Stephen Deng

Stephen Deng is an Associate Professor of Literary Studies at Michigan State University. His research focuses on early modern literature, material culture, new economic criticism, and theories of ethics and accountability. He has authored a monograph, Coinage and State Formation in Early Modern English Literature (2011), and co-edited Global Traffic: Discourses and Practices of Trade in English Literature and Culture, 1500–1700 (2008). His work bridges literary analysis with economic, legal, and materialist frameworks.

Key research themes include the intersections of money, power, and state formation, global trade discourses in early modern England, and legal/public sphere dynamics. Recent publications explore Shakespeare’s sonnets through mathematical figuration and Sir Edward Coke’s legal translation’s role in shaping early modern public institutions.

Currently, Deng is editing the Renaissance volume of A Cultural History of Money (Bloomsbury) and working on studies analyzing commercial/colonial cultural shifts (1620–1660) and a monograph on Hamlet and accountability. He teaches courses on early modern literature, material culture, and legal fictions in literature.