MLA Honored Scholar of Early American Literature, 2013

Abstract

The MLA's Division for American Literature before 1800 is charged with recognizing the extraordinary contributions of scholars to the field of early American studies. The Executive Committee for 2013 has unanimously named Ivy Schweitzer, professor of English and women's and gender studies at Dartmouth College, as the Honored Scholar of Early American Literature for 2013. This award is only given on rare occasions, but Professor Schweitzer's record of scholarship, teaching, and service to our field makes her richly deserving of the honor. Schweitzer's first book, 7-he Work of Self-Representation: Lyric Poetry in Colonial New England (1991), energized the field of early American studies through its theoretically informed and historically grounded analysis of the gender politics of Puritan poetry and culture. Her second book, Perfecting Friendship: Politics and Affiliation in Early American Literature (2007), established how classical model of friendship became crucial public and political ideal in our period, and demonstrated how racial, class, and gender differences in friendship tested the limits of egalitarian democracy. Her most recent manuscript, American Impersonations: Revisiting Feminist Literary Strategies, draws on and extends Schweitzer's decades-long commitment to feminist theory. In addition to her sustained commitment to feminist approaches to early American literature, Schweitzer's work has consistently expanded the scope and reach of early American literary history. In her capacity as editor for the pre-1800 period section of the Heath Anthology of American Literature, Schweitzer has expanded the representation of texts to include many that might once have been seen to fall outside the boundaries of conventional form, content, or language. She also coedited, with Susan Castillo, the important anthology The Literatures of Colonial America (2001, reprinted 2005), which brought together for the first time truly transnational representation of pre-1800 American writings. This anthology, along with its companion volume, has helped to transform both the study and the teaching of early American literature within more multinational, multilingual, and transatlantic frameworks. She continues to break new ground in her current work as director of the Occom Circle Project, digital scholarly edition in the form of website for works by and about Samson Occom held in the Dartmouth Libraries. Schweitzer's career seamlessly unites outstanding achievements in research, teaching, and service. Over and over, remarks by her students and colleagues tell the same story: they speak of Schweitzer as friend, a mentor, and a model, someone who teaches by example. She is person who has always supported students and faculty of color, women, and queers. …