Robert N. Watson

Robert N. Watson is a Distinguished Professor of English at the University of California, Los Angeles, affiliated with the Department of English within the College of Letters and Science. He has held significant leadership roles including Chair of the Department of English, Chair of the Faculty of the UCLA College of Letters and Science, and Associate Vice-Provost for Educational Innovation.

• Education:
  • B.A., summa cum laude, Yale University (1975)
  • Ph.D., Highest Honors, Stanford University (1979)

Professor Watson’s research focuses on William Shakespeare and Ben Jonson, literature and the environment, cultural evolution, and the U.S. in the 1960s. His work in ecocriticism explores intersections between environmental ethics and early modern literature, while his interdisciplinary research on cultural memeplexes investigates self-replicating cultural systems that parasitize human cognition. His recent publications apply algorithmic analysis to Shakespearean texts, revealing computational patterns in Elizabethan dramatic structure.

• Scientific Awards:
  • Guggenheim Fellowship
  • NEH Senior Research Fellowship
  • Thomas J. Wilson Prize (1984)
  • Elizabeth Dietz Memorial Prize (2007)
  • ASLE Prize for Ecocriticism (2005-07)
  • UCLA Distinguished Teaching Prize (2001)
  • Gold Shield Prize (2006-08)

As a humanities educator, he has created interdisciplinary courses on the 1960s cultural era and served as Head Scholar at the Teaching Shakespeare Summer Institute. His editorial work includes New Mermaids Series editions of Jonson’s plays and the forthcoming Arden edition of Measure for Measure. With publications spanning Shakespearean fear of death to Japanese cinema analysis, he remains a prominent figure in humanistic responses to cultural crises.