Valerie Billing is Associate Professor of English at Central College, where she teaches courses in medieval and early modern English literature, Shakespeare, LGBTQ+ literature and theory, and disability studies. She holds a B.A. in English from the University of Illinois and an M.A. and Ph.D. in Early Modern English Literature from the University of California, Davis. Her research interests include early modern drama and poetry, gender and sexuality studies, disability studies, and performance studies.

When not in front of a computer or a classroom, Valerie enjoys yoga, hiking, gardening, baking bread, and riding her bicycle. Since relocating to the rural Midwest in 2014, she has become fond of rural pastimes such as demolition derbies, tractor rodeos, and festivals devoted to local agricultural products.