News

We are happy to announce the establishment of a new annual honor, the Barbara Bellow Watson prize (including the award of $300) for the best essay on Shakespeare in the Department’s undergraduate courses. Robert N. Watson, Distinguished Professor of English and renowned scholar of Shakespeare and English Renaissance literature, has established the prize in honor of his mother, who has published books and articles on modern Irish and American literature and society from a feminist perspective, founded one of the first Women’s Studies programs in the United States (at City College of New York), published poetry in major literary journals, and has been a lifelong campaigner for world peace and social justice.