Dr. Whitney Sperrazza

Biography

Whitney Sperrazza is an interdisciplinary scholar focusing on early modern literature and the histories of science. With particular interests in poetics, gender, and media archaeology, her research examines how poetry served as a tool for scientific work, especially among early modern women writers who explored and challenged the developments in anatomy and physiology. Her upcoming book, "Anatomical Forms: Science Body Early Modern Women's Poetry," published by the University of Pennsylvania Press in 2025, highlights the contributions of women poets who are often absent from the histories of literature and science, thereby shifting the focus on both content and form. This work reveals intricate inquiries into themes such as corpse preservation, dissection, and obstetrics within the context of early modern women's poetry. Currently, her research is directed toward understanding the scale of early English colonial encounters, particularly investigating the role of touch in colonial poetics and curiosity cabinets, as well as the cartographic work found in early modern women's romances. In addition to her research, she is co-editing a collection titled "Early Modern Literatures Sciences: Forms Knowledge Women's Writing" with Liza Blake, and has engaged in various additional editing projects that contribute to the academic discourse on early modern women's writing.

Research Interests