Debora Shuger
Encyclopedia
Debora Kuller Shuger is a literary historian
and scholar. She studies early modern
, Renaissance
, late 16th- and 17th century England. She writes about Tudor
-Stuart
literature; religious, political, and legal thought; neo-Latin; and censorship of that period.
in Manhattan
. Before her first birthday, her family moved to Rye, New York
, where she lived until 3rd grade, when the family moved again, this time to Armonk, New York
. During high school, she would slip away to attend classes at the Horace Mann School
in the Bronx
, which was then all male. She entered Carleton College
as a freshman
, married, and moved with her husband to Vanderbilt University
, where she earned her B.A. (summa cum laude, 1975) , M.A.
(1978), and M.A.T. (1978). She earned her PhD from Stanford University
(1983). Shuger taught at the University of Michigan
and the University of Arkansas
before moving to UCLA, where she has been since 1989.
's Don Quijote and in archival accounts from early modern Spain. Dale, who is currently an Assistant Professor of in the Department of Spanish and Portuguese
at Columbia University
, can speak backwards in both English and Spanish. Debora Shuger is domestically partnered to Russ Abbott.
Shuger is the oldest of three sisters. Her parents are Alan Kuller, retired Vice President for real estate of Caldor
, and Nancy Schoenbrod Kuller (deceased, 1993), a sculptor and painter. Her sister Judy Verhave (married to http://children.photobooks.com/directory/profile.asp?dbase=main&setsize=5&pict_id=0088294Menno Verhave, M.D.
]) is Executive Vice-president for Compensation at Bank of New York Mellon
. The youngest sister Lisa Kuller (married to Anthony Dalessio, PhD) is a social worker in Fairfield, Connecticut
.
-Stuart
devotional poetry and prose
, theology
and biblical exegesis, legal history
, political thought, rhetoric
, and life writing (biography, memoirs, diaries
, etc.).
She has also studied and written about gender
, sexuality
, colonialism
, Classics
, and Shakespeare and has published articles on Spenser
, Shakespeare, Sidney
, Milton
, Donne, Jonson
, Middleton
, rhetoric
, hagiography
, and mirrors.
She contributed the essay on early Stuart
religious literature to the Cambridge History of Early Modern English Literature (2002).
Her recent graduate seminars have focused on political theory from antiquity
through the late Middle Ages
, 17th century life-writing, Elizabethan religious prose, the sacred
literature of the Jacobean era
, early modern English law
, Saint Augustine, and Renaissance
commentaries
on Paul's Epistle to the Romans
.
Her latest book challenges the assumption that early modern censorship was an instrument used by governmental power to punish dissent. Shuger tries to prove that this is an anachronistic error
, and that censorship usually had demonstrably more to do with the prevention of slander than it did with the suppression of popular rights—more to do with civility than with mass mind-control.
Shuger's previous book confronted the longstanding assumption that the English church
had been fully complicit with the repressive hegemonic powers of government in this period. Instead, the church was often a key haven for humane resistance to such repression, a place where ideas of social justice could sustain themselves, and as a resource for individual and collective action—to put it as what recent scholarship would deem an oxymoron
, it was a benign patriarchy
. Political Theologies uses Shakespeare’s Measure for Measure
to show that the laws of the church and of the state interacted in ways that modern researchers have overlooked (resulting in a distorted understanding of the play as well as history) by anachronistically imposing our own categories to differentiate moral from administrative questions.
at the Liguria Study Center for the Arts and Humanities, the National Humanities Center
, the Huntington Library, and the Wissenschaftskolleg zu Berlin, as well as a recipient of Guggenheim
, NEH, and UC President's fellowships. She is a Fellow
of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences
New Historicism
New Historicism is a school of literary theory, grounded in critical theory, that developed in the 1980s, primarily through the work of the critic Stephen Greenblatt, and gained widespread influence in the 1990s....
and scholar. She studies early modern
Early modern period
In history, the early modern period of modern history follows the late Middle Ages. Although the chronological limits of the period are open to debate, the timeframe spans the period after the late portion of the Middle Ages through the beginning of the Age of Revolutions...
, Renaissance
Renaissance
The Renaissance was a cultural movement that spanned roughly the 14th to the 17th century, beginning in Italy in the Late Middle Ages and later spreading to the rest of Europe. The term is also used more loosely to refer to the historical era, but since the changes of the Renaissance were not...
, late 16th- and 17th century England. She writes about Tudor
Tudor period
The Tudor period usually refers to the period between 1485 and 1603, specifically in relation to the history of England. This coincides with the rule of the Tudor dynasty in England whose first monarch was Henry VII...
-Stuart
Stuart period
The Stuart period of English and British history refers to the period between 1603 and 1714, while in Scotland it begins in 1371. These dates coincide with the rule of the Scottish royal House of Stuart, whose first monarch to rule England was James I & VI...
literature; religious, political, and legal thought; neo-Latin; and censorship of that period.
Education, academia, and employment
Shuger was born in Stuyvesant TownStuyvesant Town
Stuyvesant Town—Peter Cooper Village is a large private residential development on the East Side of the borough of Manhattan in New York City, and one of the most iconic and successful post-World War II private housing communities...
in Manhattan
Manhattan
Manhattan is the oldest and the most densely populated of the five boroughs of New York City. Located primarily on the island of Manhattan at the mouth of the Hudson River, the boundaries of the borough are identical to those of New York County, an original county of the state of New York...
. Before her first birthday, her family moved to Rye, New York
Rye (city), New York
Rye is a city in Westchester County, New York, United States. It is separate from the town of Rye, which is larger than the city. Rye city, formerly the village of Rye, was part of the town until 1942, when it received its charter as a city, the most recent to be issued in New York...
, where she lived until 3rd grade, when the family moved again, this time to Armonk, New York
Armonk, New York
Armonk is a hamlet and census-designated place located in the town of North Castle in Westchester County, New York. As of the 2010 census, the CDP population was 4,330....
. During high school, she would slip away to attend classes at the Horace Mann School
Horace Mann School
Horace Mann School is an independent college preparatory school in New York City, New York, United States founded in 1887 known for its rigorous course of studies. Horace Mann is a member of the Ivy Preparatory School League, educating students from all across the New York tri-state area from...
in the Bronx
The Bronx
The Bronx is the northernmost of the five boroughs of New York City. It is also known as Bronx County, the last of the 62 counties of New York State to be incorporated...
, which was then all male. She entered Carleton College
Carleton College
Carleton College is an independent non-sectarian, coeducational, liberal arts college in Northfield, Minnesota, USA. The college enrolls 1,958 undergraduate students, and employs 198 full-time faculty members. In 2012 U.S...
as a freshman
Freshman
A freshman or fresher is a first-year student in secondary school, high school, or college. The term first year can also be used as a noun, to describe the students themselves A freshman (US) or fresher (UK, India) (or sometimes fish, freshie, fresher; slang plural frosh or freshmeat) is a...
, married, and moved with her husband to Vanderbilt University
Vanderbilt University
Vanderbilt University is a private research university located in Nashville, Tennessee, United States. Founded in 1873, the university is named for shipping and rail magnate "Commodore" Cornelius Vanderbilt, who provided Vanderbilt its initial $1 million endowment despite having never been to the...
, where she earned her B.A. (summa cum laude, 1975) , M.A.
Master of Arts (postgraduate)
A Master of Arts from the Latin Magister Artium, is a type of Master's degree awarded by universities in many countries. The M.A. is usually contrasted with the M.S. or M.Sc. degrees...
(1978), and M.A.T. (1978). She earned her PhD from Stanford University
Stanford University
The Leland Stanford Junior University, commonly referred to as Stanford University or Stanford, is a private research university on an campus located near Palo Alto, California. It is situated in the northwestern Santa Clara Valley on the San Francisco Peninsula, approximately northwest of San...
(1983). Shuger taught at the University of Michigan
University of Michigan
The University of Michigan is a public research university located in Ann Arbor, Michigan in the United States. It is the state's oldest university and the flagship campus of the University of Michigan...
and the University of Arkansas
University of Arkansas
The University of Arkansas is a public, co-educational, land-grant, space-grant, research university. It is classified by the Carnegie Foundation as a research university with very high research activity. It is the flagship campus of the University of Arkansas System and is located in...
before moving to UCLA, where she has been since 1989.
Family
While in college, Shuger married Scott Shuger, who created the "Today's Papers" column in Slate.com. Scott died while scuba diving in 2002. They had one child, Dale, whose PhD dissertation (at NYU 2007) examined the connections between madness in CervantesCervantes
-People:*Alfonso J. Cervantes , mayor of St. Louis, Missouri*Francisco Cervantes de Salazar, 16th-century man of letters*Ignacio Cervantes, Cuban composer*Jorge Cervantes, a world-renowned expert on indoor, outdoor, and greenhouse cannabis cultivation...
's Don Quijote and in archival accounts from early modern Spain. Dale, who is currently an Assistant Professor of in the Department of Spanish and Portuguese
Portuguese language
Portuguese is a Romance language that arose in the medieval Kingdom of Galicia, nowadays Galicia and Northern Portugal. The southern part of the Kingdom of Galicia became independent as the County of Portugal in 1095...
at Columbia University
Columbia University
Columbia University in the City of New York is a private, Ivy League university in Manhattan, New York City. Columbia is the oldest institution of higher learning in the state of New York, the fifth oldest in the United States, and one of the country's nine Colonial Colleges founded before the...
, can speak backwards in both English and Spanish. Debora Shuger is domestically partnered to Russ Abbott.
Shuger is the oldest of three sisters. Her parents are Alan Kuller, retired Vice President for real estate of Caldor
Caldor
Caldor was a chain of American discount department stores headquartered in Norwalk, Connecticut, operating throughout the northeastern United States. At one time, the company was a subsidiary of May Department Stores; Caldor was among the country's largest discount retailers.Despite being a popular...
, and Nancy Schoenbrod Kuller (deceased, 1993), a sculptor and painter. Her sister Judy Verhave (married to http://children.photobooks.com/directory/profile.asp?dbase=main&setsize=5&pict_id=0088294Menno Verhave, M.D.
Doctor of Medicine
Doctor of Medicine is a doctoral degree for physicians. The degree is granted by medical schools...
]) is Executive Vice-president for Compensation at Bank of New York Mellon
Bank of New York Mellon
The Bank of New York Mellon Corporation is a global financial services company formed on July 1, 2007 as result of the merger of The Bank of New York and Mellon Financial Corporation...
. The youngest sister Lisa Kuller (married to Anthony Dalessio, PhD) is a social worker in Fairfield, Connecticut
Fairfield, Connecticut
Fairfield is a town located in Fairfield County, Connecticut, United States. It is bordered by the towns of Bridgeport, Trumbull, Easton, Redding and Westport along the Gold Coast of Connecticut. As of the 2010 census, the town had a population of 59,404...
.
Works and interests
Although Shuger has written most extensively on religion in early modern England her interests range across a number of fields: TudorTudor period
The Tudor period usually refers to the period between 1485 and 1603, specifically in relation to the history of England. This coincides with the rule of the Tudor dynasty in England whose first monarch was Henry VII...
-Stuart
Stuart period
The Stuart period of English and British history refers to the period between 1603 and 1714, while in Scotland it begins in 1371. These dates coincide with the rule of the Scottish royal House of Stuart, whose first monarch to rule England was James I & VI...
devotional poetry and prose
Prose
Prose is the most typical form of written language, applying ordinary grammatical structure and natural flow of speech rather than rhythmic structure...
, theology
Theology
Theology is the systematic and rational study of religion and its influences and of the nature of religious truths, or the learned profession acquired by completing specialized training in religious studies, usually at a university or school of divinity or seminary.-Definition:Augustine of Hippo...
and biblical exegesis, legal history
Legal history
Legal history or the history of law is the study of how law has evolved and why it changed. Legal history is closely connected to the development of civilizations and is set in the wider context of social history...
, political thought, rhetoric
Rhetoric
Rhetoric is the art of discourse, an art that aims to improve the facility of speakers or writers who attempt to inform, persuade, or motivate particular audiences in specific situations. As a subject of formal study and a productive civic practice, rhetoric has played a central role in the Western...
, and life writing (biography, memoirs, diaries
Diary
A diary is a record with discrete entries arranged by date reporting on what has happened over the course of a day or other period. A personal diary may include a person's experiences, and/or thoughts or feelings, including comment on current events outside the writer's direct experience. Someone...
, etc.).
She has also studied and written about gender
Gender
Gender is a range of characteristics used to distinguish between males and females, particularly in the cases of men and women and the masculine and feminine attributes assigned to them. Depending on the context, the discriminating characteristics vary from sex to social role to gender identity...
, sexuality
Human sexuality
Human sexuality is the awareness of gender differences, and the capacity to have erotic experiences and responses. Human sexuality can also be described as the way someone is sexually attracted to another person whether it is to opposite sexes , to the same sex , to either sexes , or not being...
, colonialism
Colonialism
Colonialism is the establishment, maintenance, acquisition and expansion of colonies in one territory by people from another territory. It is a process whereby the metropole claims sovereignty over the colony and the social structure, government, and economics of the colony are changed by...
, Classics
Classics
Classics is the branch of the Humanities comprising the languages, literature, philosophy, history, art, archaeology and other culture of the ancient Mediterranean world ; especially Ancient Greece and Ancient Rome during Classical Antiquity Classics (sometimes encompassing Classical Studies or...
, and Shakespeare and has published articles on Spenser
Edmund Spenser
Edmund Spenser was an English poet best known for The Faerie Queene, an epic poem and fantastical allegory celebrating the Tudor dynasty and Elizabeth I. He is recognised as one of the premier craftsmen of Modern English verse in its infancy, and one of the greatest poets in the English...
, Shakespeare, Sidney
Philip Sidney
Sir Philip Sidney was an English poet, courtier and soldier, and is remembered as one of the most prominent figures of the Elizabethan Age...
, Milton
John Milton
John Milton was an English poet, polemicist, a scholarly man of letters, and a civil servant for the Commonwealth of England under Oliver Cromwell...
, Donne, Jonson
Jonson
Jonson is a surname, and may refer to:* Ben Jonson , English Renaissance dramatist, poet and actor* Gail Jonson , former medley and butterfly swimmer* Mattias Jonson , Swedish professional football player...
, Middleton
Thomas Middleton
Thomas Middleton was an English Jacobean playwright and poet. Middleton stands with John Fletcher and Ben Jonson as among the most successful and prolific of playwrights who wrote their best plays during the Jacobean period. He was one of the few Renaissance dramatists to achieve equal success in...
, rhetoric
Rhetoric
Rhetoric is the art of discourse, an art that aims to improve the facility of speakers or writers who attempt to inform, persuade, or motivate particular audiences in specific situations. As a subject of formal study and a productive civic practice, rhetoric has played a central role in the Western...
, hagiography
Hagiography
Hagiography is the study of saints.From the Greek and , it refers literally to writings on the subject of such holy people, and specifically to the biographies of saints and ecclesiastical leaders. The term hagiology, the study of hagiography, is also current in English, though less common...
, and mirrors.
Stuart period
The Stuart period of English and British history refers to the period between 1603 and 1714, while in Scotland it begins in 1371. These dates coincide with the rule of the Scottish royal House of Stuart, whose first monarch to rule England was James I & VI...
religious literature to the Cambridge History of Early Modern English Literature (2002).
Her recent graduate seminars have focused on political theory from antiquity
Ancient history
Ancient history is the study of the written past from the beginning of recorded human history to the Early Middle Ages. The span of recorded history is roughly 5,000 years, with Cuneiform script, the oldest discovered form of coherent writing, from the protoliterate period around the 30th century BC...
through the late Middle Ages
Middle Ages
The Middle Ages is a periodization of European history from the 5th century to the 15th century. The Middle Ages follows the fall of the Western Roman Empire in 476 and precedes the Early Modern Era. It is the middle period of a three-period division of Western history: Classic, Medieval and Modern...
, 17th century life-writing, Elizabethan religious prose, the sacred
Sacred
Holiness, or sanctity, is in general the state of being holy or sacred...
literature of the Jacobean era
Jacobean era
The Jacobean era refers to the period in English and Scottish history that coincides with the reign of King James VI of Scotland, who also inherited the crown of England in 1603 as James I...
, early modern English law
English law
English law is the legal system of England and Wales, and is the basis of common law legal systems used in most Commonwealth countries and the United States except Louisiana...
, Saint Augustine, and Renaissance
Renaissance
The Renaissance was a cultural movement that spanned roughly the 14th to the 17th century, beginning in Italy in the Late Middle Ages and later spreading to the rest of Europe. The term is also used more loosely to refer to the historical era, but since the changes of the Renaissance were not...
commentaries
Exegesis
Exegesis is a critical explanation or interpretation of a text, especially a religious text. Traditionally the term was used primarily for exegesis of the Bible; however, in contemporary usage it has broadened to mean a critical explanation of any text, and the term "Biblical exegesis" is used...
on Paul's Epistle to the Romans
Epistle to the Romans
The Epistle of Paul to the Romans, often shortened to Romans, is the sixth book in the New Testament. Biblical scholars agree that it was composed by the Apostle Paul to explain that Salvation is offered through the Gospel of Jesus Christ...
.
Her latest book challenges the assumption that early modern censorship was an instrument used by governmental power to punish dissent. Shuger tries to prove that this is an anachronistic error
Error
The word error entails different meanings and usages relative to how it is conceptually applied. The concrete meaning of the Latin word "error" is "wandering" or "straying". Unlike an illusion, an error or a mistake can sometimes be dispelled through knowledge...
, and that censorship usually had demonstrably more to do with the prevention of slander than it did with the suppression of popular rights—more to do with civility than with mass mind-control.
Shuger's previous book confronted the longstanding assumption that the English church
Church of England
The Church of England is the officially established Christian church in England and the Mother Church of the worldwide Anglican Communion. The church considers itself within the tradition of Western Christianity and dates its formal establishment principally to the mission to England by St...
had been fully complicit with the repressive hegemonic powers of government in this period. Instead, the church was often a key haven for humane resistance to such repression, a place where ideas of social justice could sustain themselves, and as a resource for individual and collective action—to put it as what recent scholarship would deem an oxymoron
Oxymoron
An oxymoron is a figure of speech that combines contradictory terms...
, it was a benign patriarchy
Patriarchy
Patriarchy is a social system in which the role of the male as the primary authority figure is central to social organization, and where fathers hold authority over women, children, and property. It implies the institutions of male rule and privilege, and entails female subordination...
. Political Theologies uses Shakespeare’s Measure for Measure
Measure for Measure
Measure for Measure is a play by William Shakespeare, believed to have been written in 1603 or 1604. It was classified as comedy, but its mood defies those expectations. As a result and for a variety of reasons, some critics have labelled it as one of Shakespeare's problem plays...
to show that the laws of the church and of the state interacted in ways that modern researchers have overlooked (resulting in a distorted understanding of the play as well as history) by anachronistically imposing our own categories to differentiate moral from administrative questions.
Honors
Shuger has been a resident fellowFellow
A fellow in the broadest sense is someone who is an equal or a comrade. The term fellow is also used to describe a person, particularly by those in the upper social classes. It is most often used in an academic context: a fellow is often part of an elite group of learned people who are awarded...
at the Liguria Study Center for the Arts and Humanities, the National Humanities Center
National Humanities Center
The National Humanities Center is an independent institute for advanced study in the humanities. It is the only major independent institute for advanced study in all fields of the humanities in the United States. The NHC operates as a privately incorporated nonprofit and is not part of any...
, the Huntington Library, and the Wissenschaftskolleg zu Berlin, as well as a recipient of Guggenheim
Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation
The Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation is a nonprofit corporation founded in 1937 by philanthropist Solomon R. Guggenheim and artist Hilla von Rebay. The first museum established by the foundation was the "Museum of Non-Objective Art", which was housed in rented space on Park Avenue in New York....
, NEH, and UC President's fellowships. She is a Fellow
Fellow
A fellow in the broadest sense is someone who is an equal or a comrade. The term fellow is also used to describe a person, particularly by those in the upper social classes. It is most often used in an academic context: a fellow is often part of an elite group of learned people who are awarded...
of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences
American Academy of Arts and Sciences
The American Academy of Arts and Sciences is an independent policy research center that conducts multidisciplinary studies of complex and emerging problems. The Academy’s elected members are leaders in the academic disciplines, the arts, business, and public affairs.James Bowdoin, John Adams, and...
Books
- Censorship and Cultural Sensibility: the Regulation of Language in Tudor-Stuart England (2006).
- Political Theologies in Shakespeare's England: the Sacred and the State in 'Measure for Measure (2001)
- Religion and Culture in Renaissance England (1997) (editor with Claire McEachern)
- The Renaissance Bible: Scholarship, Sacrifice, and Subjectivity (1994)
- Habits of Thought in the English Renaissance: Religion, Politics, and the Dominant Culture (1990)
- Sacred Rhetoric: the Christian grand style in the English Renaissance (1988).
External links
- http://www.english.ucla.edu/people/facpages.asp?person_id=137
- http://www.english.ucla.edu/RecentPubs/RenBible.html
- http://www.news.cornell.edu/releases/March97/Univlecture.jkg.html
- http://www.upenn.edu/pennpress/book/14246.html
- http://extra.shu.ac.uk/emls/05-3/shugrev.htm
- http://www.today.ucla.edu/news/070508_fellows/
- http://www.richmond.edu/~creamer/mr8.html