Laura J. Rosenthal

Laura J. Rosenthal is a Professor of English at the University of Maryland, College Park, and serves as Director for Faculty Leadership and Development in the Office of Faculty Affairs. She holds a dual role as editor of the journal Restoration: Studies in Literature and Culture. Her academic career spans over three decades, marked by expertise in Restoration and eighteenth-century literature, theater, gender studies, and imperialism. Rosenthal’s research interrogates intersections of theater, cosmopolitanism, and empire, particularly focusing on how early modern British drama engaged with imperialism and cultural exchange.

Her major publications include Ways of the World: Theater and Cosmopolitanism in the Restoration and Beyond (2020), which examines Restoration drama’s role in shaping British imperial ambitions, and Infamous Commerce: Prostitution in Eighteenth-Century Literature and Culture (2006), analyzing how prostitute narratives reflect early capitalist identity crises. She has also edited foundational texts such as Nightwalkers: Prostitute Narratives from the Eighteenth Century (2008) and co-edited interdisciplinary volumes like Monstrous Dreams of Reason: Body, Self, and Other in the Enlightenment (2002).

Rosenthal’s honors include the Newberry/British Academy Research Award, NEH grants, and a Folger Shakespeare Library Fellowship. Her current project, Savage Indignation: The Enlightenment History of a Political Emotion, explores the political evolution of anger in Enlightenment thought. She is a vocal advocate for humanities education, contributing to debates on assessment practices and disciplinary futures in higher education.