Jennifer Michael Hecht
Encyclopedia
Jennifer Michael Hecht is a poet
, historian
, philosopher, and author
.
Hecht's scholarly articles have been published in many journals and magazines, and her poetry has appeared in The New Yorker
, The New Republic
, and Poetry
Magazine, among others. She has also written book reviews for The New York Times
, The Washington Post
, The American Scholar
and other publications. She has written several columns for The New York Times online "Times Select."
Hecht is a weekly guest blogger for The Best American Poetry series web site and maintains a personal blog on poetry and philosophy entitled "Dear Fonzie
". She currently teaches at The New School
in New York City
, and resides in Brooklyn
, New York
.
on Long Island
, Hecht attended Adelphi University
. She earned her Ph.D. in the History of Science
from Columbia University
in 1995 and for a time studied at the Université de Caen, and the Université d’Angers. She currently teaches poetry and philosophy in the Graduate Writing Program of The New School
, teaches poetry in the Graduate Writing Program of Columbia University
, and is a fellow of the New York Institute for the Humanities
.
Hecht is an honorary board member of the Freedom From Religion Foundation where she told the FFRF 2009 convention audience: “If there is no god — and there isn't — then we [humans] made up morality. And I'm very impressed.”
from the Poetry Society of America
, as well as ForeWord Magazine's award for Poetry Book of the Year. Her second collection, Funny, won the 2005 Felix Pollak
Prize from the University of Wisconsin Press
.
In 2003 Hecht published two books of history and philosophy with two different publishers. The first, Doubt: A History, is an epic, worldwide study of religious doubt
throughout history. The other, The End of the Soul
, is a profile of an unusual group of nineteenth-century French anthropologists who formed the Society of Mutual Autopsy
to discover links between personality, ability and brain
morphology
. It received the Ralph Waldo Emerson
Award for 2004 from the Phi Beta Kappa Society
as a book that "is an important contribution to knowledge, serious scholarship with a broad pertinence to the human condition."
In 2007 Hecht published The Happiness Myth: Why What We Think Is Right Is Wrong in which she attempts to examine happiness through historical perspective. Hecht maintains that our current perception of happiness is affected by culture, and that future generations may well mock our view of happiness as we make fun of earlier generations.
, The Philadelphia Inquirer
, The Chronicle of Higher Education
, Journal of the History of the Behavioral Sciences, The Journal of the History of Ideas, Isis: Journal of the History of Science Society, French Historical Studies, and others.
, The New Republic
, The New York Times
, Poetry
Magazine, Partisan Review
, Ms. Magazine
, Antioch Review
, Barrow Street, Gettysburg Review, Southern Review
, Salmagundi
, Quarterly West, Missouri Review, Denver Quarterly
, Prairie Schooner, River City
, and other journals.
Poet
A poet is a person who writes poetry. A poet's work can be literal, meaning that his work is derived from a specific event, or metaphorical, meaning that his work can take on many meanings and forms. Poets have existed since antiquity, in nearly all languages, and have produced works that vary...
, historian
Historian
A historian is a person who studies and writes about the past and is regarded as an authority on it. Historians are concerned with the continuous, methodical narrative and research of past events as relating to the human race; as well as the study of all history in time. If the individual is...
, philosopher, and author
Author
An author is broadly defined as "the person who originates or gives existence to anything" and that authorship determines responsibility for what is created. Narrowly defined, an author is the originator of any written work.-Legal significance:...
.
Hecht's scholarly articles have been published in many journals and magazines, and her poetry has appeared in The New Yorker
The New Yorker
The New Yorker is an American magazine of reportage, commentary, criticism, essays, fiction, satire, cartoons and poetry published by Condé Nast...
, The New Republic
The New Republic
The magazine has also published two articles concerning income inequality, largely criticizing conservative economists for their attempts to deny the existence or negative effect increasing income inequality is having on the United States...
, and Poetry
Poetry (magazine)
Poetry , published in Chicago, Illinois since 1912, is one of the leading monthly poetry journals in the English-speaking world. Published by the Poetry Foundation and currently edited by Christian Wiman, the magazine has a circulation of 30,000 and prints 300 poems per year out of approximately...
Magazine, among others. She has also written book reviews for The New York Times
The New York Times
The New York Times is an American daily newspaper founded and continuously published in New York City since 1851. The New York Times has won 106 Pulitzer Prizes, the most of any news organization...
, The Washington Post
The Washington Post
The Washington Post is Washington, D.C.'s largest newspaper and its oldest still-existing paper, founded in 1877. Located in the capital of the United States, The Post has a particular emphasis on national politics. D.C., Maryland, and Virginia editions are printed for daily circulation...
, The American Scholar
The American Scholar
The American Scholar was a speech given by Ralph Waldo Emerson on August 31, 1837, to the Phi Beta Kappa Society at Cambridge. He was invited to speak in recognition of his groundbreaking work Nature, published a year earlier, in which he established a new way for America's fledgling society to...
and other publications. She has written several columns for The New York Times online "Times Select."
Hecht is a weekly guest blogger for The Best American Poetry series web site and maintains a personal blog on poetry and philosophy entitled "Dear Fonzie
Fonzie
Arthur Herbert Fonzarelli is a fictional character played by Henry Winkler in the American sitcom Happy Days . He was originally a secondary character, but eventually became the lead...
". She currently teaches at The New School
The New School
The New School is a university in New York City, located mostly in Greenwich Village. From its founding in 1919 by progressive New York academics, and for most of its history, the university was known as the New School for Social Research. Between 1997 and 2005 it was known as New School University...
in New York City
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
, and resides in Brooklyn
Brooklyn
Brooklyn is the most populous of New York City's five boroughs, with nearly 2.6 million residents, and the second-largest in area. Since 1896, Brooklyn has had the same boundaries as Kings County, which is now the most populous county in New York State and the second-most densely populated...
, New York
New York
New York is a state in the Northeastern region of the United States. It is the nation's third most populous state. New York is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south, and by Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont to the east...
.
Background
Born in Glen Cove, New YorkGlen Cove, New York
Glen Cove is a city in Nassau County, New York on the North Shore of Long Island. As of the United States 2010 Census, the city population was 26,964....
on Long Island
Long Island
Long Island is an island located in the southeast part of the U.S. state of New York, just east of Manhattan. Stretching northeast into the Atlantic Ocean, Long Island contains four counties, two of which are boroughs of New York City , and two of which are mainly suburban...
, Hecht attended Adelphi University
Adelphi University
Adelphi University is a private, nonsectarian university located in Garden City, in Nassau County, New York, United States. It is the oldest institution of higher education on Long Island. For the sixth year, Adelphi University has been named a “Best Buy” in higher education by the Fiske Guide to...
. She earned her Ph.D. in the History of Science
History of science
The history of science is the study of the historical development of human understandings of the natural world and the domains of the social sciences....
from 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...
in 1995 and for a time studied at the Université de Caen, and the Université d’Angers. She currently teaches poetry and philosophy in the Graduate Writing Program of The New School
The New School
The New School is a university in New York City, located mostly in Greenwich Village. From its founding in 1919 by progressive New York academics, and for most of its history, the university was known as the New School for Social Research. Between 1997 and 2005 it was known as New School University...
, teaches poetry in the Graduate Writing Program of 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...
, and is a fellow of the New York Institute for the Humanities
New York Institute for the Humanities
The New York Institute for the Humanities is an academic organisation affiliated with New York University, founded by Richard Sennett in 1976 to promote the exchange of ideas between academics, professionals and the general public. The NYIH regularly holds seminars open to the public, as well as...
.
Hecht is an honorary board member of the Freedom From Religion Foundation where she told the FFRF 2009 convention audience: “If there is no god — and there isn't — then we [humans] made up morality. And I'm very impressed.”
Published works
In 2002 her debut poetry collection The Next Ancient World received the Norma Farber First Book AwardNorma Farber First Book Award
The Norma Farber First Book Award is given by the Poetry Society of America "for a first book of original poetry written by an American and published in either a hard or soft cover in a standard edition during the calendar year"....
from the Poetry Society of America
Poetry Society of America
The Poetry Society of America is a literary organization founded in 1910 by poets, editors, and artists including Witter Bynner. It is the oldest poetry organization in the United States. Past members of the have included such renowned writers as Robert Frost, Langston Hughes, Edna St. Vincent...
, as well as ForeWord Magazine's award for Poetry Book of the Year. Her second collection, Funny, won the 2005 Felix Pollak
Felix Pollak
Felix Pollak was an American poet and librarian.Pollak was born in Vienna, Austria in 1909 to Geza Pollak and Helene Schneider Pollak. A Jew and liberal anti-fascist, he studied law and theater at the University of Vienna, but emigrated to the United States after the occupation of Austria by Nazi...
Prize from the University of Wisconsin Press
University of Wisconsin Press
The University of Wisconsin Press is a non-profit university press publishing peer-reviewed books and journals. It primarily publishes work by scholars from the global academic community but also serves the citizens of Wisconsin by publishing important books about Wisconsin, the Upper Midwest, and...
.
In 2003 Hecht published two books of history and philosophy with two different publishers. The first, Doubt: A History, is an epic, worldwide study of religious doubt
Doubt
Doubt, a status between belief and disbelief, involves uncertainty or distrust or lack of sureness of an alleged fact, an action, a motive, or a decision. Doubt brings into question some notion of a perceived "reality", and may involve delaying or rejecting relevant action out of concerns for...
throughout history. The other, The End of the Soul
The End of the Soul
The End of the Soul: Scientific Modernity, Atheism, And Anthropology in France, 1876-1936 by Jennifer Michael Hecht was published in 2003 by Columbia University Press. It tells how a group of leading French citizens, men and women included, joined together to form an unusual group, The Society of...
, is a profile of an unusual group of nineteenth-century French anthropologists who formed the Society of Mutual Autopsy
Society of Mutual Autopsy
The Society of Mutual Autopsy or la Société d'autopsie mutuelle, was organized on October 19, 1876 by members of the Society of Anthropology of Paris...
to discover links between personality, ability and brain
Brain
The brain is the center of the nervous system in all vertebrate and most invertebrate animals—only a few primitive invertebrates such as sponges, jellyfish, sea squirts and starfishes do not have one. It is located in the head, usually close to primary sensory apparatus such as vision, hearing,...
morphology
Morphology (biology)
In biology, morphology is a branch of bioscience dealing with the study of the form and structure of organisms and their specific structural features....
. It received the Ralph Waldo Emerson
Ralph Waldo Emerson
Ralph Waldo Emerson was an American essayist, lecturer, and poet, who led the Transcendentalist movement of the mid-19th century...
Award for 2004 from the Phi Beta Kappa Society
Phi Beta Kappa Society
The Phi Beta Kappa Society is an academic honor society. Its mission is to "celebrate and advocate excellence in the liberal arts and sciences"; and induct "the most outstanding students of arts and sciences at America’s leading colleges and universities." Founded at The College of William and...
as a book that "is an important contribution to knowledge, serious scholarship with a broad pertinence to the human condition."
In 2007 Hecht published The Happiness Myth: Why What We Think Is Right Is Wrong in which she attempts to examine happiness through historical perspective. Hecht maintains that our current perception of happiness is affected by culture, and that future generations may well mock our view of happiness as we make fun of earlier generations.
History and philosophy
- 2003 The End of the Soul: Scientific Modernity, Atheism, and Anthropology in France, 1876-1936 — ISBN 0-231-12846-0
- 2003 Doubt: A History — ISBN 0-06-009795-7
- 2007 The Happiness Myth — ISBN 0-06-081397-0
Poetry
- 2001 The Next Ancient World — ISBN 0-9710310-0-2
- 2005 Funny — ISBN 0-299-21400-1
Periodicals
The New York TimesThe New York Times
The New York Times is an American daily newspaper founded and continuously published in New York City since 1851. The New York Times has won 106 Pulitzer Prizes, the most of any news organization...
, The Philadelphia Inquirer
The Philadelphia Inquirer
The Philadelphia Inquirer is a morning daily newspaper that serves the Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, metropolitan area of the United States. The newspaper was founded by John R. Walker and John Norvell in June 1829 as The Pennsylvania Inquirer and is the third-oldest surviving daily newspaper in the...
, The Chronicle of Higher Education
The Chronicle of Higher Education
The Chronicle of Higher Education is a newspaper and website that presents news, information, and jobs for college and university faculty, staff members and administrators....
, Journal of the History of the Behavioral Sciences, The Journal of the History of Ideas, Isis: Journal of the History of Science Society, French Historical Studies, and others.
Collections
- Best American Poetry 2005, Paul MuldoonPaul MuldoonPaul Muldoon is an Irish poet. He has published over thirty collections and won a Pulitzer Prize for Poetry and the T. S. Eliot Prize. He held the post of Oxford Professor of Poetry from 1999 - 2004. At Princeton University he is both the Howard G. B. Clark ’21 Professor in the Humanities and...
and David LehmanDavid LehmanDavid Lehman is a poet and the series editor for The Best American Poetry series. He teaches at The New School in New York City.-Career:...
, eds. (Scribner's, 2005). - Good Poems for Hard Times, Garrison KeillorGarrison KeillorGary Edward "Garrison" Keillor is an American author, storyteller, humorist, and radio personality. He is known as host of the Minnesota Public Radio show A Prairie Home Companion Gary Edward "Garrison" Keillor (born August 7, 1942) is an American author, storyteller, humorist, and radio...
, ed. (Viking/Penguin, 2005). - Poetry Daily, Boller, Selby, and Yost, eds. (Sourcebooks, 2003).
- Good Poems, Garrison KeillorGarrison KeillorGary Edward "Garrison" Keillor is an American author, storyteller, humorist, and radio personality. He is known as host of the Minnesota Public Radio show A Prairie Home Companion Gary Edward "Garrison" Keillor (born August 7, 1942) is an American author, storyteller, humorist, and radio...
, ed. (Viking/Penguin, 2002). - Poems to Live by in Uncertain Times, Joan MurrayJoan MurrayJoan Murray is an American poet.-Life:She graduated from Hunter College and later earned an M.A. from New York University...
, ed. (BeaconBeaconA beacon is an intentionally conspicuous device designed to attract attention to a specific location.Beacons can also be combined with semaphoric or other indicators to provide important information, such as the status of an airport, by the colour and rotational pattern of its airport beacon, or of...
, 2001). - The Best American Poetry 1999, Robert BlyRobert BlyRobert Bly is an American poet, author, activist and leader of the Mythopoetic Men's Movement.-Life:Bly was born in Lac qui Parle County, Minnesota, to Jacob and Alice Bly, who were of Norwegian ancestry. Following graduation from high school in 1944, he enlisted in the United States Navy, serving...
and David LehmanDavid LehmanDavid Lehman is a poet and the series editor for The Best American Poetry series. He teaches at The New School in New York City.-Career:...
, eds. (Scribner's, 1999).
Periodicals
The New YorkerThe New Yorker
The New Yorker is an American magazine of reportage, commentary, criticism, essays, fiction, satire, cartoons and poetry published by Condé Nast...
, The New Republic
The New Republic
The magazine has also published two articles concerning income inequality, largely criticizing conservative economists for their attempts to deny the existence or negative effect increasing income inequality is having on the United States...
, The New York Times
The New York Times
The New York Times is an American daily newspaper founded and continuously published in New York City since 1851. The New York Times has won 106 Pulitzer Prizes, the most of any news organization...
, Poetry
Poetry (magazine)
Poetry , published in Chicago, Illinois since 1912, is one of the leading monthly poetry journals in the English-speaking world. Published by the Poetry Foundation and currently edited by Christian Wiman, the magazine has a circulation of 30,000 and prints 300 poems per year out of approximately...
Magazine, Partisan Review
Partisan Review
Partisan Review was an American political and literary quarterly published from 1934 to 2003, though it suspended publication between October 1936 and December 1937.-Overview:...
, Ms. Magazine
Ms. magazine
Ms. is an American feminist magazine co-founded by American feminist and activist Gloria Steinem and founding editor Letty Cottin Pogrebin together with founding editors Patricia Carbine, Joanne Edgar, Nina Finkelstein, and Mary Peacock, that first appeared in 1971 as an insert in New York magazine...
, Antioch Review
Antioch Review
The Antioch Review is an American literary magazine established in 1941 at Antioch College in Ohio. One of the oldest continuously published literary magazines in the United States, it publishes fiction, essays and poetry from both emerging and established authors.The magazine continues to publish...
, Barrow Street, Gettysburg Review, Southern Review
Southern Review
The Southern Review, a literary journal co-founded in 1935 by Robert Penn Warren and Cleanth Brooks and located on the campus of Louisiana State University, publishes fiction, poetry, critical essays, interviews, book reviews, and excerpts from novels in progress by established and emerging writers...
, Salmagundi
Salmagundi
Salmagundi is a salad dish, originating in the early 17th century in England, comprising cooked meats, seafood, vegetables, fruit, leaves, nuts and flowers and dressed with oil, vinegar and spices. There is some debate over the meaning and origin of the word...
, Quarterly West, Missouri Review, Denver Quarterly
Denver Quarterly
The Denver Quarterly is a literary journal based at the University of Denver. Founded in 1966 by novelist John Williams.-Best American Short Stories:...
, Prairie Schooner, River City
River City
River City is a Scottish television soap opera, first broadcast in Scotland on BBC Scotland on 24 September 2002. River City storylines examine the domestic and professional lives of the people who live and work in the fictional district of Shieldinch in Glasgow...
, and other journals.
Portuguese
- "Dúvida: uma História", (Ediouro, 2005)
- "O Mito de Felicidade", (Larousse, 2011)
External links
- Jennifer Michael Hecht official website
- Interview with Jennifer Michael Hecht (May 2007) on Speaking of Faith with Krista TippettKrista TippettKrista Tippett is a broadcaster, journalist, and author. She is best known for creating and hosting the public radio program Being , distributed and produced by American Public Media...
- Video lecture by Jennifer Michael Hecht on the history of religious and philosophical doubt.