Education
Born in Tianjin, China, Ruas was a graduate of Princeton University (Bachelor 1960, Master of Arts 1963, Doctor of Philosophy 1970) and was a Fulbright Scholar at the Sorbonne (1963-1964).
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Charles Ruas
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He is a specialist in French, English, and Comparative Literature, which he has taught at universities in the United States, France, and China. Ruas was for a time in the late 1970s Director of the Drama and Literature Department of WBAI, where he initiated separate coverage of all the arts Within this programming Susan Howe produced her own series and specials on poetry.
Other programming initiated by Ruas at WBAI included the Audio-Experimental Theatre, for which multi-media performers, including poets, playwrights, video artists, and dancers were invited to create a work for radio broadcast.
Performers included Meredith Monk, Vito Acconci, John Cage, Philip Glass, Joan Jonas, Yvonne Rainer, Editor Bowes, Robert Wilson, Richard Foreman, and Helen Adam. Ruas also produced The Reading Experiment, a year-long series of readings from Marguerite Young"s novel Mission MacIntosh, My Darling.
The programs were scored by Rob Wynne with a collage of music and concrete sound effects. The readers came from a wide variety of artistic backgrounds and included Anaïs Nin, Marian Seldes, Novella Nelson, Leo Lerman, Owen Dodson, Wyatt Cooper, Anne Fremantle, and Ruth Ford, among others
He has also produced arts and literature programming for PS1.
A literary critic for the Soho Weekly News until 1982, Ruas has been a frequent contributor to ArtNews and Art in America. Ruas currently lives and works in New York City.
