Roberta Frank

Last updated
Roberta Frank
Born1941 (age 82–83)
New York City, U.S.
NationalityAmerican
Alma mater New York University (BA)
Harvard University (PhD)
OccupationProfessor
Years active1968–present
TitleMarie Borroff Professor Emeritus of English
Spouse
​
(m. 1977)​
Website Page at Yale

Roberta Frank (born 1941) is an American philologist [1] specializing in Old English and Old Norse language and literature. She is the Marie Borroff Professor Emeritus of English [2] at Yale University.

Contents

Career

Frank received a B.A. in comparative literature from New York University in 1962 and a Ph.D. in comparative literature from Harvard University in 1968. Her doctoral dissertation was titled Wordplay in Old English Poetry. [3] Frank taught at the University of Toronto beginning in 1968, from 1978 as a full professor [4] and from 1995 as University Professor. She was awarded a Guggenheim Memorial Fellowship in 1985. [5] At Toronto, she was involved with the Dictionary of Old English project and served as Director of the Centre for Medieval Studies (1994–99).

In 2000, she joined the Department of English Language and Literature at Yale University, first as the Douglas Tracy Smith Professor of English and then, in 2008, as the Marie Borroff Professor of English. She is also a senior research fellow at the MacMillan Center for International and Area Studies. [6] Frank was elected a fellow of the Medieval Academy of America in 1989, [7] serving as the President of that Academy in 2006, and a fellow of the Royal Society of Canada in 1995. [8] She co-founded the International Society of Anglo-Saxonists (now the International Society for the Study of Early Medieval England) in 1981 serving as First Vice-President (1985-1986), then as its president (1986–87). [9] [10]

Personal life

Frank was born in the Bronx. [11] She is married to the medieval historian Walter Goffart. [12]

Research

Frank's research draws upon archaeological as well as literary and linguistic evidence to analyze aspects of early English and Scandinavian texts. Her work has focused on the poetry of England and Scandinavia, including numerous publications on skaldic verse, the early North, and Beowulf . [13] [14] [15] Two festschriften in her honor have been published: Verbal Encounters: Anglo-Saxon and Old Norse Studies, ed. Antonina Harbus and Russell Poole (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2005) and The Shapes of Early English Poetry: Style, Form, History, ed. Eric Weiskott and Irina Dumitrescu (Kalamazoo, MI: Medieval Institute Publications, 2019). Her latest book, The Etiquette of Early Northern Verse, appeared in early 2022.[ citation needed ]

Selected works

Related Research Articles

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References

  1. ↑ Frank, Roberta (1997-01-01). "The Unbearable Lightness of Being a Philologist". The Journal of English and Germanic Philology. 96 (4): 486–513. JSTOR   27711570.
  2. ↑ "Roberta Frank | English". english.yale.edu. Retrieved 2016-03-10.
  3. ↑ "PhD Dissertations". complit.fas.harvard.edu. Retrieved 2016-03-10.
  4. ↑ "Yale Bulletin and Calendar". www.yale.edu. Retrieved 2016-03-10.
  5. ↑ "John Simon Guggenheim Foundation | Roberta Frank". www.gf.org. Retrieved 2018-11-30.
  6. ↑ "Roberta Frank | The MacMillan Center". macmillan.yale.edu. Retrieved 2016-03-10.
  7. ↑ "Fellows - The Medieval Academy of America". www.medievalacademy.org. Retrieved 2016-03-10.
  8. ↑ "Frank, Roberta - Senior College Encyclopedia". sce.library.utoronto.ca. Retrieved 2016-03-10.
  9. ↑ Greenfield, Stanley (1984). "Record of the first conference of the International Society of Anglo-Saxonists, at Brussels and Ghent, 22—4 August 1983". Anglo-Saxon England. 13: 1–5. doi:10.1017/S0263675100003471. JSTOR   44510784.
  10. ↑ GREENFIELD, STANLEY B. (1986). "Record of the second conference of the International Society of Anglo-Saxonists, at Cambridge, 19-23 August 1985". Anglo-Saxon England. 15: 1–4. doi:10.1017/S0263675100003653. JSTOR   44510803.
  11. ↑ Kider, Teddy (2007-08-30). "For Yankees, Squirrel's Visit May Be Omen (a Bad One)". The New York Times. ISSN   0362-4331 . Retrieved 2016-05-31.
  12. ↑ Frank 2007, p. 844.
  13. ↑ Clover, Carol J.; Lindow, John; America, Medieval Academy of (2005-01-01). Old Norse-Icelandic Literature: A Critical Guide. University of Toronto Press. pp. 157–196. ISBN   9780802038234.
  14. ↑ Frank 1992.
  15. ↑ Frank 2008.
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