Regina Schwartz is a scholar of English literature and elements of Jewish and Christian religion.
[ Editor's note: Parts of this news service report appear to have been drawn, near to verbatim, from the title subject's self-published faculty biography, and so may not be a truly independent biographical source.] A Professor of English and Religion at
Northwestern University
Northwestern University is a private research university in Evanston, Illinois. Founded in 1851, Northwestern is the oldest chartered university in Illinois and is ranked among the most prestigious academic institutions in the world.
Charte ...
,
[ she has been known historically for her research and teaching on 17th-century literature (e.g., ]John Milton
John Milton (9 December 1608 – 8 November 1674) was an English poet and intellectual. His 1667 epic poem '' Paradise Lost'', written in blank verse and including over ten chapters, was written in a time of immense religious flux and political ...
[ and ]William Shakespeare
William Shakespeare ( 26 April 1564 – 23 April 1616) was an English playwright, poet and actor. He is widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world's pre-eminent dramatist. He is often called England's nation ...
), on the Hebrew Bible, and on the interface of literature with the subjects of philosophy, law, and religion.[
]
Training and career
After undergraduate studies resulting in a B.A. (1975) and a subsequent M.A. (1978), both at Indiana University
Indiana University (IU) is a system of public universities in the U.S. state of Indiana.
Campuses
Indiana University has two core campuses, five regional campuses, and two regional centers under the administration of IUPUI.
*Indiana Universit ...
, Schwartz earned a Ph.D. in English (1984) from the University of Virginia
The University of Virginia (UVA) is a Public university#United States, public research university in Charlottesville, Virginia. Founded in 1819 by Thomas Jefferson, the university is ranked among the top academic institutions in the United S ...
. She also taught at Duke University
Duke University is a private research university in Durham, North Carolina. Founded by Methodists and Quakers in the present-day city of Trinity in 1838, the school moved to Durham in 1892. In 1924, tobacco and electric power industrialist James ...
and the University of Colorado
The University of Colorado (CU) is a system of public universities in Colorado. It consists of four institutions: University of Colorado Boulder, University of Colorado Colorado Springs, University of Colorado Denver, and the University of Co ...
, before moving to Northwestern. She has also taught at the University of Pisa, and Northwestern University's Law School. Schwartz was the Visiting Tipton Distinguished Chair of Religion at University of California, Santa Barbara
The University of California, Santa Barbara (UC Santa Barbara or UCSB) is a Public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Santa Barbara County, California, Santa Barbara, California with 23,196 undergraduate ...
in 2015.
Written work and recognition
Schwartz won the James Holly Hanford Award from the Milton Society of America for that year's "distinguished... critical monograph" for her 1988 work on Milton
Milton may refer to:
Names
* Milton (surname), a surname (and list of people with that surname)
** John Milton (1608–1674), English poet
* Milton (given name)
** Milton Friedman (1912–2006), Nobel laureate in Economics, author of '' Free t ...
, ''Remembering and Repeating: Biblical Creation in Paradise Lost''.[ She followed this work by ''The Book and the Text: The Bible and Literary Theory'' in 1990, ''Desire in the Renaissance: Psychoanalysis and Literature'' in 1994, and ''The Postmodern Bible'' in 1995.][ Her 1997 work, ''The Curse of Cain: The Violent Legacy of Monotheism,'' described by the Episcopal News service as "a study of monotheism, national identity, and violence in the Hebrew Bible",][ was lauded as a "stunningly important book" by Walter Brueggemann in ''Theology Today'' and was nominated for a Pulitzer Prize.][
Her 2007 book, ''Sacramental Poetics at the Dawn of Secularism: When God Left the World'' on "the Eucharist in Renaissance literature"][ was published as a part of the ]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 ...
series, "Cultural Memory in the Present".[ The monograph has been called a "tour de force", and "one of the most important studies of our critical moment."
Schwartz's scholarship includes further published essays:][
* on postmodern theology, in ''Post-secular Philosophy, Questioning God, and Transcendence'';
* on Milton and Renaissance literature, in ''The Blackwell Companion to Milton'', and ''The Oxford Handbook of Milton''; and
* on Shakespeare and law, in ''Triquarterly''.
]
Appearances and other work
Schwartz gave the paper, “Questioning Narratives of God”, at the second “Religion and Postmodernism” conference in October 1999 at Villanova University
Villanova University is a Private university, private Catholic church, Roman Catholic research university in Villanova, Pennsylvania. It was founded by the Order of Saint Augustine, Augustinians in 1842 and named after Thomas of Villanova, Sa ...
in northwest suburban of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Philadelphia, often called Philly, is the largest city in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, the sixth-largest city in the U.S., the second-largest city in both the Northeast megalopolis and Mid-Atlantic regions after New York City. Sinc ...
, a conference that featured Jacques Derrida
Jacques Derrida (; ; born Jackie Élie Derrida; See also . 15 July 1930 – 9 October 2004) was an Algerian-born French philosopher. He developed the philosophy of deconstruction, which he utilized in numerous texts, and which was developed t ...
; her ideas, which appeared subsequently in the conference proceedings, "explore her suspicion surrounding the adequacy of narratives about God... here shesuggest dthat as important as narrative is, we must recognize that it, like visual representation, is a form of idolatry."
She has subsequently been a featured speaker at:[
* the Adelaide Festival of Ideas in 2001, on issues related to sustainability and the environment, in the session,"The 21st Century: How much water, how many people?";
* the Carnegie Council on Ethics and International Affairs;
* The Castelli Colloquium in Rome; and at
* the University of Lugano, on free speech; and at
* Notre Dame University, on human rights.
Schwartz was the 2014 Respondent to the Tanner Lectures given by ]Rowan Williams
Rowan Douglas Williams, Baron Williams of Oystermouth, (born 14 June 1950) is a Welsh Anglican bishop, theologian and poet. He was the 104th Archbishop of Canterbury, a position he held from December 2002 to December 2012. Previously the Bish ...
, the 104th Archbishop of Canterbury
The archbishop of Canterbury is the senior bishop and a principal leader of the Church of England, the ceremonial head of the worldwide Anglican Communion and the diocesan bishop of the Diocese of Canterbury. The current archbishop is Justi ...
, 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 ...
.
Schwartz wrote the libretto for composer John Eaton John Eaton may refer to:
* John Eaton (divine) (born 1575), English divine
*John Eaton (pirate) (fl. 1683–1686), English buccaneer
*Sir John Craig Eaton (1876–1922), Canadian businessman
*John Craig Eaton II (born 1937), Canadian businessman an ...
's opera, ''Paradise Lost'' based on Milton, and the separate stage adaptation, "John Milton's Paradise Lost", performed in May, 2010 by the Chicago Shakespeare Project.[
]
Organizational leadership positions
Schwartz has served as:[
* Chair of Northwestern University's Interdisciplinary Hiring Initiative in the Humanities;][
* Chair of the Religion and Literature Division of the ]Modern Language Association
The Modern Language Association of America, often referred to as the Modern Language Association (MLA), is widely considered the principal professional association in the United States for scholars of language and literature. The MLA aims to "st ...
;[
* President of the Milton Society of America;][
* Director of the Milton Project that honoured the 400th birthday of John Milton;
* Co-Director of the Milton Seminar at the ]Newberry Library
The Newberry Library is an independent research library, specializing in the humanities and located on Washington Square in Chicago, Illinois. It has been free and open to the public since 1887. Its collections encompass a variety of topics rela ...
; and as
* Co-Director of the "Academy for the Advanced Study of the Renaissance".
Research and Publications
Schwartz's research 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 Rockefeller Foundation
The Rockefeller Foundation is an American private foundation and philanthropic medical research and arts funding organization based at 420 Fifth Avenue, New York City. The second-oldest major philanthropic institution in America, after the Carneg ...
, the MacArthur Foundation, and the University of Virginia's Institute for the Advanced Study of Culture.
Sole author works
* ''Loving Justice, Living Shakespeare'' (Oxford University Press, 2017)
* ''Sacramental Poetics at the Dawn of Secularism: When God Left the World'' (Stanford University Press, 2008)
* ''The Curse of Cain: The Violent Legacy of Monotheism'' (University of Chicago Press, 1998)
* ''The Postmodern Bible'' (Yale University Press, 1995)
* ''Remembering and Repeating: Biblical Creation in Paradise Lost'' (Cambridge University Press, 1989)
Edited works
* ''Transcendence: Philosophy, Literature, and Theology Approach the Beyond'' (Routledge, 2004)
* With Valeria Finucci, ''Desire in the Renaissance: Psychoanalysis and Literature'' (Princeton University Press, 1994)
* ''The Book and the Text: The Bible and Literary Theory'' (Basil Blackwell, 1990)
References
External links
Schwartz's faculty page
at Northwestern's English Department
Schwartz's entry
as a subject matter expert, with links to full publications, at Northwestern Scholars
on monotheism and violence
Video of Schwartz's Convocation address
at Yale Divinity School
{{DEFAULTSORT:Schwartz, Regina
American literary critics
Women literary critics
Northwestern University faculty
Writers from Illinois
Yale University alumni
20th-century American writers
21st-century American non-fiction writers
Indiana University alumni
University of Virginia alumni
Shakespearean scholars
Living people
Year of birth missing (living people)
American women critics