Backscheider to give Distinguished Graduate Faculty Lecture Oct. 1

Paula Backscheider, Philpott-Stevens Eminent Scholar in the Department of English, will give Auburn University’s 2014-15 Distinguished Graduate Faculty Lecture on Wednesday, Oct. 1, at 3:30 p.m. in 112 Thach Hall.

The lecture honors a faculty member who has made significant contributions to graduate education at Auburn University. Backscheider’s address is titled “Crisis Texts: Staging Wartime Women.”

“Graduate education is a serious commitment, and one that requires that each student be treated as an individual,” Backscheider said. “The work of a graduate teacher does not often end with the degree, but often includes being a source of advice and encouragement as the graduate student’s career unfolds and develops. This award celebrates and validates the hard work and the privilege of being a graduate faculty member.”

Backscheider earned her doctorate from Purdue University in 1972. Before coming to Auburn University in 1992, she held faculty positions at Rollins College and the University of Rochester. Backscheider specializes in Restoration and 18th-century literature, feminist criticism and cultural studies. She is the author of several books, including award-winners such as “Daniel Defoe: His Life” and “Eighteenth-Century Women Poets and their Poetry: Inventing Agency, Inventing Genre.”

Backscheider, a professor in the College of Liberal Arts, is the 40th lecturer in the Distinguished Graduate Faculty Lecture series, which is jointly sponsored by the Graduate School and the Auburn Alumni Association. Since beginning in the 1975-76 academic year, it has developed into a major university lecture series that fosters a better understanding of the scholarly contributions made by Auburn’s faculty. Nominations for the honor are solicited from the university’s faculty, and the recipient is selected by a committee of graduate faculty members. The lecturer receives a $2,000 award from the Auburn Alumni Association and is recognized at Auburn Universilty’s annual Faculty Awards ceremony.

Following the lecture, a reception with light refreshments will be held outside Thach Hall. Students, faculty and members of the community are invited to attend. For more information about the Distinguished Graduate Faculty Lecture, visit www.grad.auburn.edu/dgfl.