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Thanks to a generous bequest from Joseph S. Schick, Professor Emeritus of English at Indiana State University, the Department of English is able to host the Joseph S. Schick Lectures in Language, Literature, and Lexicography. According to the conditions of Professor Schick's will, "Eminent scholars . . . will be invited to present lectures on the literature, language and lexicography of the United States . . . and Great Britain. The topics of the lectures will be limited to the period before 1900."

Multi-Purpose Joseph S. Schick Reception Room

The Joseph S. Schick Reception Room (Root Hall A269–A270) serves as a reception area after the Schick Lectures, as the location of the Department’s holiday party, and as a place to gather after the Pfennig Scholars Award Ceremony. Please join us at any of the Schick Lectures and enjoy the comfort the reception room affords.

An Overview

Beginning in 1988, the Department has hosted from four to eight Schick Lecturers a year. Scholars from around the United States—and from England, Ireland, Scotland, and Wales—have presented formal lectures related to periods before 1900. As part of their visits, these scholars have also presented informal talks on contemporary topics, read from their works, and visited literature classes and writers' workshops.

The Schick Library

To enhance the Schick Lectures, the Department purchases copies of all in-print books authored or edited by Schick Lecturers. After they are signed, they are placed in the Department's collection, which currently includes over 1,200 volumes. The collection, which is housed in glass-fronted bookcases that line the lecture room, is available for research and reading by faculty, graduate students, and undergraduate students.

Schick Lecturers

The following text is excerpted from Ronald L. Baker's forthcoming book: An Ideal and Satisfying Life: Joseph S. Schick (1910–1987):

The first Schick Lecture, “Words Crisscrossing the Sea: How Words Have Been Borrowed Between England and America,” was presented by Allen Walker Read (1906–2002) on December 6, 1988.  It was fitting that Read should be the first Schick Lecturer because Schick and Read had been fellow graduate students at the University of Chicago in the early 1930s and remained good friends for over fifty years. William Labov, whom Read introduced to linguistics in Labov’s first year of graduate studies at Columbia University, was a Schick Lecturer in November 2003, and at a reception following his address, I told Labov that I had what Read called a “pencil-script” of his lecture and wondered if it might be published, as Read had given publication rights to Indiana State University. Thanks to Labov’s efforts, Read’s lecture was published in American Speech (Read 2005). Read began his Schick Lecture with the following remarks:

TERRE HAUTE, INDIANA, DECEMBER 6, 1988. I have been deeply honored by the invitation to be the first speaker for the Joseph S. Schick Lectures on Literature, Language, and Lexicography here at Indiana State University. It is a great pleasure to come to Terre Haute and to visit my many friends here. 

Also I am honored by the association with my dear old friend Joseph S. Schick. We were fellow graduate students at the University of Chicago, from 1932 on, with rooms in the same dormitory on the campus.  We shared many of the same teachers, such as John Matthews Manly, James Root Hulbert, Sir William Craigie, Ronald Crane, and Napier Wilt. I followed closely the writing of his dissertation, and he accorded me a very pleasant footnote. We kept in contact for more than five decades, with many interests in common, and I can well understand how he was much loved on this campus.

Because of his love for the English language, I feel sure that Professor Schick would have enjoyed the topic I have chosen to speak on this afternoon. I will deal with the passage of words back and forth across the Atlantic Ocean. This implies the existence of a community of speakers that can be called the “English-speaking-world.” That phrase has a sonorous ring to it. It marks one of the wide fellowships among human beings—a far-flung speech community that draws together broad human interests. It challenges us to take a wide perspective (Read 2005:ll6).

Copies of the book are available through the Department of English.

Speakers

A

Abrahams, Roger D., University of Pennsylvania—Fall 1992

Abrams, M. H., Cornell University—Fall 1991

Aers, David, Duke University—Fall 1996

Algeo, John, University of Georgia—Spring 1993

Alker, Sharon, Whitman College—Fall 2012

Alter, Robert, University of California, Berkeley—Spring 1994

Anderson, David D., Michigan State University—Spring 1995

 Andrews, William L., University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill—Spring 2007

Andriano, Joseph, University of Louisiana, Lafayette— Spring 2006

Armstrong, Nancy, Brown University—Spring 1995

Auchincloss, Louis, Novelist and Independent Scholar, New York City—Fall 1995

B

Backscheider, Paula, Auburn University—Fall 2011

Bailey, Richard W., University of Michigan—Spring 2004

Baker, Jr., Houston A., University of Pennsylvania—Spring 1989

Banta, Martha, University of Chicago—Spring 1993

Bate, Jonathan, Worchester College, University of Oxford—Spring 2013

Baym, Nina, University of Illinois—Fall 1989

Benson, Larry D., Harvard University—Spring 1991

Bercovitch, Sacvan, Harvard University—Fall 1999.

Bernard–Donals, Michael, University of Wisconsin—Fall 2008

Bevington, David, University of Chicago—Spring 2006, Fall 2010

Bjork, Robert E., Arizona State University—Fall 2003

Borck, Jim Springer, Louisiana State University—Fall 2003

Bronner, Simon J., Pennsylvania State University, Harrisburg—Fall 1994, Fall 2002, Fall 2005

Brooks, Cleanth, Yale University—Fall 1991

Brown, Mary Ellen, Indiana University—Fall 2008

Bruccoli, Matthew J., University of South Carolina—Spring 2007

Brunvand, Jan Harold, University of Utah—Fall 1990

Bruster, Douglas, University of Texas, Austin—Spring 2017

Buell, Lawrence, Harvard University—Spring 2000

Busby, Mark, Texas State University—Spring 2000

C

Cable, Thomas, University of Texas, Austin—Spring 1995

Camargo, Martin, University of Illinois—Spring 2013

Carby, Hazel V., Yale University—Spring 1996

Carey, Brycchan, Kingston University, Surrey—Spring 2011

Caretta, Vincent, University of Maryland—Spring 2013

Cassidy, Frederic G., University of Wisconsin—Fall 1989

Cope, Kevin, Louisiana  State University—Fall 2008

Copeland, Edward, Pomona College—Spring 2013

Cramer, Jeffrey S., The Thoreau Institute—Fall 2012

Crane, Susan, Rutgers University, New Brunswick—Spring 2001

Culler, Jonathan, Cornell University—Spring 1994

Cutter, Martha, University of Connecticut—Spring 2008

D

Dance, Daryl Cumber, University of Richmond—Fall 2002

Davidson, Cathy N., Duke University—Fall 2004

Deane, Seamus, University of Notre Dame—Spring 1998

de Caro, Frank, Louisiana State University—Fall 2002

Donaldson, Elizabeth J., New York Institute of Technology—Spring 2016

Douglas–Fairhurst, Robert, Magdalen College, University of Oxford—Fall 2012

Duckworth, Alistair M., University of Florida—Spring 1999

Dugaw, Dianne M., University of Oregon—Fall 1996

Duncan, Ian, University of California, Berkeley—Spring 2011

Duncan-Jones, Katherine, Somerville College, Oxford University—Spring 2010

Dundes, Alan, University of California, Berkeley—Fall 1997

E

Eagleton, Terry, Linacre College, University of Oxford—Fall 1992

Eaves, Morris, University of Rochester—Spring 2007

Emerson, Everett, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill—Spring 1994

Evenson, Brian, Brown University—Fall 2006

Ezell, Margaret J. M., Texas A & M University—Fall 1995

F

Fallon, Stephen Michael, University of Notre Dame—Spring 2009

Fergus, Jan, Lehigh University—Fall 2007

Fine, Gary Alan, Northwestern University—Fall 2005

Fish, Stanley, University of Illinois, Chicago—Spring 2003

Fisher, John H. , University of Tennessee—Spring 1991

Fishkin, Shelley Fisher, Stanford University—Spring 2012

Flannery, James W.,  Emory University—Fall 1995

Fludernik, Monika, Albert Ludwigs University of Freiburg—Spring 2010

Folsom, Ed, University of Iowa—Spring 2010

Forrest, Leon, Northwestern University—Spring 1991

Foster, Frances Smith, Emory University—Fall 2005

Fox-Genovese, Elizabeth, Emory University—Fall 1997

Franklin, H. Bruce, Rutgers University, Newark—Fall 1991

French, Marilyn, Novelist and Independent Scholar, New York City—Spring 1992

Friedman, John Block, University of Illinois—Fall 2013

Fussel, Paul, University of Pennsylvania—Fall 1993

G

Gallagher, Catherine, University of California, Berkeley—Spring 1997

Gates, Jr., Henry Louis, Harvard University—Spring 1990

Gillespie, Michael, Florida International University—Fall 2009

Gioia, Dana, Poet, Santa Rosa California—Spring 2001

Glassie, Henry, Indiana University—Fall 1990, Fall 2010

Glenn, Cheryl, Pennsylvania State University–-Fall 2014

Green, Richard Firth, The Ohio State University—Fall 2013

Greenblatt, Stephen, University of California, Berkeley—Fall 1989

Griffin, Susan, University of Louisville—Fall 2014

Gubar, Susan, Indiana University—Fall 1992

H

Haggerty, George, University of California, Riverside—Fall 2004

Hall, Donald, Poet—Fall 1989, Fall 1990, Fall 1993, Fall 1998, Spring 2005

Hanna, Ralph, Kreble College, University of Oxford—Spring 2015

Hansen, William, Indiana University—Fall 2004

Harmon, Claire, Columbia University—Fall 2010

Harper, Michael S., Brown University—Spring 2001

Harris, Trudier, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill—Spring 2008

Hart, Ellen Louise, University of California, Santa Cruz—Fall 2011

Hirsch, Edward, Guggenheim Foundation—Spring 2010

Hobsbaum, Philip, University of Glasgow—Spring 1991

Hoffman, Daniel, University of Pennsylvania—Fall 1994

Hunter, J. Paul, University of Virginia—Fall 2011

I

Ives, Edward D. (Sandy), University of Maine—Fall 1996

J

Jabbour, Alan, American Folklife Center, Library of Congress—Fall 2001

Jiménez, Francisco, Santa Clara University—Spring 2006

Johanningsmeier, Charles A., University of Nebraska—Spring 2012

Johnson, Claudia L., Princeton University—Spring 1999

Juhasz, Suzanne, University of Colorado, Boulder—Spring 2012

K

Kavanagh, John, Poet and Playwright, Sligo, Ireland—Fall 2001

Kennedy, J. Gerald, Louisiana State University—Fall 2000

Kennedy, Norman, Musician, Marshfield School of Weaving—Fall 1996

Kenner, Hugh, University of Georgia—Spring 1990

Kermode, Frank, Yale University—Spring 1994

Kincaid, James R., University of Southern California—Fall 2003

Kinzie, Mary, Northwestern University—Spring 2001

Knight, Stephen, Cardiff University, Wales—Spring 2005

L

Labov, William, University of Pennsylvania—Fall 2003

Langlois, Janet, Wayne State University—Fall 2005

Lemay, J. A. Leo, University of Delaware—Spring 2005

Lewalski, Barbara Keifer, Harvard University—Fall 2014

Lindahl, Carl, University of Houston—Fall 2003, Spring 2003

Lord, Albert B., Harvard University—Spring 1990

Lowe, John, Louisiana State University—Fall 2004

Lyle, Emily, University of Edinburgh—Fall 2008

Lynch Jack, Rutgers University, Newark—Spring 2014

M

MacKay, Carol Hanbery, University of Texas—Spring 1992

MacKethan, Lucinda H., North Carolina State University—Spring 2004, Fall 2015

Major, Clarence, University of California, Davis—Fall 2011

Malone, Bill C., Tulane University—Fall 2000

Martin, Terence, Indiana University—Fall 1992

Martin, Wendy, Claremont Graduate School—Fall 2012

May, James, Pennsylvania State University, DuBois—Fall 2009

McCall, Dan, Cornell University—Fall 2001

McKeon, Michael, Rutgers University, New Brunswick—Spring 2009

McMaster, Juliet, University of Alberta—Spring 2013

Mechling, Jay, University of California, Davis—Fall 2005

Mieder, Wolfgang, University of Vermont—Fall 1998, Fall 2005

Miller, David Lee, University of South Carolina—Fall 1996

Miller, J. Hillis, University of California, Irvine—Spring 1990

Minkova, Donka, University of California, Los Angeles—Spring 1997

Moloney, Mick, New York University—Fall 2010

Muldoon, Paul, Princeton University—Spring 2008

Mulford, Carla, Pennsylvania State University—Spring 2005

N

Nelson, Cary, University of Illinois—Summer 1991

Nelson, Holly Faith, Trinity Western University—Fall 2012

Nicolaisen, W.F.H., State University of New York, Binghamton—Fall 1989

Niles, John D. (Jack), University of Wisconsin, Madison—Spring 2008

Nussbaum, Felicity A., University of California, Los Angeles—Fall 2005

O

Orgel, Stephen, Stanford University—Fall 1994

Oring, Elliott, California State University, Los Angeles—Fall 2000

P

Pauley, Benjamin F., Eastern Connecticut State University—Fall 2015

Pearsall, Derek, Harvard University—Spring 1991

Peck, Russell A., University of Rochester—Fall 2007

Pizer, Donald, Tulane University—Spring 1990

Pritchard, William H., Amherst College—Spring 2006

R

Rambuss, Richard, Emory University—Spring 2008

Rampersad, Arnold, Stanford University—Spring 2013

Rasmussen, Eric, University of Nevada, Reno—Spring 2014

Read, Allen Walker, Columbia University—Fall 1988

Reilly, Patrick, University of Glasgow—Summer 1992

Richetti, John, University of Pennsylvania—Spring 2014

Ritchie, Jean, Musician and Independent Scholar, Port Washington, New York—Fall 1991

Robinson, Tim, Writer and Cartographer, Connemarra, Ireland—Spring 1998

Romines, Ann, George Washington University—Spring 2010

Rossi, William, University of Oregon—Spring 2015

Roznowski, Tom, Musician, Independent Scholar—Fall 2005 , Fall 2009

Russell, Ian, University of Aberdeen—Fall 2008

Ryan, Michael, National Museum of Ireland—Spring 1991

S

Sanders, Scott Russell, Indiana University—Fall 2009

Scharnhorst, Gary, University of New Mexico—Spring 1996, Spring 2000, Spring 2012

Schiff, Stacy, Columnist and Independent Scholar, New York City—Spring 2005

Schoenbaum, Samuel, University of Maryland—Spring 1992

Schoenfeldt, Michael C., University of Michigan—Spring 2009

Schuchard, Martha Keith, Independent Scholar, Atlanta, Georgia—Spring 2008

Schuchard, Ron, Emory University—Spring 2008

Schwartz, Howard, University of Missouri, St. Louis—Fall 2002

Sealts, Jr., Merton M., University of Wisconsin—Fall 1991

Seeger, Peggy, Musician, Asheville, North Carolina/Oxford, England—Fall 2001

Seelye, John, University of Florida—Fall 1999

Shapiro, James, Columbia University—Spring 2007

Shawcross, John T., University of Kentucky—Fall 1990

Sheidlower, Jesse, North American Editorial Unit, Oxford English Dictionary—Spring 2003

Sill, Geoffrey, Rutgers University, Camden—Fall 2010

Smith, Martha Nell, University of Maryland, College Park—Fall 2011

Snodgrass, W. D., Poet, Eriesville, New York—Spring 1998, Spring 2000, Fall 2000, Spring 2003, Spring 2006

Spacks, Patricia Meyer, University of Virginia—Spring 1993, Fall 2005

Stapleton, M. L., Indiana University–Purdue University at Fort Wayne—Spring 2016

Stauffer, John, Harvard University—Spring 2018

Steele, Timothy, California State University, Los Angeles— Fall 2002

Stockwell, Robert P., University of California, Los Angeles—Spring 1997

Stout, Janis, Texas A & M University—Fall 2011

Strier, Richard, University of Chicago—Spring 2012

Suarez, Michael, University of Virginia—Fall 2013

Sundquist, Eric J., University of California, Los Angeles—Spring 2004

T

Tatar, Maria, Harvard University—Fall 2006

Taylor, Gary, University of Alabama—Spring 2005

Thomas, M. Wynn, University of Wales—Spring 1998

Toelken, Barre, Utah State University—Fall 1996

Turner, Frederick, University of Texas, Dallas—Spring 1993

V

Varma, Devendra P., Dalhousie University, Nova Scotia—Fall 1993

Vendler, Helen, Harvard University—Spring 1989

Vlach, John Michael, George Washington University—Fall 1999

W

Waldman, Ken, Poet and Musician, Anchorage, Alaska—Fall 2002

Wallace, Robert K., Northern Kentucky University—Spring 1998

Ward, Jerry, Tougaloo College—Spring 2002

Watt, Ian P., Stanford University—Spring 1992

Wheeler, Bonnie, Southern Methodist University—Fall 2007

Wilson, William A., Brigham Young University—Fall 2009

Winterowd, W. Ross, University of Southern California— Spring 1992

Wolfson, Susan, Princeton University—Fall 2017

Woods, Vincent, Poet and Playwright, Dublin, Ireland—Fall 2010

Wright, George T., University of Minnesota—Spring 2004

Z

Ziff, Larzer, Johns Hopkins University—Spring 2000

Zipes, Jack, University of Minnesota—Fall 2006