I am Professor of English and Theatre Studies at York University. I am the author of Girl Culture in the Middle Ages and Renaissance (Bloomsbury, 2023) and Shakespeare and the Performance of Girlhood (Palgrave, 2014). My first book, The French Fetish from Chaucer to Shakespeare (Cambridge, 2004) won the Roland Bainton Prize from the Sixteenth Century Society.

Visit site

Dr. Bernice Mittertreiner Neal, PhD
Adjunct Faculty, Department of English
York University

Bernice Mittertreiner Neal, PhD

I am a Fellow of the Centre for Renaissance and Reformation Studies at Victoria College, University of Toronto. My current project considers connections between medieval female performers of devotional dance and women arrested for dancing in later centuries. Research for this project comes from my work with the GEES Project, for which I compile evidence of the medieval and Renaissance girl actor. My most recent project is about stage props in Shakespeare’s Pericles and is forthcoming in The Shakespearean International Yearbook.

I am an undergraduate student pursuing an Honours BSc in Psychology. I find it essential to credit the previously unknown cultural activities of girls and women, which could help shift the perspective on women and girls’ participation in history. This research project ultimately empowers women, which is a strong passion of mine. During my spare time, I like to dance, exercise, and binge-watch Netflix and anime series. I also enjoy playing with my husky, Oreo.