Background
Nichols, Stephen George was born on October 24, 1936 in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States. Son of Stephen George and Marjorie (Whitney) Nichols.
(Romanesque Signs is a classic of medieval scholarship tha...)
Romanesque Signs is a classic of medieval scholarship that laid the foundations for viewing literature as an historical artifact that should be read in conjunction with the art, architecture, sculpture and religious rituals produced in the same period. It was the first book to argue that the materiality of representation—how art was created, performed, displayed in its own time—must be taken into account in order to understand its levels of meaning. It also showed that the way this art engages with the history it inherits—secular history, sacred history, intellectual history—is of crucial importance for understanding how and why it was produced as it was. Underlying the book’s thesis is the recognition that Romanesque art reflects history, the world, and sacred history as themes that must be interwoven and choreographed in and as a performance. Hence the term “performative mimesis” used to describe it. The book seeks to overthrow post-Reformation boundaries between the sacred and the secular in order to show that in the early Middle Ages these terms were co-extensive. The sacred and secular existed in equilibrium: the one did not seek to displace the other since they were part of a continuum, each referencing the other at every moment
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French and humanities professor
Nichols, Stephen George was born on October 24, 1936 in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States. Son of Stephen George and Marjorie (Whitney) Nichols.
AB cum laude, Dartmouth College, 1958; Doctor of Philosophy, Yale University, 1963; Doctor of Letters (honorary), University Genève, 1992.
Assistant professor French, University of California at Los Angeles, 1963-1965;
associate professor comparative literature, University of Wisconsin -Madison, 1965-1968;
department chairman, University of Wisconsin -Madison, 1967-1968;
professor Romance languages and comparative literature, Dartmouth College, 1968-1984;
department chairman comparative literature, Dartmouth College, 1969-1972, 74, 79-82;
department chairman romance languages, Dartmouth College, 1974-1977;
Edward Tuck professor French, Dartmouth College, 1984-1985;
department chairman French and Italian, Dartmouth College, 1982-1985;
liaison officer School Criticism and Theory, Dartmouth College, 1983-1985;
faculty, Dartmouth Institute, 1980-1985;
faculty director, Dartmouth Institute, 1984-1985;
professor romance languages, University of Pennsylvania, 1985-1986;
Edmund J. Kahn Distinguished professor humanities, University of Pennsylvania, 1986-1992;
James M. Beall professor French and humanities, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, since 1992;
graduate group chairman French and Italian, University of Pennsylvania, 1986-1988;
department chairman romance languages, University of Pennsylvania, 1987-1988;
associate dean for humanities, University of Pennsylvania, 1988-1991;
acting chair French, 1993-1994;
director graduate studies department French, The Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, 1992-1994;
R. Champlin and Debbie Sheridan interim director, Eisenhower Library., Johns Hopkins University, 1994-1995;
department chairman French, Eisenhower Library., Johns Hopkins University, since 1995. Director school Criticism and Theory, 1995-2000. Visiting professor U. Tel Aviv, 1977, New York University, 1979-1981, Exeter (England) University, 1980, Arizona State University, 1982, University of California, Irvine, 1985, School Criticism and Theory, 1989, 95, Humanities Research Institute University of California, 1990, Ecole Pratique des Hautes Etudes, Paris, 1995, University of Pennsylvania, 1995, Dartmouth College, 1995-1996, Cornell Univercity, since 1996, Ecole Normale Superieure, Paris, 1996, U. Paris, 1997.
Review panelist National Endowment for Humanities,1979-1981, 84, 91, Guggenheim fellow, 1987-1988. Phi Beta Kappa visiting scholar, 1983-1984. Lauder fellow Aspen Institute for Humanistic Study, 1988.
Advisory board Institute d'Etudes Francaises d'Avignon, Bryn Mawr College, since 1965;director seminar National Endowment for Humanities, 1975-1979, Mellon summer seminar in humanities JohnsHopkins U., 1993, 94. Executive Committee Eastern Comparative Literature Conference. Member of advisory county department comparative literature Princeton University, 1982-1988, chairman, 1984-1988.
Co-director Center Cultural Study, University of Pennsylvania, 1986-1992. Co-director Louis Marin Center for French Studies, since 1992. Advisor Waverly Consort, 1987-1995.
Advanced.bd. Society Humanities Cornell Univercity, since 1993. Reviewer Guggenheim Fellowship applications, medieval section, since 1995, French, since 1996.
(Romanesque Signs is a classic of medieval scholarship tha...)
Fellow Medieval Academy American. Member Academy Literature Studies (nominating committee 1974-1978, secretary-treasurer 1978-1987), Dante Society, International Comparative Literature Association, New England Medieval Association (advising committee 1981-1985), Modern Language Association (Chairman of Commission on careers 1985-1986, James Russell Lowell prize committee 1986-1988, commission on professional ethics 1987-1988, delegate assembly 1994-1997), Medieval Academy American, Society Rencesvals (secretary-treasurer American section 1964-1969).
Married Mary Winn Jordan, June 22, 1957 (divorced 1972). Children: Stephen Frost (deceased), Sarah Winn. Married Edith Karetzky, 1972.
Stepchildren: Laura Natalie Karetzky, Sarah Karetzky Rothman.