Folger Community Scholars

Faith Acker is an independent scholar based in Washington, DC. Her current project, on satirical portrayals of servants and tradesmen in seventeenth-century poetical miscellanies, has been supported by fellowships at the Folger Shakespeare Library (2019), Beinecke Library (2020, 2024), Bodleian Library (2020, taken 2022), and American Trust for the British Library (2023-24).

Faith’s recent publications include First Readers of Shakespeare’s Sonnets, 1590-1790 (Routledge, 2020) and “Manuscript Precedents for Editorial Practices in John Benson’s Poems: Written by Wil. Shake-Speare. Gent.” (Shakespeare Quarterly, 2020). With Benedicte Miyamoto, she co-wrote “Writing himself into a profession: Knowledge, skills and community in John Martin’s Several receipts for the use of mankind.” (Eighteenth Century Life, 2024).

Faith has previously taught at the University of Sheffield, Cornerstone Academy, Pellissippi State Community College, Montgomery College, Northern Virginia Community College, Southeastern Louisiana University, and Signum University, where she was Director of the Graduate School from 2023-2025. She has been a member of the Folger Community Scholars since its earliest days and is delighted and honored to serve as one of its co-convenors.

Liam Thomas Daley is a scholar, teacher, and dramaturg focusing on medieval and early modern drama. His teaching in the English Department at the University of Maryland, College Park, and in the Department of Language and Literature at Signum University includes courses on Shakespeare, Chaucer, queer literature, and scriptwriting.

Research areas within medieval and Renaissance studies include theatre history, queer history, and new formalism. He has presented work at and organized seminars for the Shakespeare Association of America and the Modern Language Association. As a dramaturg, he has worked with Brave Spirits Theatre Company in Washington, DC, and with PLS (Poculi Ludique Societas) in Toronto for their 2025 staging of all fifty plays in the medieval York Cycle. He holds a PhD in English Literature from the University of Maryland and a Master of Letters in Shakespeare Studies from St. Andrews University in Scotland.

A Reader at the Folger Shakespeare Library since 2014, Liam has also participated in the Folger’s Andrew W. Mellon Summer Institute on English Paleography directed by Dr. Heather Wolfe. He has served as one of the Folger Community Scholars organizers with Faith Acker and Justine DeCamillis since summer 2024.

Justine DeCamillis is an award-winning faculty member in the College of Behavioral and Social Sciences and the Director of the Justice and Legal Thought program at the University of Maryland, College Park. She is a graduate of the University of Massachusetts Amherst with a Bachelors and Masters of Arts in English and a license in secondary education with a minor in Art History. In 2021, she received her Ph.D. in English from UMD along with an international fellowship and several accolades for her contribution to the campus community. Her research interests include the history of attention and animation in the public imagination, particularly how legal systems across history defined personhood.

During her time at the Folger, Dr. DeCamillis worked in a variety of roles serving the Folger Institute’s Scholarly Programs. She developed curriculum and tracking for the Teaching Shakespeare to Undergraduates NEH microgrant project, coordinated the Amherst fellows program, co-edited the DIY Second Quarto Project, and was the Administrative Assistant for Scholarly Programs. Most recently, Dr. DeCamillis was the project coordinator for “Before ‘Farm to Table’: Early Modern Foodways and Cultures,” the inaugural project of the Mellon Initiative in Collaborative Research. For this grant, she organized related academic events, international collaborations, and interactive exhibits. She looks forward to continuing to serve the Institute and brilliant Folger scholars as a co-convener of the Folger Community Scholars.