Paula R. Backscheider


Philpott-Stevens Eminent Scholar

 

Paula R. Backscheider, Philpott-Stevens Eminent Scholar, specializes in Restoration and eighteenth-century literature, feminist criticism, and cultural studies.   The author of several books including Daniel Defoe: His Life, Spectacular Politics, and Reflections on Biography, she has recently completed Eighteenth-Century Women Poets and their Poetry: Inventing Agency, Inventing Genre, published by Johns Hopkins University Press.  Two of her books have been selected for the Choice Outstanding Academic Book award.  She has published articles in PMLA, Theatre Journal, ELH, and many other journals.  A former president of the American Society for Eighteenth-Century Studies, she has held ACLS, NEH, and Guggenheim Fellowships and is one of the few American members of the Institute for Advanced Studies, University of Edinburgh. An award-winning teacher, she is dedicated to discussion courses and creating an atmosphere in which students can be themselves and feel free to take risks.