Distinguished scholar to speak Tuesday

Andrew Hadfield, English professor and head of the department of English at the University of Sussex in England, will be speaking about the life of Edmund Spenser in 301 Morgan Hall.

Hadfield's lecture, "Secrets and Lies: The Life of Edmund Spenser," is part of a series of lectures sponsored by the Hudson Strode Program in Renaissance Studies.

The Strode Program is a privately-owned program promoting the study of early modern English literature and culture from Skelton to Milton.

Assistant Professor of English Tricia McElroy said she met Hadfield at a conference in Scotland. McElroy told him about the Strode program at the University, and Hadfield agreed to visit.

"As a part of the Hudson Strode Program, we are part of a much wider intellectual community. A great part of Hudson and its funding is being able to bring Hadfield. It gives students and faculty the opportunity to exchange ideas with scholars in the United States or abroad," McElroy said.

McElroy said Sharon O'Dair, professor and Strode Program director, began the lecture series on literary criticism and theory in fall 2006.

Hadfield will not only present a lecture but will also have a roundtable discussion with a few English graduate students.

"[I] always try to learn new things and never stop thinking and become complacent. More specifically, I want to look at the relationship between the life and the work in the Spenser lecture and between literature and politics in the round table talk with the graduate students," Hadfield said.

"I hope I can make people read and think better by posing difficult and interesting questions, as my students do to me. I want people to think about literature and identities, politics and life writing, and how these relate to forms and types of literature," Hadfield said.

Hadfield gives three to four lectures abroad every year, and a few more in the United Kingdom. He said he is excited to speak at the University.

"I am a terrible flier, which has led me to cut down on trips, but I hope I am getting better again. I decided that if I wanted to do them, I just had to go for it really or miss out," Hadfield said. "Edmund Spenser has the best claim to be the greatest non-dramatic English poet of the Renaissance."

Hadfield is the author of "Shakespeare, Spenser, and the Matter of Britain", "Literature, Politics, and National Identity: Reformation of the Renaissance" and "Shakespeare and Republicanism."