New English Programs Develop Professional Skills

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New English Programs Develop Professional Skills rime Fri, 09/05/2025 - 10:52

Geneseo Launches a New Academic Year

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Geneseo Launches a New Academic Year rime Fri, 08/22/2025 - 09:15

Best-selling Author Jeff VanderMeer to Deliver Annual Harding Lecture

patenaude — Wed, 20 Aug 2025 14:22:50 +0000

Best-selling Author Jeff VanderMeer to Deliver Annual Harding Lecture patenaude Wed, 08/20/2025 - 10:22

Emrys Donaldson

schacht — Tue, 12 Aug 2025 17:46:30 +0000

Emrys Donaldson

Assistant Professor of English and Creative Writing

schacht Tue, 08/12/2025 - 13:46

Emrys Donaldson is the author of the short story collection The Iridescents (Texas Review Press, 2025). His stories have recently been anthologized in Queer Little Nightmares (Arsenal Pulp Press) and published in venues such as LitHub and Electric Literature, among others. He received his MFA from the University of Alabama in 2019 and his BA summa cum laude from Cornell University in 2012. He joined the Geneseo faculty in 2025.

Literary Translation

barkan — Thu, 31 Jul 2025 15:06:27 +0000

Literary Translation barkan Thu, 07/31/2025 - 11:06

Sample Courses

History of the English Language
Literary Translation Workshop
Reading Transnationally

Popular Electives

Language and Culture
Languages in the Community
Methods of Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages

Alumni Spotlight

Rachel Britton '18

Major: English (Creative Writing)

Career: Britton is a writer/editor/translator pursuing an MA in translation studies from the University of Iceland in Reykjavík. She recently published her first book of poems in translation from Icelandic, A Woman Looks Over Her Shoulder, by Brynja Hjálmsdóttir (Circumference Books, 2024).

Literary Translation

Why study literary translation at Geneseo?

This minor offers students the opportunity to expand their reading horizons globally while developing practical, intercultural skills that work across languages. Departmental connections to literary translation presses allow students to engage with practicing translators and works-in-progress as they explore literature from a range of cultural traditions and languages.

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Program Option

Minor in Literary Translation

Additional Options

Program Highlights

Connections to Rochester-area presses offer opportunities for hands-on experience.

Sample Careers

Court/community interpreter
Literary translator
Localizer
Medical interpreter
Researcher
Teacher

Contact Info

Lytton Smith, Professor of English and Program Coordinator
smithlj@geneseo.edu
Welles Hall 230
585-245-5959

English dept

English Faculty

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Britina Cheng ’16: English Grad to Puzzle Master

rime — Thu, 10 Jul 2025 14:05:21 +0000

Britina Cheng ’16: English Grad to Puzzle Master rime Thu, 07/10/2025 - 10:05

Four Alums Win Fulbright US Student Awards

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Four Alums Win Fulbright US Student Awards rime Mon, 06/02/2025 - 14:23

Congratulations, Class of 2025!

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Congratulations, Class of 2025! rime Thu, 05/22/2025 - 10:51

Five Students Earn Gilman International Scholarships

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Five Students Earn Gilman International Scholarships rime Fri, 05/09/2025 - 13:46

Ronald Herzman

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Ronald Herzman

Distinguished Teaching Professor Emeritus

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Curriculum Vitae

Education

- BA Manhattan College, 1965
- MA University of Delaware, 1967
- PhD University of Delaware, 1969
- LHD (honoris causa) Manhattan College, 1991

Appointments

- State University of New York, College at Geneseo
  - SUNY Distinguished Teaching Professor of English, 1989-2018;
    Emeritus,
  - Chair, 1994-1997
  - Acting Chair, 1986, 2005
  - Professor, 1983‑89
  - Associate Professor,1978‑83
  - Assistant Professor, 1969‑78
- New York University
  - Visiting Lecturer, 2019
- Fordham University
  - Fellow, Center for Medieval Studies, 2015-2016
- St. John’s College, Santa Fe, NM
  - Guest Tutor, Summer 1994, 1997
- National Endowment for the Humanities
  - Assistant Director, Division of Fellowships and Seminars,
    1984‑85
  - Founding Program Officer: Summer Seminars for School Teachers,
    1982‑85
- Georgetown University
  - Professorial Lecturer in Interdisciplinary Studies, 1983‑85
- Attica Correctional Facility
  - Adjunct Professor of Literature (through Genesee Community College),
    1980‑82
- University of Chicago
  - Fellow, 1978-79
- University of Delaware
  - Instructor in English, 1968‑69.

Areas of Specialization

- Medieval and Renaissance Literature
- Dante
- Chaucer
- Medieval Spirituality
- Francis of Assisi
- Latin
- Humanities
- Shakespeare
- The Bible

Courses Taught

- Dante / The Age of Dante
- Dante and African American Literature
- Chaucer / Chaucer and His Age
- Humanities I: Readings from Plato to Shakespeare
- Humanites I in New York City / in Hong Kong
- Humanities II: Locke to Present
- Medieval Studies (team‑taught, interdepartmental):
- The Age of Francis of Assisi
- Love and War in the Twelfth Century
- The Age of Chaucer
- The Age of Dante
- Poetry and Cosmology in the Middle Ages
- The Apocalyptic Tradition
- Shakespeare (six different courses)
- The Bible
- Literary Forms:
- Tragedy
- Arthurian Romance
- Mythology
- Old English/Beowulf
- Medieval British Literature
- Medieval European Literature
- British Literature I (beginnings to 1700)
- Medieval Mysticism (Senior Seminar)
- College Writing
- Summer Courses Abroad (team‑taught):
- Literature and Society in Chaucer\'s England
- Literature and Society in Dante\'s Italy
- France and England in the High Middle Ages
- Latin
- Elementary Latin
- Medieval Latin
- Reading courses in Virgil, Ovid, Augustine, Boethius, Benedict,
- Bonaventure, Livy
- Honors 102 / 202 (Critical Reading)

Books

- The Medieval World View, third edition. New York and Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2012. Pp. xxi + 397 (with William R. Cook).
- The Medieval World View, second edition. New York and Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2004. Pp. xx + 320 (with William R Cook).
- Four Romances of England: King Horn, Havelok the Dane, Bevis of Hampton, and Athelston. Kalamazoo: Medieval Institute Publications, 1999 (Edited, with Graham N. Drake and Eve Salisbury).
- The Apocalyptic Imagination in Medieval Literature, Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1992. Pp. xi + 244 (with Richard K. Emmerson). Chapter Four, “The Commedia: Apocalypse, Church, and Dante’s Conversion,” rpt. in Dante: The Critical Complex, ed. Richard Lansing (New York and London: Routledge, 2003), vol. 5, pp. 350-401.
- La Vision Medieval Del Mundo, tr. Milagros Rivera Garreta. Barcelona: Editorial Vincens‑Vives, 1985 (with William R. Cook).
- The Medieval World View, New York: Oxford University Press, 1983. Pp. xxiv + 366 (with William R. Cook)

Articles and Chapters

- “Dante, Pope Nicholas III, and the Frescoes in the Sancta Sanctorum,” Dante Studies 140 (2022): 95-134.
- “Virgil’s Mission: Dante and the Salvation of the Pagan World,” Mediaevalia 44 (2023): 125-180 (with Jo Ann Hoeppner Moran Cruz).
- "Simony," The Chaucer Encyclopedia, ed Richard Newhouser (Wiley), forthcoming.
- “Dante, Francis, Iacopone,” Tributes to Richard K. Emmerson: Crossing Medieval Disciplines, eds. Deirdere Carter, Elina Gertsman, and Karlyn Griffith. Turnhout, Belgium: Harvey Miller / Brephols, 2021, pp. 301-314
- “Teaching Dante in Prison,” Approaches to Teaching Dante's Divine Comedy, eds. Christopher Kleinhenz and Kristina Olson. New York: MLA Publications, 2020, pp. 242-256
- “Dante’s Francis, Take 2,” Select Proceedings from the First International Conference on Franciscan Studies: “The World of Saint Francis” (July 16-20, 2015), eds. Bradley R. Franco and Beth A. Mulvaney. Siena: Betti Editrice, 2016, pp. 51-62.
- "Fraternal (Un) Masking: "Shakespeare's Measure for Measure and Dante's Inferno 27," in The World of St. Francis of Assisi, " eds. Bradley R. Franco and Beth A. Mulvaney. Leiden: Brill, 2015, pp. 121-139.
- "Dante: Cafeteria Catholic" in Unruly Catholics from Dante to Madonna, ed. Marc Di Paolo. Lanham: Scarecrow / Rowen and Littlefield, 2013, pp. 1-16
- "Dante and the Frescoes at Santi Quatro Coronati," Speculum 87.1 (2012): 95-146 (with William A. Stephany).
- “Attica Educations: Dante in Exile,” PMLA 123 (2008): 697-701. Rpt. in Poetry and Criticism vol. 108. Farmington Hills, MI: Gale 2010, pp. 225-228.
- “‘Io non Eneä, io non Paolo sono’: Ulysses, Guido da Montefeltro, and Franciscan Traditions in the Commedia,” Dante Studies 123 (2005, pub. 2008): 23-69.
- Dante From Two Perspectives: The Sienese Connection, Bernardo Lecture Series 15 (Binghamton, N.Y.: Center for Medieval and Renaissance Studies, 2007) (with William R. Cook).
- “What Dante Learned from St. Francis,” in Dante and the Franciscans, ed. Santa Casciana (Leiden: E.J. Brill, 2006), pp. 113-140 (with William R. Cook).
- “‘I speak not yet of proof’: Dante and the Art of Assisi,” in The Art of the Franciscans in Italy, ed. William R. Cook (Leiden: E.J. Brill, 2005), pp. 189-209
- “Graduate Educations,” The Journal of Education 184 (2003): 23-35.
- “From Francis to Solomon: Eschatology in the Sun,” in Dante for the New Millenium, eds. Teodolina Barolini and Wayne Storey (New York: Fordham University Press, 2003), pp.320-333.
- “Humanites Educations,” The Journal of Education 183(2002): 81-89.
- “Medieval Outreach,” Medieval Academy of America News, November, 2001, p. 12.
- “Catholic Educations,” First Things, October 2000, pp. 39-45.
- The Dante Encyclopedia, ed. Richard Lansing (Garland, 2000), articles on: “Francis of Assisi,” “Clement V,” “Apocalypse” (with Richard K. Emmerson), “Revelation” (with Richard K. Emmerson), and “Prophecy”(with Richard K. Emmerson)
- “ ‘Visibile Parlare’: Dante's Purgatorio 10 and Luca Signorelli's San Brizio Frescoes,” Studies in Iconography 20 (1999):155-183.
- “The Book of the City of Ladies as Twice Told Tale,” in Retelling Tales, eds. Thomas Hahn and Alan Lupack (Boydell & Brewer, 1998), pp. 108‑125.
- “Confessions 7.9: What Has Athens to Do with Jerusalem?” Journal of Education 179 (1997): 49‑60.
- “Squaring the Circle: Paradiso 33 and The Poetics of Geometry,” Traditio 49 (1994): 95‑125 (with Gary W. Towsley).
- “Dante and the Apocalypse,” in The Apocalypse in the Middle Ages, eds. R. K. Emmerson and Bernard McGinn. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 1992. Pp. 398‑413. Rpt. in Dante: The Critical Complex, ed. Richard Lansing (New York and London: Routledge, 2003), vol. 5, pp. 402-417.
- “Jacopone da Todi: The Aesthetics of Imprisonment,” Franziskanische Studien 72 (1990): 248‑256 (with Weston L. Kennison).
- “The Bible and the Schools: Some Reflections,” in Better Schools, Better Lives: An Invitation to Dialogue. Boston: Boston University Center for the Advancement of Ethics and Character, 1990. Pp. 21 ‑ 26.
- “The Canterbury Tales in Eschatological Perspective,” in The Use and Abuse of Eschatology in the Middle Ages, ed. D. Verhelst et al (Leuven: Leuven University Press, 1988): 404‑424 (with Richard K. Emmerson).
- “How to Write a Fellowship Proposal,” Humanities, Feb. 1987.
- “The Apocalyptic Age of Hypocrisy: Faus Semblant and Amant in the Roman de la Rose,” Speculum 62 (1987): 611‑634 (with Richard K. Emmerson).
- “Dante and Francis,” Franciscan Studies, 42 (1982; pub. 1986): 96‑114. Rpt. in Dante: The Critical Complex, ed. Richard Lansing (New York and London: Routledge, 2003). vol. 7, pp. 386-404.
- “Summer Seminar for Secondary School Teachers,” School‑College Collaborative Programs in English, ed. Ron Fortune, New York: Modern Language Association, 1986, pp. 92‑96.
- “The Friar's Tale: Chaucer, Dante, and the Translatio Studii,” ACTA 9 (1985), 1‑17.
- “‘Let Us Seek Him Also’: Tropological Judgment in Twelfth-Century Art and Drama,” in Homo, Memento Finis: The Iconography of Just Judgment in Medieval Art and Drama. Papers by David Bevington, Huston Diehl, Richard Kenneth Emmerson, Ronald Herzman, and Pamela Sheingorn. Kalamazoo, Michigan: Medieval Institute Publications, Early Drama, Art and Music Monograph Series 6, 1985, pp. 59-88.
- “Roland and Romanesque: Biblical Iconography in The Song of Roland,” The Arts, Society, and Literature, ed. Harry Garvin (Bucknell Review, vol. 29, Lewisburg, Pa.: Bucknell University Press, 1984), pp. 21‑48 (with William R. Cook).
- “From Chaucer to St. Francis,” Humanities 4(1983): 17‑18.
- “Dante In Attica,” Studies in Medieval and Renaissance Teaching, 9(1982): 3‑8 (with William R. Cook).
- “The Reeve's Tale, Symkyn, and Simon the Magician,” The American Benedictine Review, 33 (1982): 325‑333.
- “Simon the Magician and the Medieval Tradition,” Journal of Magic History, 2 (1980): 28‑43 (with William R. Cook).
- “Antichrist, Simon Magus, and Dante's Inferno 19,” Traditio, 36 (1980): 373‑398 (with Richard K. Emmerson).
- “Cannibalism and Communion in Inferno XXXIII,” Dante Studies 98 (1980): 53‑77. Rpt. in Dante: The Critical Complex, ed. Richard Lansing (London: Routledge, 2003), vol. 7, Dante and Interpretation, pp. 175-200.
- “Inferno XXXIII: The Past and the Present in Dante's Imagery of Betrayal,” Italica 56 (1979): 377‑383 (with William R. Cook).
- “‘0 miseri seguaci’: Sacramental Inversion in Inferno XIX,” Dante Studies 96 (1978): 39‑65 (with William A. Stephany).
- “Bonaventure's Life of St. Francis and the Frescoes in the Church of San Francesco: A Study in Medieval Aesthetics,” Franziskanische Studien 59 (1977): 29‑37 (with William R. Cook).
- “Millstones: An Approach to The Miller's Tale and The Reeve's Tale,” The English Record, 18 (1977): 18‑21, 26.
- “St. Eustace: A Note on Inferno XXVII,” Dante Studies 94 (1976): 137‑139 (with William R. Cook).
- “Literature and Society in Chaucer's English: A Multidisciplinary Analysis,” Journal of English Teaching Techniques, 8(1976): 26‑35 (with William R. Cook).
- “An Interdisciplinary Approach to Chaucer's England: A Multidisciplinary Analysis,” Exercise Exchange, 18 (1974): 17‑20 (with William R. Cook).
- “The Paradox of Form: The Knight's Tale and Chaucerian Aesthetics,” Papers on Language and Literature, 10 (1974): 339‑352. Rpt. in Wege der Forschung: Geoffrey Chaucer, ed. Willi Erzgraber. Darmstadt: Wissensschaftliche Buchgesellschaft, 1983, pp. 272‑287.
- “The Gateway of Art: Analogies as an Approach to Medieval Literature,” Exercise Exchange 17 (1973): 13‑17 (with M. Kay Nellis).
- “Stephen Spender: The Critic as Poet,” Notes on Contemporary Literature 3 (1973): 6‑7.
- “A Yeatsian Parallel in Richard Wilbur's ‘Merlin Enthralled,’” Notes on Contemporary Literature 1 (1972): 10‑11.

Audio Visual

- Literature of the Renaissance. Twelve Lecture Visual / Audio course as part of Great Authors of the Western Literary Tradition, The Great Courses. The Teaching Company, 2004.
- Augustine's Confessions. Twenty-four Lecture Visual / Audio course, The Great Courses. The Teaching Company, 2004 (with William R. Cook).
- Dante’s Divine Comedy. Twenty-four Lecture Visual / Audio course. The Great Courses. The Teaching Company, 2001(with William R. Cook).
- Discovering the Middle Ages. Twelve Lecture Visual Course, The Great Courses. The Teaching Company, 2001 (with William R. Cook).
- Francis of Assisi. Twelve Lecture Visual / Audio Course. The Great Courses. The Teaching Company, 2000 (with William R. Cook).
- Dante's Life and Times, Dante's Literary Antecedents. Two Visual/Audio Lectures, part of Great Authors of the Western Tradition. SuperStar Teachers. The Teaching Company, 1993 (with William R. Cook).
- Hell, Purgatory, Heaven: Dante's Divine Comedy. Eight Lecture Visual / Audio course for SuperStar Teachers / The Great Courses. The Teaching Company, 1993 (with William R. Cook).
- Canto per Canto: Conversations with Dante for Our Time: Inferno 27, with William A. Stephany; Inferno 33, with Weston L. Kennison; Purgatorio 21, with Jo Ann Hoeppner Moran Cruz; Paradiso 13, with Gary W. Towsley; Paradiso 14, with Hannah Schmidt (NYU Casa Italiana / You Tube, 2021).
- Dante’s Divine Comedy, “Dog with Torches” Podcast (You Tube)

Reviews

- John Freccero, In Dante’s Wake: Readings from Medieval to Modern in the Augustinian Tradition, eds. Daniella Callegari and Melissa Swain, Speculum, 2017
- Dennis Looney, Freedom Readers:The African American Experience of Dante and the The Divine Comedy, Medievally Speaking, on line June 4, 2016.
- Nick Havely, Dante, Speculum, 2009
- Justin Steinberg, Accounting for Dante, Medievalia et Humanistica, 2007.
- Nick Havely, Dante and the Franciscans, Speculum, 2006.
- Eric Jager, The Book of the Heart, Speculum, 2003.
- John Scott, Dante's Political Purgatory, Bryn Mawr Medieval Review, 1996, on line.
- Robert Fossier, ed., The Cambridge Illustrated History of the Middle Ages: 1 350‑950, Studies in the Age of Chaucer (1993) .
- John Saly, Dante's Paradiso: The Flowering of the Self, Church History, 1993.
- Piero Boitani, The Tragic and The Sublime in Medieval Literature, Studies in the Age of Chaucer 13(1991): 165‑8.
- Robert Edwards, The Dreams of Chaucer, Envoi 2(1990): 307‑311.
- Antonio Crocco, ed., L'Eta dello Spirito e La Fine Dei Tempi in Gioacchino da Fiore e nel Gioachimismo Medievale: Atti del II Congresso Internationale di Studi Giochimiti, Speculum 65(1990): 642‑3.
- Jeffrey Tambling, Dante and Difference: Writing in the Commedia, Studies in the Age of Chaucer 11(1989): 327‑331.
- Penn Szittya, The Antifraternal Tradition in Medieval Literature, Envoi 1(1988): 176‑181.
- Patrick Diehl, The Medieval Religious Lyric: An Ars Poetica, Speculum 63(1988): 390‑1.
- Peter Dronke, Dante and Medieval Latin Traditions, Studies in the Age of Chaucer, 9(1987): 209‑212.
- Joan M. Ferrante, The Political Vision of the Divine Comedy and Stewart Farnell, The Political Ideas of the Divine Comedy, Italica, 63(1986): 306‑310.
- V.A. Kolve, Chaucer and the Imagery of Narrative, Studies in the Age of Chaucer, 7(1985): 212‑218 (with Richard K. Emmerson).
- A. Bartlett Giamatti, ed., Dante in America, The First Two Centuries, Speculum, 60(1985): 678‑9.
- John V. Fleming, From Bonaventure to Bellini: An Essay in Franciscan Exegesis, Studies in the Age of Chaucer, 6(1984): 189‑192.
- Richard K. Emmerson, Antichrist in the Middle Ages, Studies in the Age of Chaucer, 5(1983): 164‑166.
- Richard Kay, Dante's Swift and Strong, Modern Philology, 78(1980): 75‑78.
- Lincoln Cathedral Manuscript Library, Microform Review, 8(1979): 218‑220.
- Lars Lonroth, Njal's Saga: A Critical Introduction, Oral History Review 1976, pp. 75‑76.

Awards and Honors

- Dante, Eschatology, and the Christian Tradition: Essays in Honor of Ronald B. Herzman, eds. Lydia Yaitsky Kerz and Richard K. Emmerson. Medieval Institute Publications, 2023
- SUNY Geneseo, Faculty Career Achievement Award, August, 2017 (First Recipient).
- National Endowment for the Humanities, Summer Seminars for School Teachers, Director: Dante's Commedia, Siena and Assisi Italy, Summer 1988; SUNY Geneseo, Summer 1989.
- Chaucer's Canterbury Tales, SUNY Geneseo, Summer 1990, Summer 1991, Summer 1993. Dante's Commedia: St. John's College, Santa Fe, Summer 1996, 1998. Co-Director, "Dante’s Commedia": Siena Italy, Summer 1999, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004, 2005, 2007, 2009, 2011, 2013, 2015 (with William Stephany).
- Commencement Speaker, SUNY Geneseo, May 2013
- Art Hatton Award for Excellence in College Advancement, 2012.
- Who's Who in America, 2011.
- Geneseo Alumni Association, Honorary Membership, 2011.
- Phi Beta Kappa, Foundation Member, SUNY Geneseo, 2004
- Medieval Academy of America: CARA Award for Excellence in Teaching Medieval Studies, 2003 (First Recipient).
- Spencer J. Roemer Fellowship, Summer 1994.
- Commencement Speaker, Groveland Correctional Facility, 1993.
- Commencement Speaker, SUNY Geneseo, 1992.
- L.H.D. honoris causa, Manhattan College, 1991.
- New York State/United University Professions Excellence Award, 1990.
- State University of New York: Appointed Faculty Exchange Scholar, 1981‑
- Commencement Speaker, Attica Correctional Facility, 1980 (with William R. Cook).
- National Endowment for the Humanities: Residential Fellow, University of Chicago, 1978‑1979.
- Member, National Humanities Faculty: 1978‑
- State University of New York: Research Grants 1976, 1979, 1981.
- State University of New York: Chancellor's Award for Excellence in Teaching, 1976.
- National Endowment for the Humanities: Summer Seminar, Princeton University 1973.