contagion and the Emerging British nation-state” at the Tudor and Stuart Ireland Conference, National University Ireland, Galway (2016).

Selected Awards and Grants

• Teaching with Technology Partnership. Center for Teaching and Learning. Georgia Institute of Technology (August 2025 – May 2026).
• Georgia Humanities Grant: “Shakespeare in Community: Narratives of Transformative Practice” Speaker Series featuring The Sonnet Man, Sammie Byron (Shakespeare Behind Bars), Christy Burgess (Robinson Community Learning Center), Savvy Theatre UK, and Chesapeake Shakespeare Company (Spring 2023)
• Group Discussion Leader, Dialogues and the Experience of War Grant Program, sponsored by the National Endowment for the Humanities. Principal Investigator: Henry Bayerle, PhD, Project Title: “Literature and the Experience of War: The Concept of Duty from Ancient Rome to WWII and Vietnam” (Spring 2022).
• Best Graduate Essay Prize, “A Soul Hung Up: Examining the Body in Marvell’s ‘A Dialogue between the Soul and Body,’” Emory Department of English (Spring 2022)
• Honorable Mention, 2021 SAA Shakespeare Publics Award, “The Puck Project”
• Newberry Renaissance Consortium Grant. Early Modern Anglo-Muslim Encounters (2019)
• Jones Program in Ethics Mini Grant, “The Puck Project,” Laney Graduate School, Emory University (2019)
• Mellon Humanities Intervention Program Award, “Healing Trauma with Performative Arts,” Laney Graduate School, Emory University (2018)
• John M. Wallace Award, Andrew Marvell Society, 2017
• Donald J. White Teaching Excellence Award, Boston College, 2017
• Kiara Kharpertian Award for Intellectual and Professional Risk Taking, Boston College, 2016

Invited Talks, Panels, Roundtables

• “Worlds in Motion: Exploring Interactive Media and Emerging Technologies.” CTRL+CM Speaker Series. Georgia Tech Computational Media (March 2026).
• “Shakespeare through the Screen.” Interview. Lost in the Stacks podcast with Charlie Bennett. Georgia Tech Library (January 2026).
• “All the worldʼs a stage: Shakespeare-VR in ENGL1102.” TechScape: Exploring Extended Reality- XR Showcase Day. Georgia Tech Library (October 2025).
• “Doing Differently? Examining (Mis)Representations of Gender, Race, and Class in Irish Studies.” Roundtable panelist, American Conference of Irish Studies, Boston (2019).
• “The Puck Project: A Shakespeare Service-Learning Project.” Invited talk at the Laney Graduate School Jones Program in Ethics at Emory University (2019).
• “A Masque at Irish Court: Henry Burnell, Ben Jonson, and Ireland’s First Theatre” at Emory English Department Graduate Colloquy (2017).

Fellowships

• Dean’s Teaching Fellow, Center for Faculty Development and Excellence, Laney Graduate School, Emory University, 2022-23
• Hatchery, Center for Innovation Take Flight Fellow, 2021-2022
• Notre Dame Irish Seminar Tuition Fellowship, Notre Dame International, Dublin, 2018
• Laney Graduate School Fellow, Emory University, 2017 – 2022
• Morrissey School of Arts and Sciences Teaching Fellow, Boston College, 2017

Exhibitions and Digital Projects

• Education at Emory in a Changing World, Curated Group Exhibition at Robert W. Woodruff Library, Emory University, Atlanta, GA, 2018
• Leopold Bloom’s Bookshelf, Curated Group Digital Exhibition, hosted via MediaKron at Boston College, 2015

Training, Professional Development

• Facilitator: AI(Squared): Academic Integrity, Artificial Intelligence, and the Rise of ChatGPT, “Classroom Considerations Around AI/ChatGPT” (February 2023).
• Facilitator, DEI Fellowship, Center for Faculty Development and Excellence (Spring 2023).
• Facilitator, “Ethics and Community Engagement.” Academic Learning Community, Center for Faculty Development and Excellence (Spring 2023).
• PIVOT Seminar, Folger Shakespeare Institute Online virtual seminar (2020).
• Newberry Spring Research Methods Workshop “Early Modern Anglo-Muslim Encounters” with Professor Jyotsna Singh (2019)
• Irish Seminar Associate, Notre Dame International Summer School, Dublin (2018)
• Apprenticeship in College Teaching Program, Center for Teaching Excellence, Boston College (2017)

Service

Service to Georgia Tech

• Chair, Curriculum Committee (August 2025 – May 2026)
• Co-chair, Grant Writing Committee (August 2025 – May 2026)
• Member, AI Working Group (August 2025 – May 2026)

Service to the Profession

• Graduate Assistant/Facilitator, “New Research and Performance Directions in Premodern Disability Studies” Seminar, Folger Institute and Emory University (2021)
• Andrew Marvell Society, Elected Member, Executive Committee (2018 – 2021)

Service to Emory University

• “Works in Progress (WIPs)” Colloquy Chair (2018)
• English Department Graduate Student Social Chair (2018)

Service to Boston College

• Mentor, Boston College Graduate Mentor and McNair Scholars Program (2017)
• Faculty Search Committee, Graduate Student Representative (2016)

Academic and Professional Affiliations

• Renaissance Society of America (RSA)
• Shakespeare Association of America (SAA)
• American Conference of Irish Studies (ACIS)
• Andrew Marvell Society
• British Shakespeare Association (BSA)
• South-Central Renaissance Conference (SCRC)