Sara Munson Deats
Distinguished University Professor, Emerita
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Phone: 813-974-2421
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BIO
Sara Munson Deats currently holds the title of Distinguished University Professor of English and Co-Director of the Center of Applied Humanities at USF. Dr. Deats received her B.A. from UCLA and continued her studies, first at Stanford University and later at U.C.L.A., where she received her Ph.D. in 1970. During her tenure at USF, she has served as Director of the Graduate English Program, Chair of the English Department, and Associate Dean of both the Colleges of Arts and Letters and the Graduate School. She has also served as President of the Faculty Senate.
Dr. Deats's major area of speciality is the Elizabethan and Jacobean drama, although she has also taught survey courses in Early British Literature and graduate courses in Feminist Literary Criticism and Writing for Publication. She is the author of a feminist study of Christopher Marlowe’s plays, entitled Sex, Gender, and Desire in the Plays of Christopher Marlowe (1997), and has co-edited with Robert Logan two collections of essays entitled Marlowe’s Emprey: Expanding His Critical Contexts (2002) and Placing the Plays of Christopher Marlowe: Fresh Critical Contexts (2008), as well as serving as single editor of another collection of essays for the prestigious Routledge Shakespeare Criticism Series, entitled Antony and Cleopatra: New Critical Essays (2005).
In addition, under the auspices of the Center of Applied Humanities, she has co-edited, with Lagretta Lenker, five books treating the relationship of literature to social issues: Youth Suicide Prevention: Lessons from Literature (1989); The Aching Hearth: Family Violence in Life and Literature (1992); Gender and Academe: Politics and Pedagogy (1994); Aging and Identity: A Humanities Perspective (1999);and, most recently, War and Words: Horror and Heroism in the Literature of Warfare (2004). Her most recent publication, her tenth book, is Dr. Faustus: A Critical Guide for Continuum Press (2010).
She has published 48 essays or introductions in refereed journals and anthologies, etc. She has received two national awards in recognition of her scholarly achievement: the Gerald Watley Award for Excellence in Popular Culture (1983) and the Roma Gill Prize for Outstanding Contribution to Marlowe Scholarship (1998). In addition, she has written many book and theatre reviews and has delivered over 100 papers at professional forums including a recent paper presented at the Oxford Roundtable in Oxford, England.
Dr. Deats has also been very active in professional service. She has served as the Secretary, Vice-President, and President of the Marlowe Society of America and has been an active participant in the Shakespeare Association of America. She has also directed a number of conferences, including two International Marlowe Conferences and several DeBartolo Conferences in Eighteenth-Century Studies.
Dr. Deats’s awards include the following: Teacher of the Year for the College of Arts and Letters (1983); the Krivanek Award for Distinguished Teacher in the University (1983); the Award as Most Honored Teacher in the English Graduate Program (1984); the USF Nominee for the C.A.S.E. National Teacher of the Year (1984); and the Professional Excellence Program Award (PEP) for distinguished performance in the areas of teaching, research, and service (1999). In 1995, Dr. Deats became a Distinguished Service Professor, and in 1998, she as honored with the title of Distinguished University Professor.
EDUCATION
Ph.D., UCLA
SPECIALTY AREA
Renaissance drama; Shakespeare; feminist criticism