{"id":8371,"date":"2022-10-04T15:03:08","date_gmt":"2022-10-04T19:03:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/english\/?post_type=profile&p=8371"},"modified":"2024-04-11T11:41:48","modified_gmt":"2024-04-11T15:41:48","slug":"chris-walsh","status":"publish","type":"profile","link":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/english\/profile\/chris-walsh\/","title":{"rendered":"Chris Walsh"},"content":{"rendered":"

I teach a variety of courses focused on writing and reading, from seminars on topics such as \u201cRotten English,\u201d \u201cThe Poetry of War,\u201d and \u201cLiving the American Revolution\u201d to \u201cModern English Grammar & Style\u201d and \u201cReading and Writing Literary Nonfiction.\u201d Some of my classes use an intellectually intensive role-playing game known as\u00a0Reacting to the Past<\/a>, and many of them ask students to collaborate with me in selecting texts to read, an approach I call the \u201cblank syllabus.\u201d I have written about this pedagogical strategy and about American, English, and African Literature, as well as about West Africa (where I lived for several years), for a range of publications, including\u00a0Aeon, Civil War History<\/em>, Essays in Criticism<\/em>, Foreign Affairs<\/em>,\u00a0The Los Angeles Review of Books<\/em>,\u00a0The New Republic<\/em>, The New York Times<\/em>, Raritan<\/em>,\u00a0and\u00a0the Yale Review<\/em>.<\/p>\n

Between 2002 and 2021 I taught and served as an administrator in the College of Arts & Sciences Writing Program<\/a>. My interests in the intersection of literature, history, and ethics informed my book\u00a0Cowardice: A Brief History<\/em><\/a>, <\/em>and these interests, along with my interests in pedagogy, continue to inform my teaching and scholarship.<\/p>\n

My current project explores amanuenses<\/em>, those who assist writers, from ancient to modern times, from Cicero\u2019s enslaved and then freed assistant Marcus Tullius Tiro to Milton’s daughters, to Theodora Bosanquet, who served as secretary to Henry James. Also drawing on my own experience as secretary for the novelist Saul\u00a0Bellow, the book addresses a range of questions, including: What is the nature of the amanuensis experience? What can we learn about famous authors and their work by looking at those who assist them? How do gender and class and power figure in such relations? What do they teach us about authority and autonomy, about “genius,\u201d about editing and writing?<\/p>\n

Full CV here<\/a><\/p>\n

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Selected Publications<\/strong><\/p>\n