JALDA's Interview with Professor Wendy Steiner

Wendy Steiner is the Richard L. Fisher Professor of English Emerita at the University of Pennsylvania. Professor Steiner earned her B.A. from McGill University in ۱۹۷۰ and both her M.Phil. and Ph.D. in English from Yale University in ۱۹۷۲ and ۱۹۷۴ respectively. After teaching at Yale (۱۹۷۴-۱۹۷۶) and the University of Michigan (۱۹۷۶-۱۹۷۹), she joined the Penn faculty in ۱۹۷۹. Promoted to associate professor three years later, she was named full professor in ۱۹۸۵. At Penn, she served as Chair of the English Department from ۱۹۹۵-۱۹۹۹, Founding Director of the Penn Humanities Forum from ۱۹۹۸-۲۰۱۰, Master of Modern Languages College House from ۱۹۸۵-۱۹۸۸, and director of the Penn/King’s College Program in London from ۱۹۸۹-۱۹۹۰. Professor Steiner’s fields are interartistic relations and literature in English of the ۲۰th and ۲۱st centuries. Among her books on modern literature and visual art are The Real Real Thing:  The Model in the Mirror of Art (۲۰۱۰); Venus in Exile:  The Rejection of Beauty in Twentieth-Century Art (۲۰۰۱). Professor Steiner has received awards from the Guggenheim, ACLS, and Mellon Foundations among others, and her cultural reviews have appeared widely in U.S. and British periodicals, including The New York Times, London Review of Books, Los Angeles Times, and The Guardian. Javad Khorsandi, Ph.D. student of English Language and Literature at Shiraz University has arranged this interview with Professor Steiner.

Keywords:

Wendy Steiner , University of Pennsylvania , Comparative literature , applied literature , Javad Khorsandi