Esther Schor, Professor of English, member of the Executive Committee and inaugural Behrman Professor in the Humanities, has been named Acting Chair of the Humanities Council, effective July 1, 2017. Schor will serve in place of Eric Gregory who will be on research sabbatical leave for the academic year 2017-2018.
“I am extremely grateful and delighted for Starry’s willingness to serve as Acting Chair of the Council during my leave. A distinguished scholar and wise member of our humanities community, she brings a deep appreciation for our various activities and is firmly engaged in advancing the humanities at Princeton and beyond,” Gregory said.
Schor has served on the faculty since 1986. She is a scholar of Esperanto and constructed languages; British Romanticism; and literature, scripture and religion. For many years, Schor has served on the Executive Committee of the Program in Jewish Studies, where she teaches American Jewish Literature. In 2015, Schor received the President’s Award for Distinguished Teaching.
In 2016, Schor published “Bridge of Words: Esperanto and the Dream of a Universal Language.” She is also the author of “Bearing the Dead: The British Culture of Mourning from the Enlightenment to Victoria,” the biography “Emma Lazarus,” two books of poems, and a memoir.
“I’m pleased and honored to continue the fine work Eric Gregory is doing for the Humanities at Princeton,” Schor said. “Now more than ever, the Humanities help us to navigate our rights and duties as citizens, as well as the joys and sorrows of the human condition. I look forward to working with students and colleagues in the shared endeavor of humanistic study.”
In the spring of 2018, Schor will team-teach with Prof. Martha Sandweiss of History, a capstone course on the concept of “witness.”
