Jennifer Summit (born 1965) is an American scholar of

Medieval In the history of Europe, the Middle Ages or medieval period lasted approximately from the late 5th to the late 15th centuries, similar to the Post-classical, post-classical period of World history (field), global history. It began with t ...

and Renaissance English Literature and was a professor of English at

Stanford University Stanford University, officially Leland Stanford Junior University, is a private research university in Stanford, California. The campus occupies , among the largest in the United States, and enrolls over 17,000 students. Stanford is consider ...

, where she was Chair of the English Department between 2008 and 2011. In 2013, Summit became Dean of Undergraduate Studies at San Francisco State University. Summit is currently the Provost at

San Francisco State University San Francisco State University (commonly referred to as San Francisco State, SF State and SFSU) is a public research university in San Francisco. As part of the 23-campus California State University system, the university offers 118 different b ...

Early life and education

Summit is the daughter of Roger K. Summit, founder of

Dialog Information Services Roger K. Summit (born 1930 - Detroit, Michigan) is the founder of Dialog Information Services, and has been called the father of modern online search. He worked for Lockheed in the 1960s, was put in charge of its information retrieval lab, and ...

and Virginia M. Summit, author and former mayor of

Los Altos Hills Los Altos Hills (; ''Los Altos'', Spanish language, Spanish for "The Heights") is an List of municipalities in California, incorporated town in Santa Clara County, California, Santa Clara County, California, United States. The population was 8,4 ...

California California is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States, located along the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the List of states and territori ...

. A graduate of Los Altos High School (Los Altos, California), Summit received her BA from

Vassar College Vassar College ( ) is a private liberal arts college in Poughkeepsie, New York, United States. Founded in 1861 by Matthew Vassar, it was the second degree-granting institution of higher education for women in the United States, closely follo ...

in 1987, where she graduated with highest honors and

Phi Beta Kappa The Phi Beta Kappa Society () is the oldest academic honor society in the United States, and the most prestigious, due in part to its long history and academic selectivity. Phi Beta Kappa aims to promote and advocate excellence in the liberal a ...

. She was awarded a PhD by

Johns Hopkins University Johns Hopkins University (Johns Hopkins, Hopkins, or JHU) is a private university, private research university in Baltimore, Maryland. Founded in 1876, Johns Hopkins is the oldest research university in the United States and in the western hem ...

in 1995.

Career

Summit joined the Stanford faculty in 1995 and was granted tenure in 2001. She became Dean of Undergraduate Education at San Francisco State University in 2014. Summit's work has been supported by the

National Endowment for the Humanities The National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) is an independent federal agency of the U.S. government, established by thNational Foundation on the Arts and the Humanities Act of 1965(), dedicated to supporting research, education, preserv ...

, the

American Council of Learned Societies American(s) may refer to: * American, something of, from, or related to the United States of America, commonly known as the "United States" or "America" ** Americans, citizens and nationals of the United States of America ** American ancestry, pe ...

and the

Stanford Humanities Center Stanford University has many centers and institutes dedicated to the study of various specific topics. These centers and institutes may be within a department, within a school but across departments, an independent laboratory, institute or center ...

. She received the Dean's Award for Distinguished Teaching in 1998. Her most recent book, ''Action versus Contemplation: Why an Ancient Debate Still Matters'', co-authored with

Blakey Vermeule Emily Dickinson Blake "Blakey" Vermeule (born July 14, 1966) is an American scholar of eighteenth-century British literature and theory of mind. She is a Professor of English at Stanford University. Biography Vermeule is the daughter of classici ...

, was published in 2018, and was shortlisted for the Phi Beta Kappa Ralph Waldo Emerson Award.''Memory's Library: Medieval Books in Early Modern England'' (2008), was awarded the Roland H. Bainton Book Prize by the

Sixteenth Century Society and Conference The Sixteenth Century Society and Conference (SCSC) is a learned society that promotes research on the early modern period. The society is interdisciplinary in membership, welcoming scholars in history, art history, religion, history of science, m ...

(SCSC) and the John Ben Snow Foundation Book Prize from the North American Conference on British Studies (NCBS). Her first book, ''Lost Property: the Woman Writer and English Literary History, 1380-1589'', was published in 2000. Summit's research interests bridge the medieval and early modern periods and focus on the histories of reading, literature, and knowledge, with a special interest in literacy and the disciplines today.

Published works

* ''Lost Property: the Woman Writer and English Literary History, 1380–1589'' (Chicago: Univ. of Chicago Press, 2000) * "Rethinking Periodization", a special issue of the ''Journal of Medieval and Early Modern Studies'' (Duke, 2007), co-edited with David Wallace (U. Penn) ASIN B0021WUW08 * ''Memory's Library: Medieval Books in Early Modern England'' (Chicago: Univ. of Chicago Press, 2008) * ''The History of British Women's Writing, 1500–1610: Vol 2'' (Palgrave, 2010), co-edited with Caroline Bicks (Boston College) * ''Action versus Contemplation: Why an Ancient Debate Still Matters'' (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2018)

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Summit, Jennifer 1965 births Living people American medievalists Women medievalists Cultural historians Johns Hopkins University alumni Stanford University Department of English faculty American literary critics Women literary critics Vassar College alumni People from Los Altos Hills, California American women historians Historians from California 21st-century American women American women critics