Karen Robertson was born in Alabama, grew up in Kansas and England, went to high school in Boston, and went to college at Barnard before going on to graduate school at Columbia; Robertson is a Senior Lecturer of English and Director of Medieval and Renaissance Studies at Vassar, where she has been since 1982 (31 years). Robertson co-edited Maids and Mistresses, Cousins and Queens : Women's Alliances in Early Modern England.