Buffy Turner received her Ph.D. in Comparative Literature from Purdue University in 2014. Her dissertation, “Force and Affliction in Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz and George Herbert,” examines the strains of aggression permeating the voices of devotion in Respuesta a Sor Filotea and The Temple and considers the ways in which these writers represent and elaborate upon the topic of affliction. In aiming to generate dialogue across national and religious—as well as linguistic and gender-based—boundaries, she has become increasingly interested in current theoretical and pedagogical approaches to comparative inquiry and in articulating the role of World Literature in the context of increasing globalization.
The courses she has taught include Spanish, composition, Introduction to Fiction, Great Narrative Works, Shakespeare on Film, World Literature, and Renaissance Literature. She has presented her work at conferences such as the American Comparative Literature Association (ACLA), the Midwest Modern Language Association (MMLA), and the Michigan Academy of Science, Arts and Letters (MASAL). Her essays on George Herbert have appeared in recent special editions of Cithara: Essays in the Judaeo-Christian Tradition.