Michael West

Michael West is a Professor in the Department of English at the University of Pittsburgh’s Dietrich School of Arts & Sciences. He holds three Harvard degrees and specializes in Renaissance literature, American literature, and comparative literature. His research encompasses the Classical tradition, satire, warfare and Christian heroism, stylistics, and pedagogy. He authored Transcendental Wordplay (2000), which won the Phi Beta Kappa Gauss Award for literary scholarship.

Teaching areas include Shakespeare, American literature, Irish literature, and satire. He advises undergraduates in prize essay competitions and graduate program applications. Courses taught span Introduction to Shakespeare, Renaissance in England, and American Literature to 1860.

Research interests include 19th- and 20th-century American literature, with expertise on Spenser, Shakespeare, Milton, Thoreau, and Joyce. He has published verse translations from Latin and French in literary journals and authored guidance for students pursuing English graduate studies.