Ann Tukey Harrison (April 19, 1938 - October 28, 2021) was an American academic specializing in

Romance Languages The Romance languages, sometimes referred to as Latin languages or Neo-Latin languages, are the various modern languages that evolved from Vulgar Latin. They are the only extant subgroup of the Italic languages in the Indo-European language fam ...

and medieval women's history.

Early life

Ann Tukey was born on April 19, 1938, in

Geneva, New York Geneva is a City (New York), city in Ontario County, New York, Ontario and Seneca County, New York, Seneca counties in the U.S. state of New York (state), New York. It is at the northern end of Seneca Lake (New York), Seneca Lake; all land port ...

, to Harold and Ruth (née Schweigert) Tukey. She attended

East Lansing High School East Lansing High School is a public high school in the city of East Lansing, Michigan, United States. It is managed by the East Lansing Public Schools district. The school is located about a mile north of the Michigan State University campus. ...

, graduating in 1954 with awards including The

Quill and Scroll Quill and Scroll is an international high school journalism honor society that recognizes and encourages both individual and group achievements in scholastic journalism. According to the Quill and Scroll website, over 14,104 high schools in all ...

for excellence in journalism and the

National Honor Society The National Honor Society (NHS) is a nationwide organization for high school students in the United States and outlying territories, which consists of many chapters in high schools. Selection is based on four criteria: scholarship (academic achi ...

. She received her university education from Michigan State University: the BA in French in 1957, the MA in French in 1958, and a PhD in linguistics from the University of Michigan in 1960. She was awarded a

Woodrow Wilson Fellowship The Institute for Citizens & Scholars (formerly known as the Woodrow Wilson National Fellowship Foundation) is a nonpartisan, non-profit based in Princeton, New Jersey that aims to strengthen American democracy by “cultivating the talent, ideas, ...

in 1957–1958. Her mother Ruth had a Ph.D. in educational psychology from Michigan State University and was a senior lecturer there. Her father Harold was the head of the Michigan State University department of horticulture. She married the theoretical physicist Michael J. Harrison in 1970. The couple were active in Jewish life in Lansing, attending the Congregation Kehillat Israel from its earliest days.

Career

Ann Tukey Harrison was professor of French at

Michigan State University Michigan State University (Michigan State, MSU) is a public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in East Lansing, Michigan. It was founded in 1855 as the Agricultural College of the State of Michigan, the fi ...

from 1965 until she became professor emerita in 1999. She also worked at the

University of Wisconsin-Madison A university () is an institution of higher (or tertiary) education and research which awards academic degrees in several academic disciplines. Universities typically offer both undergraduate and postgraduate programs. In the United States, the ...

as an instructor from 1961 to 1965 and was the Ruth Dean Lecturer at

Mount Holyoke College Mount Holyoke College is a private liberal arts women's college in South Hadley, Massachusetts. It is the oldest member of the historic Seven Sisters colleges, a group of elite historically women's colleges in the Northeastern United States. ...

in 1976. She was also the vice-president of the

American Association of Teachers of French The American Association of Teachers of French (AATF) is a professional organisation for teachers of French in the United States founded in 1927. Teachers may be involved in primary, secondary, or university education. Additionally, retired and st ...

from 1985 to 1990. Tukey Harrison specialized in fifteenth century women's history, publishing a book called ''Charles d’Orleans and the Allegorical Mode'' in 1975. The book explores whether Charles d'Orleans can be described as an allegorist. A reviewer wrote that the book had "cogent analyses, backed by appropriate textual references, it constitutes a welcome addition to Orleans criticism." In 1994, she published an English edition of ''The Danse Macabre of Women: Ms. Fr. 995 of the Bibliothèque Nationale''. This fifteenth-century, anonymously authored French poem describes 36 women of all ages in dialogue with Death. This poem is part of the

Danse Macabre The ''Danse Macabre'' (; ) (from the French language), also called the Dance of Death, is an artistic genre of allegory of the Late Middle Ages on the universality of death. The ''Danse Macabre'' consists of the dead, or a personification of ...

motif, frequently explored in the Late Middle Ages. Tukey Harrison's edition reproduces the original illuminated manuscript found in the

Bibliothèque Nationale A library is a collection of materials, books or media that are accessible for use and not just for display purposes. A library provides physical (hard copies) or digital access (soft copies) materials, and may be a physical location or a vir ...

. A digital scan of the original manuscript can be found in the Bibliotheque Nationale's online archive
Français 995, La Danse macabre des femmes
. In her review of the book, published in the periodical ''Women's Art Journal'', Laura Rinaldi Defresne wrote that Tukey's work was 'elegant' and 'meticulously researched'. Other reviewers noted that the text was 'solid' and 'accessible to students.'

Death

Ann Tukey Harrison died on October 28, 2021, in

East Lansing, Michigan East Lansing is a city in the U.S. state of Michigan. Most of the city lies within Ingham County, Michigan, Ingham County with a smaller portion extending north into Clinton County, Michigan, Clinton County. At the 2020 United States Census, 2020 ...

Publications

Books

* Harrison, Ann Tukey, et al., editors.
The Danse Macabre of Women: Ms. Fr. 995 of the Bibliothèque Nationale
'. The Kent State University Press, 1994. * Harrison, Ann T.
Charles d’Orleans and the Allegorical Mode
'. University of North Carolina Department of Romance Languages, 1975.

Articles

* Harrison, Ann Tukey (1971). Charles d’Orléans and the Renaissance. ''The Bulletin of the Rocky Mountain Modern Language Association'', ''25''(3), 86–92. https://doi.org/10.2307/1346682 * Harrison, Ann Tukey (1980). The Theme of Authority in the Works of Francois Villon. ''The Centennial Review'', ''24''(1), 65–78. http://www.jstor.org/stable/23740373 * Harrison, Ann Tukey (1981). Aude and Bramimunde: Their Importance in the Chanson de Roland. ''The French Review'', ''54''(5), 672–679. http://www.jstor.org/stable/391206 * Harrison, Ann Tukey (1982). Echo and Her Medieval Sisters. ''The Centennial Review'', ''26''(4), 324–340. http://www.jstor.org/stable/23739427 * Harrison, Ann Tukey (1989). Fifteenth-Century French Women's Role Names. ''The French Review'', ''62''(3), 436–444. http://www.jstor.org/stable/39545

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Harrison, Ann Tukey 1938 births 2021 deaths Michigan State University faculty Michigan State University alumni Historians of French literature Scholars of French literature People from Geneva, New York