THE CHAUNCEY WOOD DISSERTATION AWARD 2020-2024 WINNER—OLIVER PEEL HONORABLE MENTION—CHRISTINE CLOUD
Citation for Christine Cloud as the Honourable Mention Award Winner for 2020-2024
Once again the panel evaluating submissions for the Chauncey Wood Dissertation Award of the George Herbert Society has decided to make an Honourable Mention Award for a dissertation we felt was very much worth acknowledging. The Honourable Mention Award for 2020-2024 goes to Christine Cloud, for “‘Take me by the hand’: Affliction and Liturgical Participation in George Herbert’s The Temple,” completed in 2021 at Baylor University under the direction of Phillip J. Donnelly. This thesis examines the unity of The Temple via a close analysis of two clusters of related poems: the five titled “Affliction” and the numerous texts whose titles clearly identify them as liturgical, directly related to the feast and fast days on the church calendar. Cloud maps intricate patterns of interaction within and also across these groups that convey Herbert’s deep understanding of a theology of Christian suffering, and not only represent but enact a pilgrimage and powerfully engage the reader in the linked experiences of affliction and assurance.
The evaluating committee was impressed by the subtlety, ambition, and persuasiveness of Cloud’s presentation of the complex connectedness and cumulative power of a substantial selection of Herbert’s key poems. One committee member noted that “There is much in this dissertation that I like: the writing is clear, she is very knowledgeable about Herbert, and she comments thoughtfully and intelligently about liturgical, formal, and structural elements, all the while never losing sight of the experiential power of the poems amplified when they are taken together.” Another member praised the work as “a well-written and judicious dissertation, one that takes some risks with original thinking. The command of criticism is crisp but very full and develops on views established in the field . . . Cloud’s elaborations [on the intricate structure of The Temple] seem to me bold inventive thinking worthy of further discussion in the field.” Some of the individual chapters were praised in particular — notably a detailed examination of the “Whitsunday” sequence, revolving around a poem not usually singled out for attention and appreciation — but the committee agreed in praising her work as, like the volume she so deftly interprets, an intricately arranged and connected whole. One committee member’s concluding comment nicely captures the judgment of the entire committee: Cloud’s thesis is “impressive in its thoroughness, clarity of argument, and agile use of the vast amount of Herbert criticism. I can imagine many interested readers of it, and regret only that Eliot is not around to be one of them.”
Congratulations from the Committee: Sidney Gottlieb (Sacred Heart University), Chair; Jonathan F. S. Post (University of California at Los Angeles); Gordon Teskey (Harvard University); Helen Wilcox (Bangor University, Wales)
$250 USD Prize; $250 Travel Bursary; Waiver of Toronto Conference Registration Fee
Citation for Oliver Peel as the Chauncey Wood Dissertation Award Winner for 2020-2024
Oliver David Peel: “‘It May a Babel Prove’: Order, Disorder, and Death on George Herbert’s Poetic Theology” Kings College, London, 2024. Director: Susannah Ticciati
The panel of judges who evaluated all the dissertations submitted for consideration during the current award period were unanimous in their high praise of Peel’s thesis on several levels. It is framed as a work of scholarship aimed at expanding on what has long been recognized as Herbert’s knowledge of and multi-layered debt to Augustine — a subject, by the way, that was of particular interest to the scholar after whom this award is named. Chauncey Wood’s numerous commentaries on the relevance of Augustine to a serious study of Herbert provide a solid foundation for Peel’s, in the words of one of the committee members, “knowledgeable and exhaustive” elaboration of how Augustine’s extended discussions of various kinds of order and disorder figure in Herbert’s theology and also in the experiences represented and anatomized in his poems. And Peel examines in detail how Augustine’s recurrent attention to the subject of death — not only of course as a central personal and collective experience (and worry) in life but also as a subject perennially foregrounded in theology, is echoed throughout The Temple. One committee member praised Peel’s scholarship as “admirable,” and another commended its “very carefully and clearly constructed argument.” But the committee also noted how successfully this thesis pursues his intention to focus on artistry as well as theology. What Peel persuasively identifies as Augustinian “radical provisionality” and “constant negotiations” are written into The Temple structurally and stylistically, and a key strength of his thesis is his skill as a close reader. As one committee member noted, “Peel’s comments on lyric narrativity are a real highlight in the dissertation, and throughout he shows a real sensitivity to Herbert’s poetic form.” It is fitting that this year’s Chauncey Wood Dissertation Award goes to an accomplished, learned, and far-ranging thesis that the selection committee concurred is “a potentially major interpretive contribution” to the understanding and appreciation of Herbert.
Warmest congratulations from the Committee: Sidney Gottlieb (Sacred Heart University), Chair; Jonathan F. S. Post (University of California at Los Angeles); Gordon Teskey (Harvard University); Helen Wilcox (Bangor University, Wales)
$600 USD Prize; $500 Travel Bursary; Waiver of Conference Registration Fee
Jenna Townend wins the Chauncey Wood Dissertation Award of the George Herbert Society for 2017-2019
The panel of judges who evaluated all the dissertations submitted for consideration during the current award period praised Townend’s thesis as a remarkably accomplished work of both scholarship and critical analysis. Even a listing of the many discoveries she has made about where references to Herbert appear between 1633 and 1715 would be a great boon to Herbert scholars. But in addition, a large part of her dissertation is devoted to well-executed studies of how Herbert was interpreted during this period and how he was used. She presents many detailed examples of what Herbert’s poems meant for specific readers in specific circumstances, and how they were put to strategic as well as poetic use: Herbert was not only an inspiration and source of comfort and delight but also an ally in helping people to identify who they were and what they believed and advocated in their own writings. Besides her thesis being a fine contribution to our broad understanding of Herbert’s reception in the generations immediately following his death, it also enhances close readings of Herbert’s poems by showing how numerous people in fact read Herbert closely – and not surprisingly, often differently. Townend is a skilful, assured, and impressively knowledgeable writer, and presents her material clearly and persuasively. Her work will have lasting importance in our study of Herbert, especially in the century after his death.
Professor Townend will be honored with a $500 prize, complimentary conference registration and fees, and a plaque to be presented at the Sixth Triennial Conference of the George Herbert Society at Cambridge in June 2021. She has generously asked that the additional $500 travel bursary be passed on to others with greater need for conference travel funds.
The George Herbert Society wishes to thank our distinguished panel of judges for their work in evaluating the dissertations under consideration for 2017-2019: Professor Sidney Gottlieb, Sacred Heart University/Editor, George Herbert Journal (Chair); the late Professor Cristina Malcolmson, Emerita of Bates College; and Professor Jonathan F.S. Post, Emeritus of the University of California at Los Angeles.
Clarissa Ann Chenovick receives Honorable Mention for the Chauncey Wood Dissertation Award of the George Herbert Society for 2017-2019
For the first time since the inception of the Chauncey Wood Dissertation Award of the George Herbert Society, the panel of judges has decided to make an Honorable Mention Award for a dissertation that they felt was particularly worth acknowledging. The Honorable Mention Award for 2017-2019 goes to Clarissa Ann Chenovick, for “Repentant Readers: Reforming Body and Soul in Late Medieval and Early Modern England,” completed in April 2017 at Fordham University under the supervision of Heather Dubrow (director of the dissertation committee), Corey McEleney, Jocelyn Wogan-Browne, and Mary Erler. This thesis offers a revised understanding of penitential texts and reading practices of the Pre- and Post-Reformation period, emphasizing hitherto unrecognized continuities between the two periods, alongside numerous differences. Via extensive analyses of Henry Duke of Lancaster’s Livre de Seyntz Medicines (1354), Edmund Spenser’s The Faerie Queene, an assortment of translators of the Penitential Psalms, including Thomas Wyatt and Mary and Philip Sidney, and George Herbert, she examines the interplay of theological and medical treatments of repentance, and the pivotal role of penitential devotional literature, including psalms and poems, in the shaping of the modern sense of selfhood emerging during this period.
Professor Chenovick will be honored with a $250 prize, complimentary conference registration and fees, and a plaque to be presented at the Sixth Triennial Conference of the George Herbert Society at Cambridge in June 2021. She also will receive a $250 travel bursary.
The George Herbert Society wishes to thank our distinguished panel of judges for their work in evaluating the dissertations under consideration for 2017-2019: Professor Sidney Gottlieb, Sacred Heart University/Editor, George Herbert Journal (Chair); the late Professor Cristina Malcolmson, Emerita of Bates College; and Professor Jonathan F.S. Post, Emeritus of the University of California at Los Angeles.
Shaun Ross Wins 2014-2016 Chauncey Wood Dissertation Award
The winner of the Chauncey Wood Dissertation Award of the George Herbert Society for 2014-2016 is Dr. Shaun Ross, for “Sacramental Signification: Eucharistic Poetics from Chaucer to Milton.” The dissertation, which was defended in November 2016, was written at McGill University under the direction of Professor Maggie Kilgour (English), with, as advisors, Professors Paul Yachnin (English), Tabitha Sparks (English), and Torrance Kirby (Religious Studies). Professor Achsah Guibbory of Barnard College (English) served as External Examiner. The thesis pursues two main goals: first, to articulate how each of the featured poets (the Pearl-poet, Chaucer, Southwell, Herbert, Donne, Crashaw, and Milton) turns to the Eucharist as a way of understanding poetic sign-making; and second, to intervene in recent critical discussion of the relationship between the Eucharist and poetry in early modern England.
The panel of judges writes that Ross’s contribution to Herbert studies—contained in a very substantial chapter on the poet—is dazzlingly learned and resourceful, a triumph of uncommon sense and humanistic concern. Broadly conceived and boldly argued, it challenges the major thinkers of the past and calls to order those who confuse the two distinct functions of the Eucharist, as propitiatory and thanksgiving sacrifice. It thus stands as a strong corrective to current criticism on Herbert and Holy Communion. But its argument also shows great flexibility in dealing with the rich artistic variety of the poems in The Temple. It includes landmark readings of “The Sacrifice,” “The Sonne,” and “Love” (III). The author’s means of expressing his original views are critically inventive, logically forceful, and unfailingly lucid. The dissertation plays a decisive role in the contemporary revaluation of the place of the Eucharist in English literature. It is likely to inform and inspire the study of Herbert for many years to come.
The George Herbert Society also wishes to thank our distinguished panel of judges: Professor Sidney Gottlieb, Sacred Heart University, Editor, George Herbert Journal (Chair); Professor Jonathan F. S. Post, The University of California at Los Angeles; and Professor Gordon Teskey, Harvard University.
Dr. Shaun Ross receives the Chauncey Wood Dissertation Prize of the George Herbert Society from Dr. Gordon Teskey of Harvard University at the Fifth Triennial GHS Conference, the Sorbonne, Paris, 19 May 2017
Simon Jackson wins 2011-2013 Chauncey Wood Dissertation Award
The winner of the Chauncey Wood Dissertation Award of the George Herbert Society for 2011-2013 is Dr. Simon Jackson, for “The Literary and Musical Activities of the Herbert Family.” Written at Christ’s College Cambridge under the direction of Dr. Gavin Alexander (Christ’s), with advisors Dr. Jessica Martin (Christ’s) and Dr. Claire Preston (Queen Mary College, University of London), the dissertation was defended successfully in November 2011. The thesis explores the literary and musical projects of the Herbert family group in the first decades of the seventeenth century. It takes George Herbert as its central figure, examining music as a significant feature of his verse. Situating Herbert’s roles as priest, poet and musician in the context of the cultural activities of members of his extended family, Dr. Jackson persuasively articulates the rich interdisciplinary interplay of musico-poetic relations in the early seventeenth century.
The panel of judges unanimously praised the depth and range of Dr. Jackson’s knowledge of music, the sympathy of his mind to the art of Herbert’s poetry, the precision of his scholarly method, and the lucidity and warmth of his prose. The wealth of contextual material in his study never overwhelms but always enriches the poetry in rewarding ways. We have long known that Herbert was a musician. We now know much more fully what that means.
The George Herbert Society also wishes to thank our distinguished panel of judges: Professor Sidney Gottlieb, Sacred Heart University, Editor, George Herbert Journal (Chair); Professor Jonathan F. S. Post, The University of California at Los Angeles; and Professor Helen Vendler, Harvard University.
Dr. Simon Jackson receives the Chauncey Wood Dissertation Prize from Dr. Sidney Gottlieb of Sacred Heart University, along with Dr. Christopher Hodgkins of the University of North Carolina at Greensboro and Dr. Chauncey Wood of McMaster University at the Fourth Triennial GHS Conference, Phoeniz, Arizona, 17 October 2014.
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