Eric O. Clarke, a beloved member of the Department of English, passed away on October 10, 2010.
Prof. Clarke came to the University of Pittsburgh in 1992, initially as an assistant professor and was promoted to associate professor in 1998. Prior to joining the University, he spent a year teaching at the University of New Hampshire.
A native of Washington state, Clarke earned his BA in English with honors from the University of Puget Sound in 1986, then an MA in 1988 and PhD in 1991, both from Brown University.
Colleagues remember Clarke as an innovative scholar in 19th-century British literary studies and sexuality studies. Throughout his career, he published numerous articles on figures such as Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel, Immanuel Kant, Percy Bysshe Shelley, as well as contributions to queer theory and contemporary film.
In 1998, Dr. Clarke held the position of visiting scholar at Columbia University’s program for the study of sexuality, gender, health, and human rights. He was also honored with a Rockefeller Residency Fellowship at the Center for Lesbian and Gay Studies at the Graduate Center, City University of New York, in 1998-99. Duke University Press published his interdisciplinary study, Virtuous Vice: Homoeroticism and the Public Sphere, which garnered praise from reviewers in various disciplines. He was an advisory editor and writer for the journal boundary 2 from 1996 to 2008.
Clarke served as director of graduate studies from 2001 to 2006. He taught courses such as "Sexuality and Representation," "19th-Century British Novel," "Institutions of Literature," and "Introduction to Modern Critical Practice." His commitment to education also included courses offered in conjunction with cultural studies and women’s studies programs, and he served as a faculty associate at the Center for West European Studies and the Center for Social and Urban Research.
The Clarke Prize is given in his honor every year.