Melissa E. Sanchez

Religion, race, and sexuality

This graduate seminar examines how religion, race, sexuality, and gender have been mutually constituted across early modern, modern, and contemporary literature and thought. Through comparative readings and student-led presentations, participants analyze the theological and political forces that shape identity, difference, and hierarchy.

White chivalry in The Faerie Queene

Edmund Spenser’s The Faerie Queene aimed “to fashion a gentleman or noble person.” Reading the poem’s allegories alongside later narratives of white chivalry reveals how stories about vulnerable women, masculine protectors, and racialized threats have been adapted across centuries of literature, culture, and politics.