The Board of Trustees of The City University of New York has appointed CSI English Professor Sarah Schulman as Distinguished Professor.
The Board of Trustees of The City University of New York has approved the appointment of Professor Sarah Schulman as Distinguished Professor.
Professor Schulman is a tenured Full Professor in the Department of English and has been at CSI and CUNY since 1999. She made significant contributions across disciplines at national and international levels. Her work has made an invaluable impact in creative writing, theater, film, and, not least of all, gay and lesbian culture. Her art and political practices are known for their integrated multi-mediated approaches.
Commenting on her appointment, Schulman said, “This is, of course, a life-changing moment of recognition for me, and I am especially proud as a second-generation product of New York City public schools. My mother grew up in Brownsville/East New York, attended Thomas Jefferson High School, and was in the first class of women at City College in 1949, when women had to have higher GPAs than men to be admitted. I went to Hunter High School and to Hunter College, where I studied with Audre Lorde, an experience that has enriched me all my life. But really what is most meaningful for me about this promotion is that writing about Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgendered people and people with AIDS, is finally being recognized as an organic and fundamental part of American Arts and Letters.”
Professor Schulman has published prolifically during her career: nine novels, four works of non-fiction, and one play. Her work has been translated into nine languages and has been included in scores of anthologies. She has produced more than a dozen plays in theaters and other performance venues. Her work in the arts has gained her Fulbright and Guggenheim Fellowships. This past year, her co-authored screenplay, The Owls, premiered at the prestigious Berlin Film Festival. As a journalist, her work has appeared in The New York Times, The Guardian of London, The Nation, The Village Voice, Mother Jones, Interview, The Progressive, American Theater, Millennium Film Journal, and others.
Professor Schulman’s many contributions dedicated to the cultural and political spheres of LGBTQ arts and ideas were recently honored with the David R. Kessler Lecture and Award in LGBTQ Studies at the CUNY Graduate Center. This past year Professor Schulman was also appointed to the Advisory Council of the Harvard Kennedy School, Carr Center for Human Rights and Social Movements.
“I have had some extraordinary students here at CSI,” Schulman added, “who I believe in and who deserve to advance and become leaders of our community and country. I worry that our most gifted students are not always getting the opportunities that they deserve and I hope that, as a teacher, I can relate to each of my students as an individual, both of us working to form a distinct partnership in learning, so that whatever they bring to the table can be recognized and enhanced by our collaboration.”
