Mary Loeffelholz
Professor, Literatures in English, Dean, School of Continuing Education
Academic focus:
Nineteenth-century American poetry, poetics
Current research project:
Collection of primary sources on the lyric in Anglophone poetry of the long nineteenth century
Previous positions:
- Professor of English, Department of English, Northeastern University, 2004-2023
- Associate Professor of English, Department of English, Northeastern University, 1994-2004
- Assistant Professor of English, Department of English, Northeastern University, 1988-1994
- Visiting Professor of Women’s Studies, Women’s Studies Program, Radcliffe College, 1993
- Assistant Professor, Department of English, Women’s Studies Program, Unit for Criticism and Interpretive Theory, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 1986-1988
Academic background:
- Ph.D., English and American literature, Yale University, 1986
- M.A., English, Stanford University, 1981
- B.A., English, Stanford University, 1981
Last book read:
“Before Modernism: Inventing American Lyric,” by Virginia Jackson
In your own time/when not working:
I like to cook, noodle on violin/mandolin/guitar/ukelele, and kayak.
Courses you’re most looking forward to teaching:
I hope my job as dean of the School of Continuing Education will let medevelop and teach some courses in writing about place, writing for social action and possibly even American poetry.
What most excites you about Cornell:
The depth and breadth of the faculty across so many disciplines and interdisciplinary fields; the all-university commitment to addressing grand challenges; Cornell’s unique history and position as the private/public “mobility Ivy.”
