James Simpson (academic)
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James Simpson (born 16 March 1954 in
Melbourne Melbourne ( ; Boonwurrung/Woiwurrung: ''Narrm'' or ''Naarm'') is the capital and most populous city of the Australian state of Victoria, and the second-most populous city in both Australia and Oceania. Its name generally refers to a met ...
) is an
Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a Sovereign state, sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous List of islands of Australia, sma ...
n-British-American medievalist currently serving as the Donald P. and Katherine B. Loker Professor of English at
Harvard University Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636 as Harvard College and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of higher le ...
.


Education

* Educated at Scotch College (1966–1971) *
Arts The arts are a very wide range of human practices of creative expression, storytelling and cultural participation. They encompass multiple diverse and plural modes of thinking, doing and being, in an extremely broad range of media. Both hi ...
Degree with Honours at
Melbourne University The University of Melbourne is a public research university located in Melbourne, Australia. Founded in 1853, it is Australia's second oldest university and the oldest in Victoria. Its main campus is located in Parkville, an inner suburb nor ...
, Melbourne (1976) *
Master of Philosophy The Master of Philosophy (MPhil; Latin ' or ') is a postgraduate degree. In the United States, an MPhil typically includes a taught portion and a significant research portion, during which a thesis project is conducted under supervision. An MPhil m ...
,
University of Oxford , mottoeng = The Lord is my light , established = , endowment = £6.1 billion (including colleges) (2019) , budget = £2.145 billion (2019–20) , chancellor ...
1980 *
Doctor of Philosophy A Doctor of Philosophy (PhD, Ph.D., or DPhil; Latin: or ') is the most common Academic degree, degree at the highest academic level awarded following a course of study. PhDs are awarded for programs across the whole breadth of academic fields ...
(PhD), University of Cambridge (1996)


Career

Simpson has worked in academia in Australia, the UK, and the US, where he has taught
medieval literature Medieval literature is a broad subject, encompassing essentially all written works available in Europe and beyond during the Middle Ages (that is, the one thousand years from the fall of the Western Roman Empire ca. AD 500 to the beginning of t ...
. He was a University Lecturer in English at the
University of Cambridge , mottoeng = Literal: From here, light and sacred draughts. Non literal: From this place, we gain enlightenment and precious knowledge. , established = , other_name = The Chancellor, Masters and Schola ...
(1989-1999), Fellow and College Lecturer at
Girton College Girton College is one of the Colleges of the University of Cambridge, 31 constituent colleges of the University of Cambridge. The college was established in 1869 by Emily Davies and Barbara Bodichon as the first women's college in Cambridge. In 1 ...
,
University of Cambridge , mottoeng = Literal: From here, light and sacred draughts. Non literal: From this place, we gain enlightenment and precious knowledge. , established = , other_name = The Chancellor, Masters and Schola ...
(1989–1999) and Professor of Medieval and Renaissance English at the
University of Cambridge , mottoeng = Literal: From here, light and sacred draughts. Non literal: From this place, we gain enlightenment and precious knowledge. , established = , other_name = The Chancellor, Masters and Schola ...
(1999–2003). He then worked at
Harvard University Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636 as Harvard College and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of higher le ...
(2003-) where he was appointed "Donald P. and Katherine B. Loker Professor of English" (2004-).


Awards

*
Paget Toynbee Paget Jackson Toynbee, FBA (1855–1932) was a British Dante scholar. Robert Hollander has described Toynbee as 'the most influential Dantean scholar of his time'. Toynbee also provided thousands of quotes for the ''Oxford English Dictionary''. ...
Dante Alighieri Dante Alighieri (; – 14 September 1321), probably baptized Durante di Alighiero degli Alighieri and often referred to as Dante (, ), was an Italian poet, writer and philosopher. His ''Divine Comedy'', originally called (modern Italian: '' ...
Prize, Oxford University (1980) *Jane Herbert Memorial Fellowship, Westfield College,
University of London The University of London (UoL; abbreviated as Lond or more rarely Londin in post-nominals) is a federal public research university located in London, England, United Kingdom. The university was established by royal charter in 1836 as a degree ...
(1987) *Life Fellow of Girton College, Cambridge University *Honorary Fellow,
Australian Academy of the Humanities The Australian Academy of the Humanities was established by Royal Charter in 1969 to advance scholarship and public interest in the humanities in Australia. It operates as an independent not-for-profit organisation partly funded by the Australia ...
(2003) *
John Hurt Fisher John Hurt Fisher (October 26, 1919 – February 17, 2015) was an American literary scholar, English professor, and medievalist, who specialized in the study of Geoffrey Chaucer and John Gower. Early life and education John Hurt Fisher was born in ...
Prize - "Significant Contribution to the Field of John Gower Studies",
John Gower John Gower (; c. 1330 – October 1408) was an English poet, a contemporary of William Langland and the Pearl Poet, and a personal friend of Geoffrey Chaucer Geoffrey Chaucer (; – 25 October 1400) was an English poet, author, and civ ...
Society (2003) *
British Academy The British Academy is the United Kingdom's national academy for the humanities and the social sciences. It was established in 1902 and received its royal charter in the same year. It is now a fellowship of more than 1,000 leading scholars span ...
Sir
Israel Gollancz Sir Israel Gollancz, FBA (13 July 1863 – 23 June 1930) was a scholar of early English literature and of Shakespeare. He was Professor of English Language and Literature at King's College, London, from 1903 to 1930. Gollancz was born 13 July ...
Prize - Reform and Cultural Revolution (2007) *Silver Medal, Independent Publisher Book Awards - Religion category (2008) for "Burning to Read" *


Work

Simpson's work is centred on the shape and logic of literary works in their historical context. He believes that the purpose of literature and other art forms is "to hear the voices repressed by official forms of a given culture." His early work focused on
literary criticism Literary criticism (or literary studies) is the study, evaluation, and interpretation of literature. Modern literary criticism is often influenced by literary theory, which is the philosophical discussion of literature's goals and methods. Th ...
and historical contextualization of poetry, especially the late 14th century English poem,
Piers Plowman ''Piers Plowman'' (written 1370–86; possibly ) or ''Visio Willelmi de Petro Ploughman'' (''William's Vision of Piers Plowman'') is a Middle English allegorical narrative poem by William Langland. It is written in un-rhymed, alliterative v ...
and Medieval Humanism from the 12th to the late 14th centuries (e.g. Alan of Lille's Anticlaudianus and John Gower's Confessio Amantis). In 2002, "The Oxford English Literary History: 1350-1547 : reform and cultural revolution" was awarded the
British Academy The British Academy is the United Kingdom's national academy for the humanities and the social sciences. It was established in 1902 and received its royal charter in the same year. It is now a fellowship of more than 1,000 leading scholars span ...
Sir
Israel Gollancz Sir Israel Gollancz, FBA (13 July 1863 – 23 June 1930) was a scholar of early English literature and of Shakespeare. He was Professor of English Language and Literature at King's College, London, from 1903 to 1930. Gollancz was born 13 July ...
Prize. Simpson began to study the way that cultural pressures, particularly the immense pressure of the Reformation in England, shaped the definition and reception of pre-Reformation literature. His work ''Burning to Read'' centres on the fundamentalist Bible reading in the early 16th century. Under the Hammer: Iconoclasm in the Anglo-American Tradition defines the long and unending history of image breaking in Anglo-American culture, leading up to, across, and beyond the Reformation. Permanent Revolution: the Reformation and the Illiberal Roots of LiberalismPermanent Revolution: the Reformation and the Illiberal Roots of Liberalism (Belknap Press/Harvard U Press, 2019) defines the English Reformation as a long period of revolution, with all the cultural features of revolutionary movements, and asserts that Liberalism was the answer to the violence-producing pressures produced.


Works

Author *
Piers Plowman: An Introduction to the B-Text
' (Harlow, Essex: Longman, 1990)
''Sciences and the Self in Medieval Poetry: Alan of Lille’s "Anticlaudianus" and John Gower’s "Confessio amantis"''
Cambridge Studies in Medieval Literature, 25 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1995)
''Reform and Cultural Revolution, 1350-1547, Vol 2 of The Oxford English Literary History''
(Oxford University Press, 2002)
''Piers Plowman: An Introduction to the B-Text''
second, revised edition (Exeter: Exeter University Press, 2007)
''Burning to Read: English Fundamentalism and its Reformation Opponents''
(Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2007)
''Under the Hammer: Iconoclasm in the Anglo-American Tradition''
(Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2010)
''Reynard the Fox: A New Translation''
(New York: Liveright/Norton, 2015) *
Permanent Revolution: The Reformation and the Illiberal Roots of Liberalism
' (Cambridge, MA: The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 2019) Editor * ''Medieval English Religious and Ethical Literature: Essays in Honour of G. H. Russell'', edited by Gregory Kratzmann and James Simpson (Cambridge: D. S. Brewer, 1986, 250 pp. 133–153
''Images, Idolatry and Iconoclasm in Late Medieval England''
edited by Jeremy Dimmick, James Simpson and Nicolette Zeeman (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2002), xiv + 250 pp. 2005]
''John Lydgate: Poetry, Culture, and Lancastrian England''
ed. Larry Scanlon and James Simpson (Notre Dame, IN: University of Notre Dame Press, 2006)] *''The Norton Anthology of English Literature'', General Editors Stephen Greenblatt and M. H. Abrams; "The Middle Ages", ed. Alfred David and James Simpson (New York: W. W. Norton, 2006), 1-484
''John Hardyng, Chronicle: Edited from British Library MS Lansdowne 204''
co-edited with Sarah Peverley (Kalamazoo, MI: Medieval Institute Publications, 2015)


References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Simpson, James 1954 births Professors of Medieval and Renaissance English (Cambridge) Living people Alumni of the University of Oxford Fellows of Girton College, Cambridge People educated at Scotch College, Melbourne