Elaine McGirr is a literary and theatre historian specialising in the long eighteenth century.  Research interests include politics and/of performance, eighteenth-century Shakespeare, celebrity studies, and the intersections of gender and genre. Recent publications include Partial Histories: a Reappraisal of Colley Cibber (Palgrave, 2016), Stage Mothers: Women, Work and the Theatre 1660-1830 (Bucknell, 2014) and articles on Richardson, Aphra Behn, Shakespearean adaptation, eighteenth-century comedies, private theatricals, celebrity, and the authority of actresses. Her current project, 'The Age of the Actress,' recovers the careers of eighteenth-century actresses and the plays that made them famous.