Gerald L. Bruns, William P. and Hazel B. White Professor of English at the University of Notre Dame, has been elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences (AAAS). He will be formally inducted at a ceremony in October in Cambridge, Mass.
Founded during the American Revolution by John Adams, John Hancock and others, the AAAS is the nation’s leading learned society. It recognizes individuals who have made outstanding contributions to science, scholarship, public affairs and the arts.
This year’s newly elected fellows also include U.S. Supreme Court Justice John Paul Stevens, former White House chief of staff James A. Baker III, Pulitzer Prize-winning novelist Edwards P. Jones, and blues guitarist B.B. King.
The 2008 class of new members includes 212 scholars, scientists, artists, civic, corporate and philanthropic leaders from 20 states and 15 countries.
An internationally renowned scholar and founder of the field of philosophy and literature, Bruns specializes in modern and contemporary poetry and poetics, 20th-century experimental fiction, and the various European and American avant-garde movements that emerged after World War II. His scholarly publications include “On the Anarchy of Poetry and Philosophy: A Guide for the Unruly,” “The Material of Poetry: Sketches for a Philosophical Poetics,” and “Tragic Thoughts at the End of Philosophy: Language, Literature, and Ethical Theory.”
A recipient of fellowships from the Guggenheim Foundation in 1974 and 1985, and the National Endowment for the Humanities in 1990, Bruns also was a faculty fellow at the Institute for Advanced Study at Hebrew University in Jerusalem in 1985 and at the Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences at Stanford University in 1993. He currently serves as the Marta Sutton Weeks Fellow at the Stanford Humanities Center.
A member of the Notre Dame faculty since 1985, Bruns earned bachelor’s and master’s degrees from Marquette University and his doctoral degree from the University of Virginia.
Fifteen other Notre Dame faculty members have been elected to the AAAS. They are: the late George Craig, professor of biology; Roberto DaMatta, Rev. Edmund P. Joyce Professor of Anthropology; Rev. Gustavo Gutierrez, O.P., John Cardinal O’Hara Professor of Theology; Rev. Theodore M. Hesburgh, C.S.C., president emeritus and professor emeritus of theology; Sabine G. MacCormack, Theodore M. Hesburgh, C.S.C., Professor of Arts and Letters; Alasdair MacIntyre, research professor of philosophy; Rev. Ernan McMullin, John Cardinal O’Hara Professor Emeritus of Philosophy; Mark Noll, Francis A. McAnaney Professor of History; Guillermo O’Donnell, professor of political science; Timothy O’Meara, provost emeritus and Howard J. Kenna Professor Emeritus of Mathematics; Alvin Plantinga, Rev. John A. O’Brien Professor of Philosophy; the late Philip Quinn, John A. O’Brien Professor of Philosophy; Lawrence Sullivan, professor of world religions; Eugene Ulrich, Rev. John A. O’Brien Professor of Theology; and Peter van Inwagen, John Cardinal O’Hara Professor of Philosophy.
Originally published by at newsinfo.nd.edu on May 05, 2008.
Originally published by at newsinfo.nd.edu on May 05, 2008.