Professor of American Literature Honored by Emerson Society

The Emerson Society has presented Len Gougeon, Ph.D., distinguished university fellow and professor of American literature at The University of Scranton, with its Distinguished Achievement Award. The award recognizes scholars who have made important contributions to Emerson studies.

The Ralph Waldo Emerson Society, Inc. fosters scholarship on and appreciation of the life and writings of one of America's greatest authors. Dr. Gougeon served as president of the Society from 1999-2001.

Dr. Gougeon has authored three books on Emerson. His most recent book Emerson & Eros: The Making of a Cultural Hero, published by the State University of New York Press, was nominated for the Alpha Sigma Nu Book Award this year. A copy of this work will be provided by Alpha Sigma Nu to the libraries of all 28 Jesuit colleges and universities in the United States.

Dr. Gougeon’s works on Emerson are published widely. Two of his articles have recently appeared: “Victorian Culture and the Rise of American Liberalism,” in Nineteenth-Century Prose 35 (2) 2008, and “Emerson and the Re-Invention of Democracy: A Lesson for the Twenty-First Century,” which is included in a volume titled New Morning: Emerson in the Twenty-First Century, edited by Michael Broderick and Arthur Lothstein and published by the State University of New York Press (2008). “His most recent work, “Transcendental Politics and Economics,” will be published by Oxford University Press in the Oxford Handbook of Transcendentalism (2009).

Dr. Gougeon is also known for scholarly presentations he has made across the globe. Most recently, he delivered the presentation “Emersonian Reform and the Rise of Liberal Democracy” at the Thoreau Society Annual Gathering in Concord, Mass., in July. In September, he made a presentation titled “Emerson, Lincoln, and Transcendental Democracy,” as part of The University of Scranton’s Schemel Forum. In February 2009, he will make a presentation on Lincoln and Emerson in conjunction with the traveling Lincoln Exhibit, which is sponsored by the National Endowment for the Humanities and hosted by The Harry and Jeanette Weinberg Memorial Library.

In July 2006, he made a presentation at Oxford University on Emerson and the British. In 2003, he was one of a small group of invited scholars who spoke at Harvard University and the Massachusetts Historical Society as part of the Emerson Bicentennial celebration. This presentation was later published by the Massachusetts Historical Society in a volume titled Emerson Bicentennial Essays (2006).

Dr. Gougeon joined the faculty of The University of Scranton in 1974 and was named professor of English in 1982. He earned a bachelor’s degree from St. Mary’s University, Halifax, Canada, and master’s and doctorate degrees from the University of Massachusetts. In 2003, in recognition of his accomplishments as a scholar and a teacher, he was named a Distinguished University Fellow at Scranton.