She completed a B.A. (honours) in English Literature at the University of Toronto in 1989 and then moved to Aomori, Japan, where she taught English at a Japanese High-school for a year. She received an M.A. in English Literature from the University of Ottawa in 1992 and a Ph.D. in English Literature from Loyola University Chicago in May 1998. Her main field of study is English Renaissance literature, and she is particularly interested in women’s writing and Reformation history. She has published several recent articles on Katherine Parr.