Susan Gubar

PhD  1972
English

Susan Gubar wrote her English dissertation on “Tudor Romance and Eighteenth-Century Fiction,” but instead of remaining in a traditional literary field, she entered the then-emerging field of Women’s Studies and quickly became a key writer in “second wave” feminism. Her groundbreaking work with Sandra Gilbert began with The Madwoman in the Attic:  The Woman Writer and the Nineteenth-Century Literary Imagination, which was followed by their critical trilogy, No Man’s Land:  The Place of the Woman Writer in the Twentieth Century.  Their co-edited Norton Anthology of Literature by Women, first published in 1985, is now in its third edition.  Professor Gubar’s other books include Racechanges:  White Skin, Black Face in American Culture, which explores the centrality of cross-racial masquerade in American fiction, photography, painting, and film, and Poetry After Auschwitz: Remembering What One Never Knew, which presents the work of poets from the 1960s to the present who have faced the personal, political, ethical, and aesthetic consequences of the Holocaust.  This year, she will publish what she has called "an eccentric biography" of the apostle Judas.  In addition to accolades for her scholarly work, Professor Gubar has received many awards for her teaching, including a Faculty Mentor Award from Indiana University's Graduate Professional Student Organization.  She is currently Distinguished Professor of English and Women's Studies at Indiana University - Bloomington.