Curriculum
Vitae (last updated 9/03)
Assistant
Professor
Department of English
Boston College Carney Hall 447
Chestnut Hill MA 02467
e-mail: sofer@bc.edu
(617) 552-1653
EDUCATION
| 1993-98 |
Ph.D.
in English Language and Literature (1998), University
of Michigan, Ann Arbor. Dissertation: "The Stage
Life of Props" (Professor Enoch Brater, Advisor). |
| 1987-90 |
M.F.A.
in Directing (1990), Boston University School of Theatre
Arts. |
| 1983-87 |
B.A.
cum laude in English (1986); Graduate Fellow
(1986-87), Hebrew University of Jerusalem. |
HONORS,
GRANTS, AND AWARDS
Academic:
Faculty
Fellowship, Boston College, 2003.
Research Incentive Grant, Boston College, 2001.
Distinguished Dissertation Award Nominee, University of
Michigan, 1998.
Rackham Predoctoral Fellowship, University of Michigan,
1997-98.
Andrew W. Mellon Dissertation Candidacy Fellowship, 1996.
Heberle Prize for Outstanding Graduate Student Essay, University
of Michigan, 1995.
Graduate Fellowship for Academic Excellence, Hebrew University,
1987-88.
Teaching:
Sub
Turri Student Yearbook Citation for Outstanding Teaching,
Boston College, 2002.
Moscow Prize for Excellence in Teaching English Composition,
University of Michigan, 1998.
Creative
Writing:
Frederick
Morgan Scholarship, West Chester University Poetry Conference,
2002.
Morton
Marr Poetry Prize, Southwest Review, 2001 (judge:
Rosanna Warren).
Finalist, Morton Marr Poetry Prize, Southwest Review,
2000 (judge: Mark Strand).
Nominee, Pushcart Prize for Poetry, 1999.
Semifinalist, "Discovery"/The Nation Poetry
Prize, 1997; 1998; 2000.
Margaret Haley Carpenter Poetry Prize, The Lyric,
1998.
International Merit Award, Atlanta Review International
Poetry Competition, 1997.
Finalist, First Annual Howard Nemerov Sonnet Competition,
1994 (judge: Richard Wilbur).
Theater:
Outstanding
Director Award, Scena Festival of New European Plays, 1991.
Special Director’s Scholarship, School of Theatre Arts,
Boston University, 1987-89.
PUBLICATIONS
Books:
The
Stage Life of Props (University of Michigan Press, 2003).
Unbecoming Acts: Tennessee Williams and the American
Passion Play (in progress).
Articles
in Refereed Journals:
"The
Cheese-Roll Under the Cocktail Cabinet: Pinter's Object
Lessons," The Pinter Review (forthcoming).
"Absorbing Interests: Kyd’s Bloody Handkerchief
as Palimpsest,"Comparative Drama 34 (2000):
127-53.
"No Ideas But In Things: Beckett’s Uncanny Props,"
Text &Presentation: Journal of the Comparative Drama
Conference 19 (1998): 123-29.
"The Skull on the Renaissance Stage: Imagination and
the Erotic Life of Props," English Literary Renaissance
28 (1998): 47-74.
"Felt Absences: The Stage Properties of Othello’s
Handkerchief," Comparative Drama 31 (1997):
367-93.
"Self-Consuming Artifacts: Power, Performance and the
Body in Tennessee Williams’ Suddenly Last Summer,"
Modern Drama 38 (1995): 336-47.
Essays
in Edited Collections:
"From
Technology to Trope: The Archbishop’s Ceiling
and Arthur Miller’s Prismatic Drama," in Arthur
Miller’s America: Theater and Culture in a Century
of Change, ed. Enoch Brater (University of Michigan
Press, 2004).
Book
and Performance Reviews:
Review
of American Repertory Theatre Production of Lysistrata,
Theatre Journal 55 (2003): 137-38.
Review of Marvin Carlson, The Haunted Stage: The Theatre
as Memory Machine, Text & Presentation 23 (2002):
157-59. Lead review.
Review
of Michal Kobialka, This Is My Body: Representational
Practices in the Early Middle Ages, Theatre Survey
43(2002): 85-87.
Review of Michael O’Connell, The Idolatrous Eye,
Religion and the Arts 5-3 (2001): 353-56.
"Beating Back the Dark: Forrest Gander’s Lynchburg,"
Poet Lore 88 (1994): 57-59.
Poems:
Various
poems published in Southwest Review, The Formalist, The
Lyric, Poet Lore, Phoebe, Folio, Piedmont Literary Review,
Gargoyle, and other journals; anthologized in Open
Door: A Poet Lore Anthology, 1980-1996 (Baltimore: Writer’s
Center Editions, 1997).
Sheet
Music :
"Wandlebury
Ring" (music by Kevin Beavers). Oxford University Press,
2004.
Performances:
"Wandlebury
Ring," poem set to music by Kevin Beavers, performed
and recorded by Cassatt String Quartet and Stephanie Houtzeel,
New York, December 2001. Commissioned by the Brooklyn Friends
of Chamber Music, with partial funding from the National
Endowment for the Arts.
CONFERENCES
Plenary
Speaker:
"Playing
Host in the Croxton Play of the Sacrament: Semiotic Crisis
and Medieval Materialisms." American Society for Theatre
Research Conference ("Theatre and Material Culture"),
Philadelphia, 2002.
Session
Organizer/Leader:
"Material
Ghosts: Theatre and Memory in the Twenty-First Century,"
Association for Theater in Higher Education National Conference,
August 2003.
Seminar
Leader:
"Materialism
and the Material: Questions of Perception, Theory, and Practice."
American Society for Theatre Research Conference ("Rethinking
the Real"), San Diego, 2001.
Seminar
Participant:
"Object
Lessons from the Undisciplined Restoration Fan," American
Society for Theatre Research Cnference (Documenting Performance/Performing
the Document), Durham, North Caroline, November 2003.
Invited
Speaker:
"From
Technology to Trope: Arthur Miller’s Prismatic Drama."
Arthur Miller International Symposium, Ann Arbor, October
2000.
Papers
Delivered (Selected):
"Killing
Time: The Strange Case of Hedda Gabler's Pistols."
Comparative Drama Conference, Columbus, Ohio, April 2003.
"Rescuing
the Theatrical Object: Or, Just How Material is Materialism?"
Comparative Drama Conference, Columbus, Ohio, April 2001.
"The Cheese-Roll Under the Cocktail Cabinet: Pinter’s
Props Revisited." Pinter in London Conference, June
2000.
"Medium as Message: The Ghost of Technology in Arthur
Miller." Comparative Drama Conference, Columbus, Ohio,
April 2000.
"‘If You Take the Glass . . . I’ll Take You’:
Pinter’s Object Lessons." Comparative Drama Conference,
Gainesville, Florida, April 1999.
"No Ideas But in Things: Beckett’s Uncanny Props."
Comparative Drama Conference, Gainesville, Florida, April
1998.
"‘Christ in a Cake’: Staging the Host in
the Croxton Play of the Sacrament." Southwest/Texas
Popular Culture Association/American Culture Association
Conference, Lubbock, Texas, 1998.
"A Passage Through Forster: Mapping Imperial Aphasia
in Howards End and A Passage to India."
University of Michigan Conference in British Studies, 1997.
"Collaborative Shakespeares: Developing Group Production
Concepts." American Alliance for Theatre and Education/Association
for Theatre in Higher Education National Conference, New
York, 1996.
Creative
Writing Conferences:
West
Chester University Poetry Conference, June 2002 (scholarship).
Sewanee Writer’s Conference, July 1999.
COURSES
TAUGHT
| Boston
College |
|
| |
|
|
Graduate Course: |
What
is Performance? (Spring 2002; Spring 2004) |
|
Undergraduate Electives: |
Shakespeare
(Fall 1999; Spring 2001; Fall 2001; Fall 2003) |
| |
Contemporary
Drama (Fall 2000) |
| |
Modern
Drama (Spring 2000; Fall 2002) |
| |
Modern
Irish Drama (Spring 2004) |
| |
Introduction
to Creative Writing (Spring 2002) |
| English
Major Pre-Requisites: |
Studies
in Poetry (Spring 2001; Fall 2001) |
| |
Narrative
and Interpretation (Fall 1999; Spring 2000) |
|
Freshman Core: |
Literature
and Society: Staging the American Family (Fall 2000;
Fall 2002) |
|
Independent Readings and Research: |
Creative
Writing (Spring 2000; Fall 2001) |
| Independent
Readings and Research (graduate level): |
Feminist
Theory and Ethnic U.S. Theater (Fall 2003) |
| University
of Michigan |
| |
Argumentative
Writing (Fall/Spring 1998-99).
What is Literature? (Fall 1998).
Writing and Cultural Performance (Summer 1998).
The American Family: Shifting Perspectives in U.S. Drama
(Spring 1996).
Writing for an Audience (Fall 1995).
The Bible in English (Spring 1995)–teaching assistant.
Shakespeare’s Principal Plays (Fall 1994)–teaching
assistant. |
ACADEMIC
SERVICE
Departmental:
Rattigan
Chair Search Committee, 2003-4.
Creative Writing Concentration Admissions Committee, 2003.
Ph.D. Exam (Critical Approaches to Shakespeare) Committee,
2003.
Honors
Thesis Director (creative writing), 2000-01; 2001-02; 2003-4.
Ph.D. Oral Exam (Contemporary Irish Poetry) Committee, 2002.
Search and M.L.A. Interview Committees for Shakespeare Hire,
2001.
Creative Writing Concentration Faculty Committee, 2001-02;2002-03;
2003-04.
M.A. Student Mentor, 2000-01; 2001-02; 2002-03; 2003-04.
Undergraduate Student Advisor, 2000-01; 2001-02; 2002-03;
2003-04.
Planning & Executive Committee, 2000-01; 2001-02.
Committee on Prizes, 1999-2000; 2000-01.
M.A. Oral Exam (Irish Monologue Play) Committee, Irish Studies,
Spring 2000.
Mentor to M.A. Teaching Fellow, 1999-2000.
M.A. Foreign Language Exam Devisor/Evaluator (French), 1999.
Panel Speaker, Workshop on Applying to Ph.D. Programs in
English, Fall 1999.
University:
English
Department Presenter, Campus Open House Day, Spring 2000;
Spring 2001; Spring 2002.
Participated in Coordination Efforts Between Lynch School
of Education and English Department.
Respondent to Stephen Greenblatt, Religion and the Arts
Forum, October 2001.
National:
Submissions
Referee, Theatre Journal.
Submission Referee, Twentieth Century Literature.
Submission Referee, Religion and the Arts.
Manuscript Referee, University of Delaware Press (Theatre
and Drama division).
Anthology Evaluator, The Broadview Anthology of Drama,
2003.
External Reviewer, Graduate Course Proposal, Loyola University
Chicago Graduate School, 2003.
Volunteer Session Chair, Comparative Drama Conference, Columbus,
Ohio, Aril 2003.
"First Contact" Graduate Student Mentor, American
Theater and Drama Society, 2003-04.
Anthology
Evaluator, Types of Drama (Addison Wesley Longman),
2000.
Shakespeare Consultant, Joseph Papp in Five Acts
(PBS Documentary).
PREVIOUS
EMPLOYMENT
| 1998-99 |
LECTURER |
| |
Department
of English Language and Literature, University of Michigan. |
| |
|
| 1994-98 |
TEACHING
ASSISTANT. |
| |
Department
of English Language and Literature, University of Michigan. |
| |
|
| 1987-93 |
FREELANCE
STAGE DIRECTOR AND ACTOR |
| |
New
York, NY; Boston, MA; Washington, D.C.; Martha’s
Vineyard, MA. Directed plays by Euripides, Shakespeare,
Chekhov, Beckett, Pinter, Orton, Bond, Giraudoux, Frayn,
Churchill, Ionesco, and others. |
| |
|
| 1991-93 |
NARRATOR
FOR LIBRARY OF CONGRESS "TALKING BOOKS" PROGRAM |
| |
|
| 1989-91 |
DRAMATURG
AND SCRIPT CONSULTANT |
| |
Arena
Stage, Washington, D.C. (1991); Ensemble Studio Theatre,
New York (1990); Counterpoint Theatre, Boston (1989);
New Repertory Theatre, Boston (1989). |
FOREIGN
LANGUAGES
Fluent
Hebrew.
Reading command of French.
PROFESSIONAL
AFFILIATIONS
American
Society for Theatre Research.
American Theatre and Drama Society.
Association for Theatre in Higher Education.
Samuel Beckett Society
Modern
Language Association.
New England Poetry Club
Harold Pinter Society.
Shakespeare Association of America.
Theater Communications Guild.
