Merita Ljubanovic

Merita is a doctoral candidate in the English department at the University of Massachusetts-Amherst concentrating in Renaissance Studies. Her dissertation examines representations of eastern Mediterranean women as embodied agents of a regional, cultural syncretism in early modern English literature. She argues that these texts attempt to manage the threat that these women pose to Eurocentric, patriarchal-imperial projects through forms of containment and erasure that result in their racialization, deracination, and/or assimilation. By doing so, her dissertation attempts to shed light on the complex interplay between gender, race, religion, and empire in the period. Based in New York City, she serves as a lecturer at CUNY Lehman College and the academic advisor for the Lehman Scholars Program.