Peggy Samuels                          english@drew
 Associate Professor of English, Department Chair, 2005-2008
Degrees: B.A., Yale University, 1981; M.A. in Fiction writing, Johns Hopkins University, 1985; Ph.D., City University Of New York Graduate School, 1993

Arrived at Drew: 1991

Areas of Specialization: Milton, Seventeenth-Century British literature, Contemporary American poetry, Creative Writing,  Bible as Literature

Courses regularly taught: Introduction to literary analysis, Milton seminar, 17thC poetry, poetry writing, Bible as literature, contemporary American poetry.

Teaching award:  Caspersen School of Graduate Studies Will Herberg Distinguished Professor Award, 1997. 

Co-curricular Activities:  Faculty advisor for Hillel.  

Recent Publications:  Articles on Renaissance sonnets, 16th century Spanish discovery narratives, and Milton's Paradise Lost, Paradise Regained, and divorce tracts, 17thC scriptural interpretation

Interests: I've written recently ("Dueling Erasers: Milton and Scripture") on how changes in modes of reading impacted the emergence of the early modern self in seventeenth-century England.  In my article, "Labor in the Chambers," I explored the relationship between Milton's poetry and the redefinition of domestic discipline--both emotional and intellectual--at the end of a period of severe social unrest. I've also written ("Riding the Hebrew Word Web") about the way that Milton and other Renaissance philologists thought of the Hebrew language as providing special access to meaning.  I'm interested in exploring how 17thC cultural conflicts shaped the way that Hebrew was perceived and studied.  Most recently, I've written about Andrew Marvell's "Picture of Little T.C. in a Prospect of Flowers."  That poem uses the literary tradition of the amatory lyric, appearing to be a delicate description of a prepubescent girl, to construct a portrait of the radical revolutionaries of mid-17thC England who conceived of themselves as tender and innocent while they violently reshaped their culture.

Philosophy of teaching: "Well, it's not exactly a philosophy, more of a desire to put people and texts together and make something happen: 'The embers light up when one blows upon them; the intensity of the flame that thus comes to life depends on the length of breath of the person who interprets.' (Haim of Volozhin, 18thC)"

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