About John Yargo

I am a Visiting Assistant Professor at Boston College. I earned my PhD in English from the University of Massachusetts Amherst. My specializations are early modern literature, the environmental humanities, and critical race studies. My dissertation explores early modern representations of environmental catastrophe, and my peer-reviewed articles have been published or are forthcoming in Early Theatre, Studies in Philology, The Journal for Early Modern Cultural Studies, and Shakespeare Studies.

More information at johnyargo.com

John Yargo is a Visiting Assistant Professor of Environmental Humanities at Boston College. He holds a Ph.D. in English from the University of Massachusetts Amherst. His specializations are early modern literature, the environmental humanities, and critical race studies. His dissertation explores early modern representations of environmental catastrophe, including William Shakespeare's The Tempest, Aphra Behn's Oroonoko, and John Milton's Paradise Lost. He has published in Early Theatre, Studies in Philology, The Journal for Early Modern Cultural Studies, and Shakespeare Studies.

John's website

NBN Episodes hosted by John:

Miles P. Grier, "Inkface: Othello and White Authority in the Era of Atlantic Slavery" (U Virginia Press, 2023)

January 15, 2024

Inkface

Miles P. Grier
Hosted by John Yargo

In his new book Inkface: Othello and White Authority in the Era of Atlantic Slavery (University of Virginia Press, 2023), Miles P. Grier argues that b…

Jonathan Kramnick, "Criticism and Truth: On Method in Literary Studies" (U Chicago Press, 2023)

December 19, 2023

Criticism and Truth

Jonathan Kramnick
Hosted by John Yargo

Today’s guest is Jonathan Kramnick, the author of a new book, Criticism and Truth: On Method in Literary Studies (University of Chicago Press, 2023). …

Ian Smith, "Black Shakespeare: Reading and Misreading Race" (Cambridge UP, 2022)

November 24, 2023

Black Shakespeare

Ian Smith
Hosted by John Yargo

In Black Shakespeare: Reading and Misreading Race (Cambridge University Press, 2022), Ian Smith urges readers of Othello, The Merchant of Venice, and …

Caroline Levine, "The Activist Humanist: Form and Method in the Climate Crisis" (Princeton UP, 2023)

November 9, 2023

The Activist Humanist

Caroline Levine
Hosted by John Yargo
Listen:

W. H. Auden once said, “Poetry makes nothing happen.” Auden’s quote has been used for so many purposes, it might be worth remembering what he meant. A…

Seamus Heaney’s Afterlives: A Discussion with Joseph Nugent and Vera Kreilkamp

November 8, 2023

Seamus Heaney’s Afterlives

Joseph Nugent and Vera Kreilkamp
Hosted by John Yargo

In 1995, Seamus Heaney was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature. During his speech, he explained that the adequacy of lyric poetry spoke to the “‘tem…

Maaheen Ahmed, "The Cambridge Companion to Comics" (Cambridge UP, 2023)

November 4, 2023

The Cambridge Companion to Comics

Maaheen Ahmed
Hosted by John Yargo

Today’s guest is Maaheen Ahmed, who has edited a new collection of essays, The Cambridge Companion to Comics (Cambridge University Press, 2023). This …

Debapriya Sarkar, "Possible Knowledge: The Literary Forms of Early Modern Science" (U Pennsylvania Press, 2023)

September 30, 2023

Possible Knowledge

Debapriya Sarkar
Hosted by John Yargo

Debapriya Sarkar’s new book, titled Possible Knowledge: The Literary Forms of Early Modern Science (U Pennsylvania Press, 2023) is a study of how poet…

Edgar Garcia, "Emergency: Reading the Popol Vuh in a Time of Crisis" (U Chicago Press, 2022)

September 16, 2023

Emergency

Edgar Garcia
Hosted by John Yargo

Today’s guest is Edgar Garcia. Garcia’s new book Emergency: Reading the Popol Vuh in a Time of Crisis (University of Chicago Press, 2022). Emergency …

Kristen Lopez, "But Have You Read the Book?: 52 Literary Gems That Inspired Our Favorite Films" (Running Press Adult, 2023)

September 12, 2023

But Have You Read the Book?

Kristen Lopez
Hosted by John Yargo
Listen:

Published earlier this year from Running Press, Kristen Lopez’s But Have You Read the Book?: 52 Literary Gems That Inspired Our Favorite Films looks …

Taylor Cowdery, "Matter and Making in Early English Poetry: Literary Production from Chaucer to Sidney" (Cambridge UP, 2023)

September 6, 2023

Matter and Making in Early English Poetry

Taylor Cowdery
Hosted by John Yargo
Listen:

Is the raw material of literature the paper, ink, vellum, paphyrus, and increasingly electronic data that it is inscribed on? Or is the stuff of liter…

Aaron Kunin, "Character as Form" (Bloomsbury, 2019)

September 1, 2023

Character as Form

Aaron Kunin
Hosted by John Yargo
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Today’s guest is Aaron Kunin, Professor of English at Pomona College. We will discuss two books Aaron published in 2019: the first is Character as For…

Denise Gigante, "Book Madness: A Story of Book Collectors in America" (Yale UP, 2022)

August 29, 2023

Book Madness

Denise Gigante
Hosted by John Yargo

In February 1848, a book auction took place in Astor House, No. 7, on the corner of Broadway and Vesey in lower Manhattan, New York. By all accounts, …

Vanessa I. Corredera, "Reanimating Shakespeare's Othello in Post-Racial America" (Edinburgh UP, 2022)

August 27, 2023

Reanimating Shakespeare's Othello in Post-Racial America

Vanessa I. Corredera
Hosted by John Yargo

Vanessa I. Corredera’s book Reanimating Shakespeare's Othello in Post-Racial America (Edinburgh Univeristy Press, 2022) looks at how that seventeenth-…

Hollis Robbins, "Forms of Contention: Influence and the African American Sonnet Tradition" (U Georgia Press, 2020)

August 26, 2023

Forms of Contention

Hollis Robbins
Hosted by John Yargo

As I learned from Hollis Robbins’s monograph Forms of Contention: Influence and the African American Sonnet Tradition (U Georgia Press, 2020), there h…

Jeffrey J. Cohen and Julian Yates, "Noah's Arkive" (U Minnesota Press, 2023)

August 24, 2023

Noah's Arkive

Jeffrey J. Cohen and Julian Yates
Hosted by John Yargo
Listen:

At a moment when the world has tipped over into irreversible violence and corruption, a divinity contacts a righteous man. The man is directed to buil…

Ramzi Fawaz, "The New Mutants: Superheroes and the Radical Imagination of American Comics" (NYU Press, 2016)

August 17, 2023

The New Mutants

Ramzi Fawaz
Hosted by John Yargo
Listen:

Today’s guest is Ramzi Fawaz, the Romnes Professor of English at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Published by NYU Press in 2016, The New Mutants:…

Toril Moi, "Revolution of the Ordinary: Literary Studies After Wittgenstein, Austin, and Cavell" (U Chicago Press, 2017)

July 22, 2023

Revolution of the Ordinary

Toril Moi
Hosted by John Yargo

Today’s guest is Toril Moi, whose book Revolution of the Ordinary: Literary Studies After Wittgenstein, Austin and Cavell (University of Chicago Press…

"Companionable Thinking: Spenser With..." Spencer Studies, Volume 37 (2023)

July 21, 2023

"Companionable Thinking: Spenser With..."

Namratha Rao, Joe Moshenska, and David Hillman
Hosted by John Yargo
Listen:

Volume 37 of Spenser Studies is a special issue on the theme of “Companionable Thinking: Spenser With.” As guest editors of this collection of essays,…

Wayne Deakin, "Modern Language, Philosophy and Criticism" (Palgrave Macmillan, 2023)

July 14, 2023

Modern Language, Philosophy and Criticism

Wayne Deakin
Hosted by John Yargo
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Today’s guest is Wayne Deakin, whose new book, Modern Language, Philosophy, and Criticism, has just published by Palgrave Macmillan in summer 2023. Mo…

Eliot Borenstein, "Marvel Comics in The 1970s: The World Inside Your Head" (Cornell UP, 2023)

July 11, 2023

Marvel Comics in The 1970s

Eliot Borenstein
Hosted by John Yargo
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I am excited to welcome Eliot Borenstein to the podcast today to discuss his new monograph, Marvel Comics in the 1970s: The World Inside Your Head, pu…

Kevin Killeen, "The Unknowable in Early Modern Thought: Natural Philosophy and the Poetics of the Ineffable" (Stanford UP, 2023)

July 9, 2023

The Unknowable in Early Modern Thought

Kevin Killeen
Hosted by John Yargo
Listen:

Today’s guest is Kevin Killeen whose new monograph, The Unknowable in Early Modern Thought: Natural Philosophy and the Poetics of the Ineffable, has j…

Adhaar Noor Desai, "Blotted Lines: Early Modern English Literature and the Poetics of Discomposition" (Cornell UP, 2023)

July 4, 2023

Blotted Lines

Adhaar Noor Desai
Hosted by John Yargo
Listen:

Almost every student that will enroll in a college Shakespeare course can expect two things. Students will have to engage with the style and themes of…

Katie Kadue, "Domestic Georgic: Labors of Preservation from Rabelais to Milton" (U Chicago Press, 2021)

July 3, 2023

Domestic Georgic

Katie Kadue
Hosted by John Yargo
Listen:

Many early modern humanists would balk at the proposition that what they did amounted to housework. They were far more likely to reach for the heroic …

Katherine Gillen et al., "The Bard in the Borderlands: An Anthology of Shakespeare Appropriations en la Frontera" (ACMRS, 2023)

April 30, 2023

The Bard in the Borderlands

Katherine Gillen, Adrianna M. Santos, and Kathryn Vomero Santos
Hosted by John Yargo

First performed in the Milagro Theater of Portland, Oregon in 2014, Olga Sanchez Saltveit’s ¡O Romeo! imagines William Shakespeare, late in his life, …