About

Cynthia Brilliant Herrup

Professor of History and Law

Contact Information
E-mail: herrup@usc.edu
Phone: (213) 821-2191
Office: SOS 281

LINKS
Curriculum Vitae
Institute for British and Irish Studies
IBIS Links
 

Education
B.S. Journalism, Northwestern University, 1/1972
M.A. History, Loyola University of Chicago, 1/1975
Ph.D. History, Northwestern University, 1/1982
 

Academic Appointment, Affiliation, and Employment History

Tenure Track Appointments
Professor of History and Law, University of Southern California, 01/01/2005-  
Associate Professor of History and Law to William Kenneth Boyd Professor of History and Law, Duke University, 01/01/1988-01/01/2005  
Assistant Professor of History, Duke University, 01/01/1984-01/01/1988  
Assistant Professor of History, University of Michigan, 01/01/1981-01/01/1984  
 

Visiting and Temporary Appointments
Professor of History, Birkbeck College, University of London, 1999-2010  
 

Description of Research

Summary Statement of Research Interests
Cynthia Herrup writes on the relationship of law (particularly criminal law) and culture in early modern English societies; she is also interested in the history of gender and sexuality. Her first book explored how communities in early modern England working without lawyers made decisions about law enforcement; her second used a notorious trial to explore how law reflected tensions between genders and generations. She is currently on leave completing a manuscript on the relationship between pardoning and the early modern English constitution. Her next project will study how in early modern England, legal categories shaped ideas about (among other things) salvation, responsibility, and community relations.
 

Affiliations with Research Centers, Labs, and Other Institutions
Center for Law, History and Culture, steering committee
Early Modern Studies Institute, member
Institute for British and Irish Studies, Director
 

Conferences and Other Presentations

Conference Presentations
"Crime and the law in early modern England", North American Conference on British Studies, Commentator, , San Francisco, CA, Invited, 2007-2008   
"Mutualities and Obligations", North American Conference on British Studies, Round table, , San Francisco, CA, Invited, 2007-2008   
"Transformation or equilibrium? Legal patriarchy in England and America 1550-1830", Berkshire Conference of Women's Historians, Commentator, , Minneapolis, MN, Invited, 2007-2008   
 

Other Presentations
"The power of uncertainty?", Yale University legal history workshop, New Haven, CT, Spring 2008   
"The power of uncertainty", Huntington-USC Early Modern British History Seminar, Pasadena, CA, 2006-2007   
"The qualities of mercy", CLHC workshop, Center for law, history and culture, Los Angeles, CA, 2006-2007   
 

Publications

Book
Herrup, C. B. When Mercy Seasons Justice: pardons in the constitution of 17thc England.
 

Journal Article
Herrup, C. B. (2006). The King's two genders. Journal of British Studies/University of Chicago. pp. p. 45.
Herrup, C. B. (2003). 'Re-reading politics'. Shakespeare Studies. Vol. 31, pp. 288-295.
Herrup, C. B. (1999). 'Finding the Bodies'. GLQ. Vol. 5 (3), pp. 255-265.
 

Monograph
Herrup, C. B. (1999). A House in Gross Disorder: Sex, Law and the Trial of the 2nd Earl of Castlehaven; ppb 2001; Notable Trials Book Club, 2001). Oxford University Press.
 

Other
Herrup, C. B. (2004). 'The Punishing Pardon: some thoughts on penal transportation' in Paul Griffiths and Simon Devereux, Penal practice and culture: punishing the English 1500-1700. Palgrave Macmillan.
Herrup, C. B. (2002). 'Negotiating Grace' in Tom Cogswell, Richard Cust, and Peter Lake, eds, Politics, Religion and Popularity. Cambridge University Press.
Herrup, C. B. (1987). The Common Peace: Participation and the Criminal Law in Seventeenth-Century England; ppbk 1989). Cambridge University Press.
 

Honors and Awards
Fellow (or Equivalent) of National Society in Discipline, Royal Historical Society, 1987-  
National Humanities Center Fellow, 2006  
President, North American Conference on British Studies, 2003-2005  
Fletcher Jones Foundation Fellow, Henry E. Huntington Library, 2000-2001  
British Academy/Huntington Library Exchange Fellow, 1997  
Folger Shakespeare Library NEH Fellow, 1996-1997  
John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Fellowship, 1989-1990  
National Endowment for the Humanities Fellowship Recipient, For University Teachers, 1988-1989  
Distinguished Visitor, Centre for British Studies, University of Adelaide, 1988  
Walter D. Love Article Prize, North American Conference on British Studies (for ‘Law & Morality in Seventeenth-Century England’), 1986  
American Council of Learned Societies Fellowship Recipient, Fellowship for Recent Recipients of the PhD, 1984  
 

Service to the University

Committees
Chair, Institute for British and Irish Studies, 2007-  
Co-Chair, USC-Huntington Seminar in Early Modern Britain, 2007-  
Co-Chair, USC History seminar, 2007-  
Member, University grievance committee, 2008-2009   
Member, Center for Law, History and Culture Steering Committee, 2007-2008   
 

Review Panels
National Humanities Center, fellowship selection committee, 2008-2009   
 

Service to the Profession

Committees
Member, American Historical Association, Maurice Forkosch Prize commmittee, 2007-  
 

Editorships and Editorial Boards
Board member, Huntington Library Quarterly, 2007-  
Board member, Cultural and Social History, 2003-  
Board member, Compass, 2002-  
Board Member, Journal of Medieval and Early Modern Studies, 1998-2005  
Associate Editor, New Dictionary of National Biography, 2002-2004  
Board Member, Cultural and Social History: The Journal of the Social History Society, 2003  
Board Member, Compass, 2002  
Board Member, Huntington Library Quarterly, 1997  
Board Member, Journal of Modern History, 1995-1997  
Editor, Journal of British Studies, 1991-1996  
Board Member, Law and History Review, 1993-1995  
 

Professional Offices
Vice-President; President; Immediate Past President, North American Conference on British Studies, 1999-2007  
 

Professional Memberships
Pacific Coast Conference on British Studies, 2005-  
American Society of Legal History, 1980-  
North American Conference on British Studies, 1980-  
 

Review Panels
National Humanities Center, fellowship selection committee, 2008-2009   
 
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