Doris Sommer (born January 15, 1947) is a literature scholar. She is Ira Jewell Williams, Jr., Professor of

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 Literatures and of

African African or Africans may refer to: * Anything from or pertaining to the continent of Africa: ** People who are native to Africa, descendants of natives of Africa, or individuals who trace their ancestry to indigenous inhabitants of Africa *** Ethn ...

and African American Studies at Harvard University. She is also Director of th
Cultural Agents Initiative
at Harvard. Sommer received her PhD from

Rutgers University Rutgers University (; RU), officially Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey, is a Public university, public land-grant research university consisting of four campuses in New Jersey. Chartered in 1766, Rutgers was originally called Queen's ...

. In 1994, she was a Guggenheim fellow in Latin America literature. In February 2022, Sommer was one of 38 Harvard faculty to sign a letter to the

Harvard Crimson The Harvard Crimson are the intercollegiate athletic teams of Harvard College. The school's teams compete in NCAA Division I. As of 2013, there were 42 Division I intercollegiate varsity sports teams for women and men at Harvard, more than at ...

defending Professor

John Comaroff John L. Comaroff (born 1 January 1945) is Professor of African and African American Studies and of Anthropology, Oppenheimer Fellow in African Studies at Harvard University. He is recognised for his study of African and African-American soci ...

, who had been found to have violated the university's sexual and professional conduct policies. The letter defended Comaroff as "an excellent colleague, advisor and committed university citizen" and expressed dismay over his being sanctioned by the university. After students filed a lawsuit with detailed allegations of Comaroff's actions and the university's failure to respond, Sommer was one of several signatories to say that she wished to retract her signature.

Works

* ''One Master for Another: Populism as Patriarchal Rhetoric in Dominican Novels'' (

University Press of America University Press of America is an academic publisher based in the United States. Part of the independent Rowman & Littlefield Rowman & Littlefield Publishing Group is an independent publishing house founded in 1949. Under several imprints, the ...

, 1984) * ed. with Andrew Parker, Mary Russo, and Patricia Yaeger, ''Nationalisms & Sexualities'' (

Routledge Routledge () is a British multinational publisher. It was founded in 1836 by George Routledge, and specialises in providing academic books, journals and online resources in the fields of the humanities, behavioural science, education, law, and ...

, 1991) * ''Foundational Fictions: The National Romances of Latin America'' (

University of California Press The University of California Press, otherwise known as UC Press, is a publishing house associated with the University of California that engages in academic publishing. It was founded in 1893 to publish scholarly and scientific works by faculty ...

, 1991); in Spanish: ''Ficciones fundacionales: La novela nacional en América Latina'' (FCE, 2005) *''

Yo-Yo Boing! ''Yo-Yo Boing!'' (1998) is a postmodern novel in English, Spanish, and Spanglish by Puerto Rican author Giannina Braschi. The cross-genre work is a structural hybrid of poetry, political philosophy, musical, manifesto, treatise, memoir, and dra ...

: Either And'' with Alex Vega Merino ( Latin American Literary Review Press, 1998). * ed. ''The Places of History: Regionalism Revisited in Latin America'' (

Duke University Press Duke University Press is an academic publisher and university press affiliated with Duke University. It was founded in 1921 by William T. Laprade as The Trinity College Press. (Duke University was initially called Trinity College). In 1926 Du ...

, 1999) * ''Proceed with Caution, when engaged by minority writing in the Americas'' (

Harvard University Press Harvard University Press (HUP) is a publishing house established on January 13, 1913, as a division of Harvard University, and focused on academic publishing. It is a member of the Association of American University Presses. After the retirem ...

, 1999); in Spanish: ''Abrazos y rechazos: Cómo leer en clave menor'' (FCE, 2006) * ed. ''Bilingual Games'' ( Palgrave, 2003) * ''Bilingual Aesthetics: A New Sentimental Education'' (Duke University Press, 2004) * ed. ''Cultural Agency in the Americas'' (Duke University Press, 2006) *
The Work of Art in the World: Civic Agency and Public Humanities
' (Duke University Press, 2014)

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Sommer, Doris Living people Harvard University faculty 1947 births