معرفی
Rebecca Rush is an Associate Professor in the Department of English at the University of Virginia, within the College of Arts & Sciences. She serves as Director of Graduate Placement and Director of the Medieval and Renaissance Studies Concentration, playing a key role in shaping graduate education and interdisciplinary scholarship.
Education:
- Ph.D., Yale University, 2017
- B.A., University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, 2010
Her research centers on Renaissance and early modern English literature, with a focus on poetic form, lyric personhood, and the interplay between literary aesthetics and philosophical concepts such as liberty, resemblance, and identity. She explores how formal features like rhyme function not merely as stylistic choices but as carriers of ideological and cognitive meaning. Her work bridges literary analysis, intellectual history, and philosophical inquiry, particularly in the context of humanist thought and Reformation culture.
Her recent publications reveal a sustained engagement with major figures including Milton, Donne, Spenser, and Julian of Norwich. The articles collectively trace a trajectory of inquiry into how poetic structures—rhyme, meter, syntax, allusion—mediate between individual subjectivity and broader cultural frameworks. Themes of constraint and freedom, universality and particularity, and sound and sense recur across her scholarship, reflecting a deep commitment to understanding poetry as both an art and a mode of thought.
Scientific Awards and Fellowships:
- Student Council Distinguished Teaching Award, University of Virginia (2022)
- Arts, Humanities, and Social Sciences Research Award for The Fetters of Rhyme (2021)
- Sesquicentennial Associate, University of Virginia (2021)
- Faculty Summer Research Stipend (2021, 2019, 2018)
- John Donne Society Award for Distinguished Publication (2017)
- Shoichi Noma Scholar, New York Public Library (2017)
- Robert M. Leylan Dean’s Scholar Award, Yale University (2015)
- H.P. Kraus Fellowship, Beinecke Library (2014)
Rebecca Rush is actively involved in mentoring and academic leadership through her role as Director of Graduate Placement. She has taught a wide range of courses including Renaissance and Reformation, Milton, Metaphysical Poets, and Chaucer, demonstrating both breadth and depth in her pedagogical commitments. She has presented her research at major conferences such as the Renaissance Society of America and the Sixteenth Century Society Conference, contributing to national and international scholarly dialogues.
She leads and participates in academic initiatives related to medieval and Renaissance studies, fostering interdisciplinary collaboration. Her leadership in graduate education and her integration of historical, formal, and theoretical approaches position her as a central figure in contemporary literary scholarship.
