USC College Taps Literature Scholar for Dean Post

Hilary Schor leads College's undergraduate programs

by Pamela J. Johnson

(With reporting by Kirsten Holguin)

This summer, USC College appointed Hilary M. Schor, professor of English, as the new dean of undergraduate programs.

Schor replaced Peter Starr, professor of French and comparative literature, who assumed the post of dean of the College on an interim basis in July.
In his letter to the faculty announcing the appointment, Starr wrote, “Those of you who know Hilary know her as an exceptional scholar of Victorian literature and culture, a brilliant teacher and as fine an institutional mind as we have at this university.”

In her new position, Starr wrote, “Hilary will be instrumental in our efforts to implement the new College Honors Society, the Multimedia in the Core program and our undergraduate team research initiatives.

“But I dare say that she will also be taking the undergraduate programs office in directions not yet foreseen.”

Schor holds a joint appointment in the department of comparative literature and is a professor of law in the Gould School of Law. She is an active member and past co-director of the USC Center for Law, History and Culture.

Her previous leadership experience includes serving as chair of gender studies, director of the Center for Feminist Research and past president of the USC Academic Senate.

“As someone who has taught at USC since 1986, I appreciate the continuing strengths of the College as well as the new possibilities that come with the bright, lively, imaginative students we’ve been attracting,” Schor said. “These students bring more to USC and expect more from us — and I’m looking forward to working with them to diversify our curriculum and make undergraduate education at USC richer and more challenging for all of us. I can’t think of a better job right now.”

Schor’s scholarship focuses on narrative theory, as well as on law, property and the nature of subjectivity in literature, popular culture and film.
Schor, an avid scholar of Charles Dickens, is actively involved in the University of California Dickens Project. Known for her ability to communicate the relevance of literary titles to students, Schor has led many graduate seminars and organized conferences, the titles of which include “Victorian Soundings,” “Victoria Redressed: Feminism and Nineteenth-Century Studies,” and “Victorian Terror.”

Her books include Scheherezade in the Marketplace: Elizabeth Gaskell and the Victorian Novel (Oxford, 1992) and Dickens and the Daughter of the House (Cambridge, 1999). She’s currently working on a book about women, curiosity and novels, titled Curious Subjects: Women and the Trials of Realism. In 2005, she published a scholarly article exploring curiosity in Henry James’ novel The Golden Bowl.
She has written essays in companions to Dickens, Jane Austen and film, the Victorian novel and Victorian literature and culture, as well as essays on Bleak House, Bastard Out of Carolina and Victorian “character” trials.

Schor received her bachelor’s degree in British and American literature from Scripps College in Claremont, Calif., and her master’s and doctoral degrees from Stanford University, where she specialized in 19th century literature and culture, drawing on work in intellectual history, feminist studies and the history of the novel.

She has received numerous fellowships and awards, including a John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation Fellowship, Stanford Humanities Center Fellowship, Graves Foundation Fellowship and USC Zumberge Faculty Research Fellowship.