Rebecca Bushnell writes and teaches about the genre of tragedy and early modern English culture. Her books include Prophesying Tragedy: Sign and Voice in Sophocles' Theban Plays; Tragedies of Tyrants: Political Thought & Theater in The English Renaissance; A Culture of Teaching: Early Modern Humanism in Theory and Practice; and Green Desire, a study of early modern English gardening books. Her Companion to Tragedy was published by Blackwell in 2005 and her new book, Tragedy: A Short Introduction, was published by Blackwell in 2007. She has received an ACLS research fellowship and the Lindback Award for Distinguished Teaching, as well as an NEH grant for Teaching with Technology. Professor Bushnell is currently serving as Dean of the School of Arts and Sciences.

CURRICULUM VITAE

 

Rebecca W. Bushnell

 

School of Arts and Sciences                                            

116 College Hall                                                           

University of Pennsylvania                                           

Philadelphia, PA 19104-6377

Office: 215-898-7320

bushnell@sas.upenn.edu

 

 

 

ADMINISTRATIVE APPOINTMENTS:

 

                        Dean, School of Arts and Sciences, University of Pennsylvania, January 2005-present

                                    Responsibility for all faculty affairs, administration, and strategic planning for all divisions of the School of Arts and Sciences.

                        Dean of the College of Arts and Sciences, School of Arts and Sciences, University of Pennsylvania, July 2003-December 2004

                                    Responsibility for oversight of undergraduate academic affairs and curriculum, advising, interdisciplinary programs, and fund-raising for undergraduate academic initiatives in SAS (6000+ undergraduates)

                        Associate Dean for Arts and Letters, School of Arts and Sciences, University of Pennsylvania, Jan. 1998- July 2003:

Responsibility for faculty affairs (including hiring and promotion) and budgetary planning for all humanities departments, centers and programs, and for overall strategic planning in the humanities

                        Director, Presidential Commission on Strengthening the Community, 1993-94:

                                    Responsibility for overseeing a year-long study of community life at Penn, and for preparation of a report and recommendations for change

                        Chair, Graduate Group in English, 1991-94:

                                    Responsibility for overseeing admissions, advising, curriculum, and policy for the English graduate program

 

ACADEMIC APPOINTMENTS:

 

Thomas S. Gates, Jr. Professor, January 2005-present

Professor, Department of English, University of Pennsylvania, 1995-present

            Associate Professor, Department of English, University of   Pennsylvania, 1990-                                    1995

            Assistant Professor, Department of English, University of Pennsylvania 1984-                            1990

            Member of Graduate Group in Comparative Literature (1987‑present)

            Member of Graduate Group in History (2004-present)

Lecturer, Dept. of English, Univ. of Pennsylvania, 1982-84

 

 

EDUCATION:

           

1978-82  M.A. and Ph.D. (awarded Jan. 1983), with distinction in Comparative Literature, Princeton University

1976-78  M.A., English Literature, Bryn Mawr College

1970‑74  B.A., with distinction, English Literature, Swarthmore College

 

 

ACADEMIC HONORS AND GRANTS:

 

                        Project Director for an NEH Planning Grant for a Regional Humanities Center at Penn (Jan. 2000-July 2001)

NEH “Teaching with Technology Grant” (co-directed with Michael Ryan) for “The English Renaissance in Context” (1998-2001)

Instructional Computing Development Fund grant, University of Pennsylvania, for development of "Virtual Furness Library"

Pew Foundation Grant, for development of interdisciplinary multimedia course in Renaissance Studies, summer 1995

Research Foundation Fellowship, University of Pennsylvania, 1993-1994

ACLS Research Fellowship, 1987‑1988

Lindback Award for Distinguished Teaching, University of Pennsylvania,                                                awarded April 1986

ACLS Grant-in‑Aid, Summer, 1986

            Summer Research Fellowship, University of Pennsylvania,1985

            Classical and Modern Literature Incentive Award for out­standing scholarship in                                     classical and modern litera­ture, 1984

           

 

BOOKS:

           

Tragedy: A Short Introduction (Blackwell: 2007)

 

Green Desire: Imagining Early Modern English Gardens (Cornell University Press, 2003)

 

A Culture of Teaching: Early Modern Humanism in Theory and Practice (Cornell University Press, 1996)

 

Tragedies of Tyrants: Political Thought and Theater in the English Renaissance (Cornell University Press, 1990)

           

Prophesying Tragedy: Sign and Voice in Sophocles' Theban Plays (Cornell University Press, 1988)

 

 

EDITED VOLUME:

 

            A Companion to Tragedy (Blackwell: 2005)

           

ANNOTATED BIBLIOGRAPHY:

 

The Pegasus Shakespeare Bibliographies: "King Lear" and "Macbeth" (Medieval and Renaissance Texts and Studies, 1996)

 

ARTICLES:

           

“Education,” in Elizabethan and Jacobean England, ed. Arthur Kinney

            (Blackwell: forthcoming)

 

“Tyranny,” in A Shakespeare Encyclopedia, ed. Patricia Parker (forthcoming)

 

“Tragedy,” in The Classical Tradition, ed. Anthony Grafton and Gordon Braden            

            (Harvard: forthcoming)

             

“Reading and Teaching Shakespeare in the Virtual Library,” forthcoming in Renaissance             Studies and New Technologies: A Collection, ed. William Bowen and Ray           Siemens (2007)

 

“The Fall of Princes: Classical and Medieval Influences on English Renaissance Tragedy,” in  A Companion to Tragedy (Oxford: Blackwell, 2005)

 

“Gardening Texts and Textual Gardens in Early Modern England,” in 

            Expertise Constructed, ed. Natasha Glaiyser and Sara Pennell (Ashgate, 2003)

 

“Julius Caesar,” in A Companion to Shakespeare’s Tragedies, ed. Richard Dutton and Jean Howard (Oxford: Blackwell, 2003)

 

“Reinventing Rare Books: The Virtual Furness Library,” in Early Modern Literary          Studies 5.3 (2000) (on-line at http://www.shu.ac.uk/emls/05‑3/05‑3toc.htm)

 

“Experience, Truth and Natural History in English Gardening Books, 1520-1630,” in The Historical Imagination in Early Modern Britain, ed. David Sacks and Donald Kelley (Cambridge University Press, 1997)

 

“From Books to Languages,” Common Knowledge 3, N1 (1994) 16-38

 

“George Buchanan, James VI, and Neoclassicism,” in Scots and Britons: Scottish Political Thought before the Union of 1603, ed. Roger Mason (Cambridge University Press, 1994)

 

“Tyranny and Femininity in English Renaissance Drama,” in Reconsidering the Renaissance, ed. Mario DiCesare (Medieval and Renaissance Texts and Studies, 1992), 339-354

 

“Time and History in Early English Classical Drama,” in Law, Literature and the Settlement of Regimes: Proceedings of the Folger Institute Center for the History of British  Political Thought, Vol. 2, ed. Gordon Schochet (Folger Shakespeare Library, 1990), 73-86

 

“Stage Tyrants: The Cases of Creon and Caesar," Classical and Modern Literature        7(1987), 71‑85

 

"Prophetic Authority in Drama and Society,” in Comparative Drama Annual V   (University Press of America, 1985)

 

“Oracular Silence in Oedipus the King and Macbeth,” Classi­cal and Modern Literature 2           (1982), 195‑204

 

“Reading 'Winged Words': Homeric Bird Signs, Similes, and Epiphanies,” Helios 9 (1982), 1-13

 

 

REVIEWS: Reviews in the following journals (complete list available on request): Renaissance Studies, Common Knowledge, JEGP, Modern Philology, Seventeenth Century Studies, Shakespeare Studies, Shakespeare Quarterly, Shakespeare Yearbook, Bryn Mawr Classical Review, Shakespeare Bulletin, Renaissance Quarterly, and MLS

 

 

SELECTED SCHOLARLY LECTURES AND PAPERS (since 1990):

 

Presentation at Columbia Shakespeare Seminar, February 2008 (invited)

“Reading and Doing: Authority and Experience in Early Modern English How-To    

            Book,” Shakespeare Association of America, April 2007

“Plain and Naked Terms":  The Style of the Early Modern Secrets Books,”

            American Historical Association, December 2005

“Secrets and Lies in Early Modern English Gardening Books” (invited),                                     Carnegie Mellon University, March 2005

            “The Rhetoric of Renaissance Prose: Reconsidering the Plain Style,” Renaissance                                   Society of America, April 2003

            “Secrets and Lies,” Duke University, Nov. 2001 (invited)

            “How to Read a How-To Book,” Conference on “Transactions of the Book,”                           Folger Institute, Nov. 2001 (invited)

“The Rod and the Pen,” International Spenser Conference, Cambridge, England, July 2001 (invited)

“Teaching Shakespeare in the Virtual Library,” Renaissance Society of America, Chicago, March  2001

“Shakespeare and the Bias of Nature,” Plenary Address, Ohio Shakespeare Conference, March 2001 (invited)

                                    “The Garden Book and the Textual Garden,” Centre for the History of the Book, Edinburgh, July 2000

                                     “Telling the Truth in Early Modern Books of Secrets,” Renaissance Society of America, March 2000

“The Virtual Furness Library,” History of the Book Seminar, Penn, Jan. 2000 (invited)

                                    “Millennial Shakespeare,” MLA Annual Meeting, Chicago, Dec. 1999

Respondent to session on Early Modern Pedagogy, MLA Annual Meeting, Dec. 1999 (invited)

“The Country Housewife’s Garden and the Lady’s Recreation.” History and Sociology of Science Colloquium Series, Penn, Nov. 1999 (invited)

“The Gardener and the Book,” History of the Book Seminar, Penn, September 1998 (invited)

“Reinventing Rare Books: The ‘Virtual Furness Shakespeare Library’ at the University of Pennsylvania,” Ottawa, May 1998

“The Gardener and the Book,” Newnham College, Cambridge University, July 1998 (invited)

“Teaching with Technology,” Tufts University Library, April 1998 (invited)

“Perdita and the Gillyflower: The Early Modern Ordering of People and Plants,” Joint Penn-CUNY Teleconference, April 1998 (invited)

“The Pen and the Pruning Shears: Labor, Pleasure and Art in Early Modern Gardening Literature,” Renaissance Society of America, March 1998

“Labor and Art in the Garden,” Presentation to Medieval-Renaissance Seminar, Penn, October 1997 (invited)

“Popular Shakespeare,” International Baccalaureate Program, The George School, April, 1997 (invited)

Roundtable on the Classical Tradition, Agon Conference, Ohio University, April 1997(invited)

“Crediting Receipts:  Books of Secrets in the 1590's,” MLA Annual Meeting,    Washington, D.C., 1997

Roundtable on “Evolutions and Perspectives in the Study of Garden History”: “The History in Early English Gardening Books: Telling the Truth About the Gardener's Art,” Dumbarton Oaks, March 1996 (invited)

“Embarrassing Teachers,” University of Pennsylvania, CGS Lecture Series,       October 1995 (invited)

Speaker on Plenary Panel, “Inventing the Unspeakable,” at Shakespeare Association of America, Chicago, March 1995 (invited)

“The Sovereign Master and the Scholar Prince: George Buchanan, James VI and the Politics of Humanist Pedagogy,” Renaissance Society of America, April 1995

“Experience, Truth, and Natural History in Early English Gardening Books,”      American Comparative Literature Association, Athens, GA., 1995, and    Renaissance Society America, Bloomington, April 1996

“Agency and Nature in Early Modern English Gardening Books,” MLA Annual             Meeting, December 1994

“Cultivating the Mind: Education Controversies in the Sixteenth and Twentieth    Centuries,” Lindback Lecture, University of Pennsylvania, November   1993 (invited)

“Early Modern Gardening Books,” Workshop in Special Collections, Van Pelt Library, Univ. of Pennsylvania,  Sept. 1993 (invited)

“A Feminist Perspective on Oedipus the King,” April 29, 1993 for Wilma Theater         Symposium, Philadelphia (invited)

“The Matter of the Author in the Early Modern Theater: The Case of Christopher Marlowe,” Plenary Address, Midatlantic Conference of British Studies, New York, April  1993 (invited)

“The Subjection of the Christian Prince: The Case of Edward VI,” Renaissance             Society of America, Kansas City, April  1993

            “Political Theater in The Tempest,” Annenberg Center, October1993 (invited)

            “From Books to Languages,” Presidential Address, SUNY-Geneseo, April 1992                                  (invited)

“Early Humanism and the Canon,” PARSS seminar, December, 1991 (invited)

“Resistance and the Propriety of the Renaissance Subject,” Renaissance Society            of America, Durham, April 1991

            “The Politics of Marlowe Biography,” MLA, Chicago 1990

“Obeying the Time in Antony and Cleopatra,” Colloquium, Folger Shakespeare Library, Oct. 1990 (invited)

“George Buchanan, James VI, and Neoclassicism,” as guest speaker for Folger Institute seminar on “Scots and Britains: Scottish Political Thought before the Union” (1990)

           

ACADEMIC SERVICE (at Univ. of Pennsylvania, outside of regular administrative       duties and committees, since 1990):

Chair, Review of Wharton School Dean, 2005-2006

Member, Provost’s Roundtable on Internationalization (2004-2005)

Member, Provost’s Task Force on Learning, Teaching and Technology (2003-2004)

Chair, Committee on Degree Rules and Requirements, Middle States Accreditation Review, 2002-2003

Chair, SAS Task Force on Language and Literature, 1998-99

            Chair,  University Committee on Fellowship and Awards, 1998-99

            Member, Personnel Committee, SAS, 1997-1998

            Member, Planning and Priorities Committee, SAS, 1996-97

            Chair, Council Committee on Libraries, 1992-93, 1995-96

            Member, Dean's Task Force on Faculty Responsibility, 1995-96

            Chair, Search Committee for Judicial Inquiry Officer, 1995-96

            President, 1996-97; President-Elect, Phi Beta Kappa chapter, 1995-96                       

            Member, Senate Nominating Committee, 1995-96

            Chair, Faculty Board on the Graduate Teaching Network, 1995-97

            Chair, SAS Committee on Undergraduate Education, 1990-1992, 1996-97;                             member,1989-90

            Member, Task Force on Undergraduate Education, 1992

            Panel Member, Committee on Academic Integrity, 1992-94

            Member, Search Committee for Dean of College of Arts and Sciences, 1991

            Member, Women's Studies Faculty Board, 1991-present

            Freshman Advisor, 1990-1991, 1995-96, 1999-present

            Graduate Executive Committee, English Department, 1988-89, 1995-96

            Lindback Teaching Award Committee, 1988-91

Executive Committee, English Department, Univ. of Pennsyl­vania, 1984‑1987, 1991-94

 

 

 

OTHER SCHOLARLY ACTIVITIES:

 

Local organizing committee, Shakespeare Association Annual Meeting in  

            Philadelphia, 2005

NEH panelist,  Educational Development grants, January 2001

Leader of Shakespeare Association of America Research Seminar on “The       English and the Scots,” SAA 1997           

            Seminar Leader, NEH project on “Masterworks,” Episcopal Academy, 1996

            Leader of Shakespeare Association of America Research Seminar on                                        “Shakespeare's Political Voices,” 1991

            Member of Advisory Council, Comparative Literature, Princeton University,                              1989-1992

Co‑leader of Shakespeare Association of America Research Seminar on           “Shakespeare and Renaissance Political Thought,” April 1988