William James Simpson
Current Post:
- Douglas P. and Katherine B. Loker Professor of English, Harvard University, 2006 - present
- Harvard College Professor, 2008-2013
- Life Fellow, Girton College Cambridge
Post School Education and Degrees:
- 2004: Harvard University, M.A. (by incorporation)
- 1996: University of Cambridge, Ph.D.
- 1995: University of Cambridge, M.Phil. (by incorporation)
- 1980: University of Oxford, M.Phil., Distinction
- 1976: University of Melbourne, B.A. (Honours), First Class
Post-Graduate Prizes, Awards:
- Distinguished International Fellow, ARC Center of Excellence Program in the History of the Emotions, University of Melbourne, June 2015
- Fletcher Jones Foundation Distinguished Fellow, Huntington Library, 2013-14
- Walter Channing Cabot Fellowship, FAS, Harvard University, 2011-12, for Under the Hammer: Iconoclasm in the Anglo-American Tradition
- 2008 Recipient of Silver Medal, 2008 Independent Publisher Book Awards, for Burning to Read: English Fundamentalism and its Reformation Opponents (Religion category)
- 2007 Recipient of British Academy Sir Israel Gollancz Prize, for Reform and Cultural Revolution
- Honorary Fellow, Australian Academy of the Humanities, 2003
- British Academy Two-Year Readership, 2003-2005, declined in favour of Harvard appointment
- John Hurt Fisher Prize for “Significant Contribution to the Field of John Gower Studies,” awarded by the John Gower Society, 2003
- Research Leave Award from Arts and Humanities Research Board, Easter Term, 1999
- Jane Herbert Memorial Fellowship, Westfield College, University of London, 1987
- Paget Toynbee Dante Prize, Oxford University, 1980
- Postgraduate Scholarship for Foreign Students (now ORS), from (British) Committee of Vice-Chancellors and Principals, 1980
- Travelling Scholarship, University of Melbourne, 1980
Previous Appointments:
- Professor of English and American Literature, Harvard University, 2004-2006
- Professor of Medieval and Renaissance English, University of Cambridge, October 1999-2003 (endowed chair)
- University Lecturer in English, Faculty of English, University of Cambridge, October 1989-1999
- Professorial Fellow, Girton College Cambridge, October 1999-2003
- Visiting Fellow, Centre for Advanced Studies, Jadavpur University, Kolkata, India
- Charles A. Owen Visiting Distinguished Professor, University of Connecticut, September 2003
- Visiting Distinguished Professor, Stanford University, Fall Quarter, 1999
- Official Fellow and College Lecturer, Girton College, Cambridge, 1989-1999
- Visiting Professor, Chaucer-Langland National Endowment for the Humanities Institute, Boulder, Colorado, July 1995
- Visiting Distinguished Professor, University of Connecticut, September 1997
- Lecturer in English Literature, Westfield College, University of London, 1981-89
- Tutor in English Literature and Language, University of Melbourne, 1977-78
Endowed Lectures:
- Doug Burger Lecture in Medieval and Early Modern Literature, University of Colorado at Boulder, March 2016
- Distinguished International Fellow lecture, ARC Center of Excellence Program in the History of the Emotions, University of Melbourne, June 2015
- Shakespeare Gesellschaft, Berlin April 2015, keynote speaker
- New Chaucer Society, Plenary lecture, Reykjavik July 2014
- Fletcher Jones Distinguished Fellow Lecture, Huntington Library, March 2014
- Distinguished Visitor Lecture, University of California at Berkeley, March 2014
- Ferrari Symposia in the Humanities endowed lecture series, University of Rochester, New York, March 2013
- History and Literature Distinguished Lecturer, Harvard University, October 18 2012
- Literature and Social Justice Lecture, Lehigh University, Pennsylvania, March 2012
- Religion and Literature and Henkels Interdisciplinary Lecture, University of Notre Dame, April 2011
- G. L. Brook Lecture, University of Manchester, May 2010
- Inaugural Lecturer for Texas Institute for Literary and Textual Studies, February 2010, University of Texas at Austin
- Clarendon Lectures, Oxford University Press and University of Oxford, 5-14 May 2009 (4 Lectures)
- Crabtree-Stewart Lecture, Furman University, South Carolina, March 2009
- James Edwin Savage Lecture in the Renaissance, University of Mississippi, April, 2007
- Sir Israel Gollancz Memorial Lecture, British Academy, March 2006
- Landsdowne Fellow, University of Victoria, British Columbia, March 2002
- Tucker-Cruse Lecturer, University of Bristol, October 1994
General Scholarly Contribution:
- Founding Co-editor, with David Aers and Sarah Beckwith, ReFormations: Medieval and Early Modern, a monograph series published by University of Notre Dame Press, 2006- (eleven books published by 2015)
- Senior Editor, Oxford Handbooks Online in Literature, OUP, NY, 2012-15 (24 essays edited)
- Founding initiator and developer of METRO (Middle English Teaching Resources Online), launched Fall 2010
- Co-organiser of Conference for C. David Benson, October 2010, Harvard University
- Advisory Board Member, National Chung Cheng University Center for Medieval Studies, Taiwan, 2009-
- Organizer, Cultural Reformations Conference, Harvard University September 13-16 2008
- Executive Board member of International Piers Plowman Society, 2008-2011, and Treasurer (2008-2010)
- Founding Co-editor, with David Aers and Sarah Beckwith, ReFormations: Medieval and Early Modern, a monograph series published by University of Notre Dame Press, 2006- (two books published by 2009)
- Co-organiser of “Conversion,” a conference at Harvard University, September 23-25, 2005
- Trustee, New Chaucer Society, 2004-2006
- Chair, Nominations Committee, New Chaucer Society, 2002-4
- Initiator and organiser of “Suffering History: Martyrdom in England 1401-1573,” June 30-July2, Queens” College Cambridge 2002
- - Co-organiser of the Second International Langland Conference, July 29 - July 31, 1999, University of North Carolina, Asheville
- Co-organiser of “Images, Idolatry and Iconoclasm,” an interdisciplinary conference at King’s College Cambridge Research Centre, June 29-30, 1999
- Tenure referee for the following universities: University of California at Berkeley (1995, 2000); University of Missouri, St Louis (1998); University of Richmond, Virginia (1999); Stanford University (2001); Florida International University (2001); Princeton University (2002); Duke University (2002); Yale (2004); Notre Dame (2004); Cornell (2004); University of Pennsylvania (2004), etc.
- Member, Editorial Board, Parergon, 1999-
- Co-Editor, Yearbook of Langland Studies, 1993-1996
- General Editor, Piers Plowman Studies (published by Boydell and Brewer) (5 books published under editorship), 1991-1996
- Member of Executive Committee, Society for the Study of Mediaeval Languages and Literature, Oxford, 1989-94
- Member of Editorial Board, Yearbook of Langland Studies, 1989-1993
- Initiated and co-organised the First International Langland Conference (Queens” College, Cambridge), July 29 - August 1, 1993. 100 delegates attended.
- Initiated and ran the London Old and Middle English Research Seminar, 1986-89
- Secretary, London Medieval Society, 1987-89