Born on October 20, 1948, Jean E. Howard is a distinguished scholar, teacher, and administrator at Columbia University and a loyal alumna of Brown University where she dedicated her professional life to the study of early modern literature, the history of drama, and the advancement of diversity within higher education.
Howard received a Bachelor of Arts from Brown University in 1970; a Master of Philosophy from the University of London as a Marshall Fellow in 1972; and a Doctor of Philosophy from Yale University as a Danforth Fellow in 1975. Howard began teaching at Syracuse University in 1975, where she received the first University-wide Wasserstrom Prize for excellence as teacher and mentor of graduate students; she has also received Guggenheim, NEH, Mellon, Folger, Huntington, and Newberry Library Fellowships. Howard serves as the George Delacorte Professor in the Humanities at Columbia University where her teaching interests include Shakespeare, Tudor and Stuart drama, Early Modern poetry, modern drama, feminist and Marxist theory, and the history of feminism.
Widely recognized as an expert in the study of Shakespeare, Howard's research and writings have provided great insight into the socioeconomic and cultural conditions under which he shaped his representations of class and gender. She has published essays on Shakespeare, Pope, Ford, Heywood, Dekker, Marston, and Jonson, as well as on aspects of contemporary critical theory including new historicism, Marxism, and issues in feminism. Her books include Shakespeare's Art of Orchestration (1984); Shakespeare Reproduced: The Text in History and Ideology, edited with Marion O'Connor (1987); The Stage and Struggle in Early Modern England (1994); with Phyllis Rackin, Engendering a Nation: A Feminist Account of Shakespeare's English Histories (1997); Marxist Shakespeares, edited with Scott Shershow (2000); and four generically organized Companions to Shakespeare, edited with Richard Dutton (2001). She is a co-editor of The Norton Shakespeare (2nd ed. 2007) and General Editor of the Bedford Contextual Editions of Shakespeare. Another book, Theater of a City: The Places of London Comedy 1598-1642 (University of Pennsylvania Press, 2007), won the Barnard Hewitt award for Outstanding Theater History for 2008. She also published, with Crystal Bartolovich, a monograph on Shakespeare and Marx in the Great Shakespeareans series for Continuum Press (2012) and is currently completing a book entitled Staging History that uses Shakespeare's history plays as a starting point for considering Tony Kushner and Caryl Churchill's use of history in framing debates about current political issues.
Howard is also a skilled administrator. From 1996 to 1999, Howard directed the Institute for Research on Women and Gender at Columbia; in 1999-2000 she was President of the Shakespeare Association of America; from 2004-2007 she served as Columbia's first Vice Provost for Diversity Initiatives; and from 2008-2011 she was Chair of the Department of English and Comparative Literature. Howard is a Trustee Emerita of Brown University as well as she chairs the Brown University President's Diversity Advisory Council and is former chair of the Advisory Board of the Pembroke Center.
This collection contains the professional papers of Jean E. Howard, Columbia University scholar of early modern literature, the history of drama, and former chair of Brown University's Pembroke Center Associates Council. Materials include correspondence, drafts, notes, and research material related to Howard's education, scholarly writings, and publications, as well as her work at the Pemrboke Center. This collection dates from 1970-2022 and are arranged into 1 series, alphabetically by title of work or notebook.
Although the processor created the arrangement, where possible, original folder titles have been maintained and appear in quotation marks; the processor created the remaining folder titles.
All researchers seeking to publish materials from the collections of the John Hay Library are requested to complete a Notice of Intent to Publish, available on the John Hay Library website or by request, prior to reproducing, quoting, or otherwise publishing any portion or extract from this collection. Although Brown University has physical ownership of the collection and the materials contained therein, it does not claim literary rights. It is up to the researcher to determine the owners of the literary rights and to obtain any necessary permissions from them.
Jean E. Howard Papers, MS.2016.010, Box [#], Folder [#], Pembroke Center Archives, John Hay Library, Brown University.
The collection is arranged into 1 series alphabetically by title of work or notebook.
There are no restrictions on access for analog materials, except that the collection can only be seen by prior appointment. Some materials may be stored off-site and cannot be produced on the same day on which they are requested. Advance notice is required to view any audiovisual media or born-digital records that may exist in this collection. Audiovisual media and born-digital records in this collection may not have been reformatted yet. Researchers may request access to copies by contacting the John Hay Library with the collection name, collection number, and a description of the item(s) requested. Access to original physical audiovisual or born-digital media is restricted.
Gift of Jean E. Howard in 2015 and 2022.
See also the