Jenijoy La Belle (born 1943) is an American professor emeritus of English literature at

California Institute of Technology The California Institute of Technology (branded as Caltech or CIT)The university itself only spells its short form as "Caltech"; the institution considers other spellings such a"Cal Tech" and "CalTech" incorrect. The institute is also occasional ...

. Hired in 1969, she became the first female professor in Caltech history. She is known for her fight to attain tenure in the early '70s, also at Caltech. She was granted tenure in 1979. She retired in 2007.

Biography

Raised in

Olympia, Washington Olympia is the capital of the U.S. state of Washington and the county seat and largest city of Thurston County. It is southwest of the state's most populous city, Seattle, and is a cultural center of the southern Puget Sound region. European ...

, she attended Olympia High School. After high school, she attended the

University of Washington The University of Washington (UW, simply Washington, or informally U-Dub) is a public research university in Seattle, Washington. Founded in 1861, Washington is one of the oldest universities on the West Coast; it was established in Seattle a ...

Seattle Seattle ( ) is a seaport city on the West Coast of the United States. It is the seat of King County, Washington. With a 2020 population of 737,015, it is the largest city in both the state of Washington and the Pacific Northwest regio ...

, where she received a

B.A. Bachelor of arts (BA or AB; from the Latin ', ', or ') is a bachelor's degree awarded for an undergraduate program in the arts, or, in some cases, other disciplines. A Bachelor of Arts degree course is generally completed in three or four years ...

in English in 1965. In 1969, she received her

Ph.D. A Doctor of Philosophy (PhD, Ph.D., or DPhil; Latin: or ') is the most common degree at the highest academic level awarded following a course of study. PhDs are awarded for programs across the whole breadth of academic fields. Because it is a ...

in the discipline from the

University of California, San Diego The University of California, San Diego (UC San Diego or colloquially, UCSD) is a public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in San Diego, California. Established in 1960 near the pre-existing Scripps Insti ...

. Her dissertation concerned the poetry of

Theodore Roethke Theodore Huebner Roethke ( ; May 25, 1908 – August 1, 1963) was an American poet. He is regarded as one of the most accomplished and influential poets of his generation, having won the Pulitzer Prize for poetry in 1954 for his book ''The Wa ...

. That same year, she was hired as professor at Caltech.

Landmark Caltech tenure case

In 1969, La Belle began teaching at Caltech, making her the first female professor in Caltech history. In 1974, the English department recommended her for tenure. The decision was overturned by the division chair, economic historian

Robert Huttenback Robert Arthur Huttenback (March 8, 1928 in Frankfurt am Main, Germany – June 10, 2012, Camarillo, California) was the third Chancellor of UC Santa Barbara from 1977 to 1986. He was ousted from the post in July 1986 after allegations that he and h ...

. After filing a complaint with the

EEOC The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) is a federal agency that was established via the Civil Rights Act of 1964 to administer and enforce civil rights laws against workplace discrimination. The EEOC investigates discrimination ...

and with the support of several notable academics, including

Richard Feynman Richard Phillips Feynman (; May 11, 1918 – February 15, 1988) was an American theoretical physicist, known for his work in the path integral formulation of quantum mechanics, the theory of quantum electrodynamics, the physics of the superflu ...

and

Robert F. Christy Robert Frederick Christy (May 14, 1916 – October 3, 2012) was a Canadian-American theoretical physicist and later astrophysicist who was one of the last surviving people to have worked on the Manhattan Project during World War II. He briefly ...

, she was finally awarded tenure in 1979. Olga Taussky Todd was a research associate at Caltech from 1957 to 1971 and received tenure in 1963; however, she did not become a full professor until 1971.Caltech catalog; OT-T oral history, Caltech archives

Published works

In 1975, Le Belle co-authored ''Night Thoughts or the Complaint and the Consolation Illustrated by William Blake'' with Robert N. Essick. In 1976, she published ''The Echoing Wood of Theodore Roethke''. In 1977, she again joined with Robert N. Essick to publish ''Flaxman's Illustrations to Homer''. In 1988, she published ''Herself Beheld: The Literature of the Looking Glass''.

References

External links

Caltech bio page
{{DEFAULTSORT:La Belle, Jenijoy Living people 1943 births California Institute of Technology faculty University of California, San Diego alumni