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Susan L. Mizruchi

Susan Laura Mizruchi (July 13, 1959) is professor of English literature and the William Arrowsmith Professor in the Humanities at Boston University. Her research interests include nineteenth- and twentieth-century American literature, religion and culture, literary and social theory, literary history, history of the social sciences, and American and Global Film and TV. Since 2016, she has served as the director of the Boston University Center for the Humanities.[1]

Education and academic career

Mizruchi received her B.A. in English and in history from Washington University in St. Louis in 1981 and her Ph.D. from Princeton University in 1985. In 1986 she joined Boston University as an assistant professor of English. She was promoted to associate professor in 1992 and full professor in 1998. In 2017 she was named the inaugural William Arrowsmith Professor in the Humanities.[2]

Among her honors and grants, Mizruchi has been awarded fellowships from the Guggenheim Foundation,[3] the National Endowment for the Humanities, and the Fulbright Commission.

Since 2016 Mizruchi has served as the director of the Boston University Center for the Humanities (BUCH).[4] Under her directorship, BUCH has hosted forums on “Libraries and Archives in the Digital Age” (2017),[5] “Humanities Approaches to the Opioid Crisis” (2018),[6] and “Can We Talk: Dialogue and Debate in the Contemporary Academy” (2019).[7]  

In 2020, the Teagle Foundation awarded BUCH a grant to develop "The One & the Many at BU," a summer residential humanities program for Boston-area high school students.[8][9]

Writing and academic work

Mizruchi's short story "Like a Rose Rabbi" appeared in the Winter 1983 issue of the Kansas Quarterly (now the Arkansas Review).

Mizruchi’s first book, The Power of Historical Knowledge: Narrating the Past in Hawthorne, James, and Dreiser (Princeton UP, 1988), examines acts of historical narration in American literature. The book includes readings of Nathaniel Hawthorne's The House of the Seven Gables (1851), Henry James' The Wings of the Dove (1902), and Theodore Dreiser's An American Tragedy (1925). Writing in the New England Quarterly, Amy Kaplan praised Mizruchi for "persuasively discovers[ing] the pressure of history everywhere, and ... acutely gaug[ing] its impact on precisely those texts that seem to float freely above historical contingency."[10]

Mizruchi's second book, The Science of Sacrifice: American Literature and Modern Social Theory (Princeton UP, 1998), looks at sacrifice in American literature and social theory of the late 19th and early 20th centuries. The book coordinates the rise of the field of sociology with literary representations of sacrifice, reading the social theory of Émile Durkheim and W. E. B. Du Bois alongside the fiction of Herman Melville and Henry James. A feature on the book appeared in the Chronicle of Higher Education, noting Mizruchi's standing at the forefront of "a growing number of scholars who approach religion in American life through interdisciplinary study."[11] Nan Goodman's review in American Literature highlighted Mizruchi's treatment of literary realism, commending "Mizruchi's recognition that realism interacted with others theories of social order—the new disciplines of sociology and psychology, for example—[as] one of the many things that makes her book so significant."[12] In a review for the American Journal of Sociology, Alan Sica praised the book's "innovative and thickly constructed interdisciplinary writing," labeling it "excellent social theory."[13]

In 2005, Mizruchi’s "Becoming Multicultural: Culture Economy, and the Novel, 1860-1920" appeared in The Cambridge History of American Literature: Volume 3, Prose Writing, 1860-1920 (Cambridge UP). The other contributions to that volume are Richard H. Brodhead's "The American Literary Field, 1860–1890"; Nancy Bentley's "Literary Forms and Mass Culture, 1870–1920"; and Walter Benn Michaels' "Promises of American Life, 1880–1920." Edited by Sacvan Bercovitch, the eight volumes of The Cambridge History of American Literature cover poetry, prose writing, and criticism from 1590 to the end of the twentieth century. In a review in the Journal of American Studies, Richard Gray called The Cambridge History of American Literature "without doubt and without any serious rival, the scholarly history for our generation."[14]

The Rise of Multicultural America: Economy and Print Culture, 1865-1915 (University of North Carolina Press), a revised and expanded version of "Becoming Multicultural," came out in 2008. Examining literature, photography, and advertisements produced in the half-century after the American Civil War, Mizruchi's book argues that rapid corporate capitalist development and high immigration rates fostered the idea of multiculturalism. Mizruchi's book covers an eclectic range of print culture, including the Civil War photography of Alexander Gardner; Albion W. Tourgée's Reconstruction-era writings; the career and writings of the Santee Sioux physician Charles Eastman; the advertisements that framed the serialized publication of Jack London's The Call of the Wild (1903) in the Saturday Evening Post; and Charlotte Perkins Gilman's feminist-utopian novel Herland (1915).

In 2014, Mizruchi published a biography of Marlon Brando, Brando’s Smile: His Life, Thought, and Work (Norton). The book is based on Mizruchi’s extensive research in Brando’s private archives, which she spent years tracking down after many of Brando’s belongings were auctioned off following his death in 2004. Drawing on Brando’s personal film scripts, Mizruchi presents him as a scrupulous actor who often edited and improved his own lines, including some of his most iconic lines in On the Waterfront and The Godfather.[15] Furthermore, Mizruchi views the 4,000 books that made up Brando’s personal library as evidence of his intellectual curiosity and informed commitment to the civil rights movement.

Brando’s Smile garnered considerable attention in the mainstream press. David Kirby's review in the Washington Post praised the book as a "smooth-reading and informative portrait."[16] Writing in the Wall Street Journal, Scott Eyman described the book as "an 'intellectual biography' of man who wasn't an intellectual in the conventional sense."[17] Antonia Quirke of the Financial Times called Brando's Smile an "always interesting, addictive book,"[18] with the publication later naming it one of its Best Books of 2014.[19] Additionally, the book received a starred review in Booklist and coverage in the New York Times[20] the New York Review of Books.[21]

In August 2021, Mizruchi appeared on a podcast, Since the World's been Turning, to discuss Brando and his legacy.[22][23][24]

Mizruchi’s Henry James: A Very Short Introduction was published by Oxford University Press in June 2021. Publishers Weekly has praised the book's "swift, efficient approach to James’s oeuvre [as] perfect for students and general readers."[25] In a piece for The Millions, Mizruchi listed her top ten Henry James works, ranking The Portrait of a Lady (1881) number one.[26]

Mizruchi has edited two academic volumes. The first, Religion and Cultural Studies (Princeton UP, 2001), collects essays premised on the observation that "religion [is] a significant and under-studied instance of the 'multicultural.'"[27] The second, Libraries and Archives in the Digital Age (Palgrave Macmillan, 2020), brings together essays that address the evolving roles of librarians and archivists. Contributors to the collection include former director of the Harvard University Library Robert Darnton and the Argentine-Canadian writer Alberto Manguel, a former director of the National Library of Argentina.

Awards, fellowships, grants, and lectures

Professional activity

Personal life

Mizruchi's father Ephraim was a sociologist who taught at Syracuse University.[33] He was the author of notable works of sociology including Success and Opportunity: A Study of Anomie (1964), The Substance of Sociology: Codes, Conduct, and Consequences (1967), and Regulating Society: Marginality and Social Control in Historical Perspective (1983). Her mother Ruth was an award-winning lecturer in literature and composition at Syracuse University and Le Moyne College.[34] She has two brothers, David and Mark.[35]

Mizruchi was married to the literary and cultural critic Sacvan Bercovitch until his death in 2014, with whom she had a son, Alexander Philip Bercovitch ("Sascha") born in 1992.

Bibliography

As writer

As editor

Selected articles and chapters/sections of books

References

  1. ^ "Center for the Humanities". www.bu.edu. Retrieved 2021-04-17.
  2. ^ "BUCH Director Professor Susan Mizruchi Installed as William Arrowsmith Professor in the Humanities | Center for the Humanities". www.bu.edu. Retrieved 2021-04-17.
  3. ^ "Susan L. Mizruchi". John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation. Retrieved April 22, 2019.
  4. ^ "Announcing the New Director of the BU Center for the Humanities | Arts & Sciences". www.bu.edu. Retrieved 2021-04-17.
  5. ^ "Forum 2017 | Center for the Humanities". www.bu.edu. Retrieved 2021-04-17.
  6. ^ "Forum 2018 | Center for the Humanities". www.bu.edu. Retrieved 2021-04-17.
  7. ^ "Forum 2019 | Center for the Humanities". www.bu.edu. Retrieved 2021-04-17.
  8. ^ "The Teagle Foundation - 2020 November - The One and the Many at BU". www.teaglefoundation.org. Retrieved 2021-04-17.
  9. ^ "The One and the Many at Boston University | Center for the Humanities". www.bu.edu. Retrieved 2021-04-17.
  10. ^ Kaplan, Amy (1989). Hughson, Lois; Mizruchi, Susan L.; Shulman, Robert (eds.). "The Burden of History". The New England Quarterly. 62 (4): 586–593. doi:10.2307/366400. ISSN 0028-4866. JSTOR 366400.
  11. ^ "A Literary Scholar Examines the Role That Sacrifice Plays in Modern Western Society". www.chronicle.com. 12 June 1998. Retrieved 2021-04-17.
  12. ^ Goodman, Nan (1999). "Review of The Science of Sacrifice: American Literature and Modern Social Theory". American Literature. 71 (3): 605–606. ISSN 0002-9831. JSTOR 2902757.
  13. ^ Sica, Alan (September 1999). "Review of "The Science of Sacrifice: American Literature and Model Social Theory" by Susan L. Mizruchi". American Journal of Sociology. 105 (2): 538–540. doi:10.1086/210323. JSTOR 10.1086/210323. S2CID 152069623 – via JSTOR.
  14. ^ Gray, Richard (2006). Bercovitch, Sacvan; Berkovitch, Sacvan (eds.). "Writing American Literary History". Journal of American Studies. 40 (2): 399–411. doi:10.1017/S0021875806001447. ISSN 0021-8758. JSTOR 27557799.
  15. ^ Shone, Tom (2014-06-26). "How Brando Broke the Movies". The Atlantic. Retrieved 2021-04-17.
  16. ^ Kirby, David (2014-06-20). "Review: 'Brando's Smile: His Life, Thought, and Work,' by Susan L. Mizruchi". Washington Post. ISSN 0190-8286. Retrieved 2021-04-17.
  17. ^ Eyman, Scott (2014-07-04). "Book Review: 'Brando's Smile' by Susan L. Mizruchi". Wall Street Journal. ISSN 0099-9660. Retrieved 2021-04-17.
  18. ^ Quirke, Antonia (2014-07-25). "'Brando's Smile', by Susan L Mizruchi". www.ft.com. Retrieved 2021-05-13.
  19. ^ Kite, Lorien (2014-11-28). "Best books of 2014". www.ft.com. Retrieved 2021-04-17.
  20. ^ Morris, Wesley (2014-07-25). "Marlon's Method". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2021-05-13.
  21. ^ Chiasson, Dan. "Where's Brando? | by Dan Chiasson | The New York Review of Books". New York Review of Books. ISSN 0028-7504. Retrieved 2021-04-17.
  22. ^ Brando, retrieved 2021-08-18
  23. ^ Since the World's been Turning.
  24. ^ "Since the World's been Turning on Apple Podcasts". Apple Podcasts. Retrieved 2021-08-18.
  25. ^ "Nonfiction Book Review: Henry James: A Very Short Introduction by Susan L. Mizruchi. Oxford Univ, $11.95 trade paper (136p) ISBN 978-0-19-094438-4". PublishersWeekly.com. Retrieved 2021-05-13.
  26. ^ "The Best of Henry James". The Millions. 2021-07-23. Retrieved 2021-08-18.
  27. ^ Mizruchi, Susan (2001). Religion and Cultural Studies. Stanford University Press. pp. xii. ISBN 9780691224046.
  28. ^ "The Annual Award Ceremony and Lecture In Memory of Nadav Vardi". en-humanities.tau.ac.il. Retrieved 2021-07-05.
  29. ^ "BUCH Director Professor Susan Mizruchi Installed as William Arrowsmith Professor in the Humanities | Center for the Humanities". www.bu.edu. Retrieved 2021-07-05.
  30. ^ "Colloquium on Violence and Religion 2010 - The School of Martyrdom: Culture and Class in Catcher in the Rye". WBEZ Chicago. 2010-07-01. Retrieved 2021-07-05.
  31. ^ "John Simon Guggenheim Foundation | Susan L. Mizruchi". Retrieved 2021-07-05.
  32. ^ "Advisory Boards | The HistoryMakers". www.thehistorymakers.org. Retrieved 2021-07-05.
  33. ^ "Ephraim "Hal" Mizruchi". Syracuse Post Standard. May 14, 2018. Retrieved April 22, 2019.
  34. ^ "Ruth Trachtenberg Mizruchi". Syracuse Post Standard. March 23, 2018. Retrieved April 22, 2019.
  35. ^ Mizruchi, Mark (July–August 2018). "Ephraim Harold Mizruchi 1926-2018". ASA Footnotes. 46 (3).
  36. ^ Mizruchi, Susan L. (2014-07-14). The Power of Historical Knowledge. Princeton University Press. ISBN 978-0-691-60316-2.
  37. ^ Mizruchi, Susan L. (1998-05-24). The Science of Sacrifice. Princeton University Press. ISBN 978-0-691-01506-4.
  38. ^ Bercovitch, Sacvan, ed. (2005). The Cambridge History of American Literature: Volume 3: Prose writing, 1860–1920. Vol. 3. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. doi:10.1017/CHOL9780521301077. ISBN 978-0-521-30107-7.
  39. ^ "The Rise of Multicultural America | Susan L. Mizruchi". University of North Carolina Press. Retrieved 2021-04-17.
  40. ^ "Brando's Smile". wwnorton.com. Retrieved 2021-04-17.
  41. ^ Henry James: A Very Short Introduction. Very Short Introductions. Oxford, New York: Oxford University Press. 2021. ISBN 978-0-19-094438-4.
  42. ^ Mizruchi, Susan L. (2001-04-01). Religion and Cultural Studies. Princeton University Press. ISBN 978-0-691-00503-4.
  43. ^ Mizruchi, Susan L., ed. (2020). Libraries and Archives in the Digital Age. Palgrave Macmillan. ISBN 978-3-030-33372-0.