Robin E. Bates, Professor of English, is the John M. Turner Chair in the Humanities and program director for the Applied and Public Humanities minor. Specializing in constructions of British national identity, especially the work of early modern writers like Shakespeare, Dr. Bates’ scholarly work, such as Shakespeare and the Cultural Colonization of Ireland (Routledge 2007/2008), has explored the complex place of literature in cultural contact zones. Her work since then has shifted to investigate how mapping and the relationship to land impact the development of national/regional identity, including chorographic writing such as John Leland’s Itinerary of England and Wales, for which Dr. Bates developed an online mapped index. She teaches coursework in Shakespeare and early modern British literature, literary criticism, and applied and public humanities.