Katherine Walker

Associate Professor of English
Expertise: Renaissance literature, 16th- and 17th-century culture, Shakespearean literature, Early modern drama, History of magic

Biography

Katherine Walker is an expert in early English literature, particularly in plays and their performances. She often analyzes the elements of drama, science, and prophecy in Renaissance-era works.

Walker, an English professor who joined UNLV in 2020, is the author of Shakespeare and Science: A Dictionary. Some of her research interests include analysis of magic and science in Renaissance literature. She is particularly interested in how marginalized figures adopt or advance methods of reading the environment on the stage.

Walker’s work has appeared in the literary journals Prose Studies, Comitatus, Early Modern Literary Studies, Studies in Philology, Preternature: Critical and Historical Studies on the Preternatural, and English Literary History.

Education

  • Ph.D., English and Comparative Literature, University of North Carolina
  • M.A., English Literature, Texas Christian University
  • B.A., English Literature and Philosophy, University of North Texas

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Katherine Walker In The News

HISTORY
Christmas trees might seem timeless today, but American decorating habits have shifted dramatically over the decades. Long before tinsel, flocking or LED lights, winter greenery carried deep symbolic meaning.
K.S.N.V. T.V. News 3
Who is Santa Claus and what's his origin story? Why do we decorate a pine tree with lights? What is Yule and why does it have a log? When did gift-giving become a thing for Christmas? They're the questions you probably have or get from your kids every holiday season. Dr. Katherine Walker wants to make sure you're armed with the answers.
Forbes
In a chamber beneath the Petit Ermitage Hotel in West Hollywood, 11 seekers gather around a seance table. Deliberately left without a medium to channel the dead, they’re sequestered with their imaginations, what the event organizer calls “the liminal space between belief and disbelief in the paranormal.”
HISTORY
Halloween brings out familiar symbols like witches, jack-o’-lanterns and black cats. But the season also beckons a more macabre figure lurking inside homes, classrooms and front lawns—the skeleton.

Articles Featuring Katherine Walker

Fall colors 2025
Campus News | November 10, 2025

Some of the biggest news headlines featuring UNLV faculty and students.

Scarlet and Gray, “REB's Glitter Squad”, Lester Cruz and Isabel Ferguson, take pictures and hype up students and families during the October 2022 homecoming football game.
Campus News | November 8, 2022

A collection of news stories highlighting UNLV students and faculty who made headlines locally, regionally, and internationally.