UW-Madison selects Center for Humanities director

Susanne Lindgren Wofford, professor of English at UW–Madison, will direct the Center for Humanities beginning July 1.

Wofford, who earned her doctorate at Yale University in 1982, taught there for a decade before joining the UW faculty. She is a distinguished scholar of classical and early modern literature, whose works include “The Choice of Achilles: The Ideology of Figure in the Epic” and a co-edited collection, “Epic Traditions in the Contemporary World.” She is also the recent editor of “Shakespeare: The Late Tragedies” and “Hamlet: Case Studies in Contemporary Criticism.” Her many professional activities include serving as president of the Shakespeare Association of America, a position to which she was appointed this year.

Wofford was recognized for her teaching with a Chancellor’s Award for Distinguished Teaching in 1998, and has regularly taught during the summer at the Bread Loaf School of English. She has chaired the campus Divisional Committee for Arts and Humanities, and was director of Graduate Studies in English from 1995-99, as well as chair and co-organizer of the Mellon-funded Early Modern Studies Group.

She succeeds Steve Nadler, professor of philosophy, who served as the founding director of the center.