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College News
15 November 2004
Lecturer receives prestigious honour
A young Shakespeare scholar and English lecturer at Royal Holloway,
University of London, has achieved renown as one of the "six most
brilliant scholars of Renaissance drama in the world under 40".
Dr Ewan Fernie received the honour for his work on 'presentist' criticism and the power of Shakespeare in the present day. He is the author of Shame in Shakespeare (Routledge, 2002), editor of Spiritual Shakespeares (Routledge, 2005) and coordinating editor of Reconceiving the Renaissance (OUP, 2005). He is also one of the editors of the new Routledge journal Shakespeare. And, together with Simon Palfrey, he has founded an innovative new series called Shakespeare Now!
Alongside the five other scholars selected, Dr Fernie will deliver an address at the 'Enfants Terribles Symposium' at the University of Alabama, in January 2005. The decision to honour him was made by Gary Taylor, Hudson Strode Professor of English, and his colleague Professor Sharon O'Dair. Professor Taylor said: "Every nominated scholar deserves recognition. An 'enfant terrible' is someone who challenges the paradigms of the older generation, including the judges. We have chosen people who push the boundaries of the discipline in new directions."
On receiving the award Dr Fernie said: 'I was surprised and delighted to be honoured in this way. In my published work, I've argued for the intense contemporanaeity of Shakespeare. I see him as effectively a living thinker and writer, one with a real influence over contemporary life. Recent academic criticism has often bypassed literary experience in favour of filling in original historical contexts. But what is literature minus experience? Why bother with it all?'
Winner of the James Elliott prize for his 1994 first-class degree from the University of Edinburgh, Ewan took his doctorate at the University of St Andrews. He was the Caroline Spurgeon Research Fellow at Royal Holloway before working for a period at the Queen's University of Belfast. At Royal Holloway, he teaches Shakespeare to undergraduates, in addition to supervising a number of PhD students. He is also Deputy Director of the College's flagship Shakespeare MA. The Director of the Shakespeare MA is Professor Kiernan Ryan. 'I'm lucky enough to work with one of the most celebrated and lively contemporary critics. Holloway is a great place to "do Shakespeare"', said Dr Fernie.
ENDS
For press information contact Royal Holloway, University of London, Press Office:
Christine Long
Press & PR Officer
01784 443967, christine.long@rhul.ac.uk
Vicky Cousins
Assistant Press & Communications Officer
01784 414480, victoria.cousins@rhul.ac.uk
Editor's Notes
Ewan Fernie was one of three out of six British scholars to be nominated for this award
The other British nominees were Dr Tiffany Stern (Oxford Brookes) and Dr Karen Britland (Keele).
The English Department
at Royal Holloway
Offering a range of exclusive Shakespeare courses, the English Department
at Royal Holloway is one of the most dynamic in the country, and was
awarded a 5 rating in the latest Research Assessment Exercise (RAE)
in 2001. The Department is also home to the prestigious National English
Subject Centre, which drives innovation in the teaching of English in
Higher Education throughout the UK. Visit www.rhul.ac.uk/English/
for further information.
