Symposium Keynote Speaker

Dr. Katherine Walker, "The Alchemy of Ideas: Navigating the World of Interdisciplinary Research"

Tuesday, April 22, 2025, 1:30 pm – 2:30 pm
Student Union 295 (Bridges Auditorium)

Katherine Walker is an Assistant Professor of English at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas. She works on the histories of magic, science, and drama, turning often to almanacs, demonology, and books of secrets in her research. Her book Instinct, Knowledge and Occult Science on the Early Modern English Stage is forthcoming with Edinburgh University Press. Walker is the author of Shakespeare and Science: A Dictionary (Bloomsbury 2021). She is co-editor with Sarah Dustagheer and Kirk Melnikoff of the forthcoming Oxford Handbook to Christopher Marlowe. In addition, her work appears in numerous journals and edited collections.

A Denton County native, Walker doubled-majored in English and Philosophy and was a Ronald E. McNair Scholar at the University of North Texas. She earned a master’s degree in English at Texas Christian University. Walker earned her PhD from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in 2018. After graduating from UNC, Walker was a visiting professor at Mount Holyoke College before joining the Department of English at UNLV. In Las Vegas, she teaches and researches on interdisciplinary topics, particularly the histories of magic and science alongside literature.

Walker focuses on the power of interdisciplinary research at the undergraduate level. She is a McNair Scholars Mentor and has advised many students in independent research projects featuring literature and astrology, mathematics, religion, and other topics. This emphasis is evident in her own scholarship on teaching first-generation scholars in a Shakespearean classroom.