Jacqueline Ridberg

Jacqueline Ridberg graduated from New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts in 2016 with a BFA in Drama (Honors). While at NYU and shortly thereafter, she acted as a literary resident for NYC’s Clubbed Thumb Theatre Company and served in freelance dramaturgical capacities for emerging playwrights and theatre companies.
After graduating, she spent a great deal of her professional career in democratic electoral politics from local municipal races to several presidential campaigns. She hopes to bring this perspective to her academic career as her research interests include storytelling as a cultural influence and how dangerous political ideas germinate in art. As an undergraduate, Jacqueline did much of this exploration through the works of Shakespeare (both as an actor and an academic) but she’s eager to investigate 20th century conflicts and the authors who shape them in her work at Villanova.
In her spare time, Jacqueline (unsurprisingly) likes to read, take long car trips with her partner to everywhere & nowhere, and spend quiet Sundays listening to an audiobook, catering to a simmering pot of Chili.