Hilary Schor

Professor of English, Comparative Literature, Gender Studies and Law

Contact Information
E-mail: schor@usc.edu
Phone: (213) 740-3738
Office: THH 402G

 

Education

  • Ph.D. English, Stanford University, 1986
  • B.A. British/American Literature, Scripps College, 1980

Description of Research

Summary Statement of Research Interests
Professor Schor studies contemporary fiction, feminist theory, and the widest possible range of Victorian literature, from serial fiction, narrative poetry, art criticism, proto-sociology, and urban history. Nothing Victorian surprises her any more. Her more unexpected research efforts focus on gender studies, film and popular culture, law and literature, and twentieth century fiction; she is currently writing on adaptation, betrayal and people who fall down in films. She is the author of studies of the novelists Elizabeth Gaskell and Charles Dickens, as well as essays on "character trials," Victorian spectacle, voice-over narration in novels and film, and Jane Eyre as a victim of sexual harassment. Her most recent book, "Curious Subjects: Women and the Trials of Realism" (Oxford, 2013) moves from 17th century poetry to 18th century epistolary fiction, 19th century fairy tales and optical devices, and 20th century time-travel films. She is currently at work on a project on Jews, women, and other Victorian legal fictions, which re-imagines the romance of politics and the power of forgiveness. She has served as Chair of Gender Studies, President of the Academic Senate, and in 2006-7 she served as Dean of Undergraduate Programs for the College of Letters, Arts & Sciences. She is currently co-director of the Center for Law, History, and Culture, a joint center sponsored by USC Dornsife College and the Gould School of Law.
Research Keywords
Victorian literature and culture, contemporary fiction, feminist theory, film and popular culture, law and literature,narrative theory and the history of the novel.

Affiliations with Research Centers, Labs, and Other Institutions

  • USC Center for Law, History and Culture, Co-Director

Conferences and Other Presentations

Conference Presentations
  • ""Unplanning Plots" ", International Narrative Conference, Talk/Oral Presentation, Invited, 2009-2010   
  • "Collisions: Plot and the Curious Heroine (Twice)", Society for Cinema and Media Studies, Talk/Oral Presentation, 2009-2010   
  • "Everything You Ever Wanted to know about finishing your dissertation", Dickens Universe, Lecture/Seminar, Invited, 2009-2010   
  • ""Sliding Doors, Colliding Plots: The Thinking Heroine, Twice-Over." ", MLA, Talk/Oral Presentation, 2008-2009   
  • ""‘Was She Guilty or Not?’: Wicked Narrators in 19th Century Fiction." ", International Narrative Conference, Talk/Oral Presentation, 2007-2008   
  • ""Narrating Strangeness in Daniel Deronda"", International Conference for the Study of Narrative Literature, Talk/Oral Presentation, Washington, DC, 2006-2007   
Other Presentations
  • ""Thackeray, Vanity Fair and the Curious Eye," ", Invited Presentation, Victorian Seminar, King's College, London, 2007-2008   
  • ""Re-Sizing the Novel: Alice, Nell, and the Curious Heroine." ", Invited lecture Oxford University, Oxford University, 2006-2007   
  • ""Re-Sizing the Novel: Alice, Nell, and the Curious Heroine." ", Victorian Seminar: Invited Presentation, Harvard Center for the Humanities, Harvard University, 2006-2007   
  • "Invited workshop, "George Eliot and the Curious Bride"", 19th Century Seminar, UCLA English Department, UCLA, 2006-2007   

Publications

Book
  • Schor, H. M. (2013). Curious Subjects: Women and the Trials of Realism. Oxford University Press.
  • Schor, H. M. (1999). Dickens and the Daughter of the House. Cambridge University Press.
  • Schor, H. M. (1992). Scheherezade in the Marketplace: Elizabeth Gaskell and the Victorian Novel. Oxford University Press.
Book Chapter
  • Schor, H. M. (2012). "The Make Believe of a Middle: On (Not) Knowing Where You Are in Daniel Deronda" in "Middles". pp. pp. 47-74. Ohio State University Press.
  • Schor, H. M., Stolzenberg, N. M. (2011). "Teaching Law and Literature: Free Speech, Free Love," in MLA Teaching Approaches to Law and Literature. pp. 225-234. MLA Publications.
  • Schor, H. M. (2010). "Who’s the Stranger? Jews, Women, and Bastards in Daniel Deronda." Forthcoming in Law and the Stranger. Law and the Stranger pp. 180-210. Stanford University Press.
  • Schor, H. M. (2008). "Bleak House and Narrative Theory" in "Teaching Approaches to Bleak House". pp. pp. 191-198. MLA Publications.
  • Schor, H. M. (2006). "Dickens and Plot" in Palgrave Advances in Dickens Studies. pp. 90-111. Palgrave Press.
Journal Article
  • Schor, H. M. (2006). "Reading Knowledge: Curiosity in The Golden Bowl," in The Henry James Review. The Henry James Review. Vol. 26 (3), pp. 237-246.
Other
  • Schor, H. M. Sorting, Morphing and Mourning: A. S. Byatt Ghost-writes Victorian Fiction, in Victorian Afterlife: Postmodern Culture Rewrites the Nineteenth Century ed. John Kucich and Dianne F. Sadoff, University of Minnesota Press, 2000 .
  • Schor, H. M. Show-Trials: Character, Conviction and the Law in Victorian Fiction,Cardozo Studies in Law and Literature, Winter 1999 .

New Courses Developed

  • Contract Narratives and Robber Brides, Comparative Literature, Graduate seminar on law, literature and the theory of narrative, 2009-2010   
  • "Seeing Into Everything: Furnishing the Victorian Imagination", English, Graduate course on curiosity and the organization of knowledge in literature and culture., 2008-2009   

Honors and Awards

  • Radcliffe Institute Fellowship, 2012-2013   
  • National Endowment for the Humanities Fellowship Recipient, Taught NEH Summer Seminar for College and University Teachers on "Adaptation and Revision: The Example of Great Expectations" (co-taught with Professor Paul Saint-Amour), 2006-2007   
  • USC Zumberge Research and Innovation Fund Award, Joint award with Professor Nomi M. Stolzenberg to develop new research project in law & literature of the First Amendment., 2002-2003   
  • Guggenheim Fellowship Recipient, 2001-2002  
  • USC Academic Senate Executive Board, President of the Academic Senate, 2001-2002   
  • USC Innovative Teaching Award, 2000-2001   
  • Stanford Humanities Center Fellowship, 1994-1995   
  • USC Zumberge Research and Innovation Fund Award, 1989-1990   
  • American Council of Learned Societies Fellowship Recipient, Grant-in-aid Research fellowship, 1988-1989   
  • USC Innovative Teaching Award, 1987-1988   

Service to the University

Administrative Appointments
  • Director, College Commons Program, 2009-2010   
  • Director, College Commons Program, 2008-2009   


Faculty may update their profile by logging into the Dornsife portal from a computer on campus or off-campus via a VPN connection.