Professor and chair of the Department of English at Illinois State University Dr. Katherine Ellison joins Redbird Buzz to share her expertise about ciphers and secret writing. Ellison digs into the history of ciphers in language, how they are different from codes, and how they’ve been used by literary giants like Jonathon Swift and Daniel Defoe.
Ellison’s interest in cryptography took off in 2004 during her fellowship at the Folger Shakespeare Library in Washington, D.C. Through her studies of 17th and 18th century secretary (at that point, secretary meant manager of secrets) writings and communications, she found that many were written using ciphers.
Tune into this episode to learn more about Ellison’s work and research in literature and ciphers, how the interdisciplinary nature of the Department of English has allowed her to further her studies in this area, and how language and ciphers are ever-present in our modern world.
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