Congratulations to Robert Hegel

I am pleased to announce that Robert E. Hegel, Professor of Chinese Language and Literature, has been named the inaugural Liselotte Dieckmann Professor of Comparative Literature in Arts & Sciences. A formal installation ceremony will be held on February 2, 2006.

Professor Hegel’s research focuses on the narrative literature of early Modern China from 1300-1900, especially fiction since the middle Ming period, and theater. His interests extend to the interactions between illustrations and text in the act of reading, and ideological formulations and structuring schemes in fictional and non-fictional narratives of the Qing (1644-1911). He is a leading scholar in the field of traditional Chinese fiction. Professor Hegel has published two books: Reading Illustrated Fiction in Late Imperial China and The Novel in Seventeenth Century China and co-edited a third entitled Expressions of Self in Chinese Literature. His second co-edited volume, Writing and Law in Late Imperial China, will be published in 2006. He also authored numerous essays in journals and books, several translations of literary works and theoretical essays, and a scholarly handbook.

In addition to a freshman seminar, recent courses taught by Professor Hegel include Chinese Theatre, The Literature of Early & Imperial China, Chinese Civilization, and East Asian Religions. He also has developed and taught courses on Chinese language and culture and numerous additional offerings in Chinese literature. Advising doctoral students is a source of great pride for Professor Hegel. In 2001, students selected him for the Outstanding Faculty Mentor award. He received special recognition for Excellence in Mentoring from the Graduate Student Senate in 2000, 2002, and 2005.

Besides service to his own University, Professor Hegel has influenced his profession through various means of service. He is a frequent reviewer and conference presenter both domestically and abroad, has served as referee for various essay and monograph manuscripts, and has written, reviewed, and received numerous external grant proposals for funding. He is a member of the Association for Asian Studies and the Society for Ming Studies.

Professor Hegel earned a B.A. in Chinese from Michigan State University, and an M.A. and Ph.D. in Chinese Literature from Columbia University. He has also completed tutorials in Mandarin and Chinese calligraphy from the Mandarin Training Center at the National Taiwan Normal University in Taipei. He began his career as Assistant Professor at Case Western Reserve University before joining Washington University and Arts & Sciences in 1975. He served several terms as Chair of the Department of Asian and Near Eastern Languages & Literatures, and most recently completed a long tenure as Chair of the Committee on Comparative Literature. Both academic areas flourished under his leadership. He has also served on Arts & Sciences’ Advisory Committee on Tenure, Promotion, and Personnel. In 1989, Washington University presented him with its Founders Day Award. He currently serves as Ombudsman for Arts & Sciences.

Funds for this endowed professorship were provided by the estate of William H. Matheson, professor of comparative literature in Arts & Sciences for 25 years before his retirement in 1996. Liselotte Dieckmann was Washington University’s first Professor of Comparative Literature. She earned her doctoral degree in 1927 from the University of Heidelburg and joined the faculty of Arts & Sciences in 1944 specializing in 18th and 19th century German literature. An outstanding comparatist, Professor Dieckmann retired in 1971 but continued to publish a number of studies, critical editions, and translations while teaching occasionally and advising those who sought counsel on academic matters. She died in 1994 at age 91 in Frankfurt, Germany.

Edward S. Macias