The English Channel The English Channel Volume 17 Issue 2 Spring 2017 | Page 31

Faculty Notes
In other work with students, Herold crowned his past two years of re-
search and conference presentation with a Special Topics Seminar offered
in the Fall of 2016 on Shakespeare and Montaigne. In the course, students
wrote imaginative research papers in an innovative mode of critical dis-
course Herold developed and calls ‘Epistolary Criticism,’ in which students
imagine one writer paying homage and critiquing the other. Their final
work for the seminar asked them to compile a series of these letters writ-
ten over the course of the semester and "curate" them; that is, present
them in fully annotated bibliographic detail, as primary historical docu-
ments in a fictional appendix to a real recent edition of Montaigne's se-
lected essays translated by John Florio in 1604 (this text contains essays we
know Shakespeare and other famous Elizabethans had read, if not directly
borrowed from).
Along with all of his superb scholarship, exemplary service, and constant
commitment to the success of our students,
Herold finds time for summer reading:
along with diving into Brian Cummings'
magisterial volume, The Literary Culture of
the Reformation: Grammar and Grace, he’s also
reading The Door, by Magda Szabo and
Jonathan Littje's The Kindly Ones “for fun.”
This reading list speaks volumes of the
myriad achievements of Niels Herold: he
immerses himself in and inspires students
by introducing them to his approach to
scholarly success, which includes rigorous
research, prodigious penning, and engaged
enjoyment of the texts he brings to life in
his scholarship and seminars.
Congratulations and Thank You
Professor Niels Herold!
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