Margaret Oakes
Margaret J. Oakes is a Professor of English at Furman University and has been teaching at Furman since 1996. Her academic areas of teaching and research are English Renaissance literature, including such authors as George Herbert, William Shakespeare, John Milton, and Margaret Cavendish. Her avocational interests include British detective fiction and children’s fantasy literature, and she has published on poet George Herbert, mystery writer Dorothy Sayers and Harry Potter creator J.K. Rowling. Her book on gender identity and expression in Shakespearean performance, To Gender or Not to Gender: Casting and Characters for 21st Century Shakespeare, was published by McFarland and Co. in July, 2024. Prior to her academic career she practiced securities regulation law in Chicago. An Illinois native, she is a graduate of the University of Illinois (BA and JD) and Stanford University (PhD).
