Professor of Literature B.A., Messiah College; M.A., California State University, Los Angeles; Ph.D., University of California, Riverside

Dr. Blessing joined the PLNU faculty in 1993.  Recent publications and scholarly work:

Book reviews in Renaissance Forum (Summer 2005) and Renaissance Quarterly (Spring 2006

Essays “John Webster,” “Robert Herrick,” and the “Globe Theater Fire” forthcoming in Great Events and Great Lives—The Seventeenth Century series—published by Salem Press, 2006.

Essay “Mary Astell” forthcoming in Great Lives—The Eighteenth Century series—Salem Press, 2006.

Essay “Speaking Out: Feminist Theology and Women’s Proclamation in the Wesleyan Tradition”—Chapter co-written with Lisa Bernal forthcoming in Being Feminist, Being Christian ed. Bettina Tate Pedersen and Allyson Jule collection, Palgrave Press.

“Elizabeth I as Deborah the Judge: Exceptional Women of Power” chapter forthcoming in Goddesses and Queens, ed. Lisa Hopkins and Annalises Connolly, University of Manchester Press.

First PLNU Wesleyan Center Visiting Scholar to the Nazarene Theological College, Manchester UK—Summer 2005

“Mary Tooth of Madeley: Re-visioning Vocation” paper presented at the February, 2006 Wesleyan Center Conference

“The Trials of Mary Stuart: Anxious Circulations in Webster’s Drama” Paper accepted for presentation at the April, 2006 Shakespeare Association of America Conference in Philadelphia.

Wesleyan Grant—Summer 2006