Faculty news

Robert S. Knapp has been named to the Reginald F. Arragon Chair in the Humanities. The chair was established this spring by a gift from alumnus James C. March ’77 and was named in honor of Reginald (Rex) Arragon, who is widely acknowledged to be the founder of Reed’s humanities program. “Rex Arragon’s role in establishing the humanities at Reed College is duly honored by establishing this chair,” wrote then acting president Peter Steinberger. “Knapp’s extra-ordinary scholarship and many years of distinguished undergraduate teaching in the humanities and the English department make him a wonderful choice.”

Knapp, whose professional specialty is early modern literature in England, is the author of Shakespeare: The Theater and the Book (Princeton University Press, 1989). He wrote a chapter on academic drama
in the new book Companion to Renaissance Drama, edited by Arthur Kinney (Blackwell, 2002), and has contributed numerous articles to scholarly journals; he is working on a book called Circe’s Rod: Shakespeare and the Disciplines of Culture. Knapp has been a mainstay and at various times chairman of three courses in Reed’s humanities program since he joined the faculty in 1974.

The newest book by Lena Lencek, professor of Russian and humanities, has just been released. Escape: Stories of Getting Away, co-edited with Gideon Bosker (Marlowe & Co, 2002), is the third in her series of collections of fictional and non-fictional narratives, which began with Beach: Stories of the Sand and Sea (Marlowe & Co, 2000) and Sail Away: Stories of Escaping to Sea (Marlowe & Co, 2001). Beach featured a story, “Turtle, Turtle,” by Monica Wesolowska ’89. Lencek also appeared in July on the History Channel’s show “Modern Marvels,” discussing beach technology. The September–October issue of Coastal Living Magazine featured a “lifestyle” story on Lencek. On August 24 Lencek and Bosker discussed Escape in an interview with Diana Nyad, host of NPR’s The Savvy Traveler, to which Lencek contributes radio pieces. The interview can be heard on www.savvytraveler.com.