University of Massachusetts Amherst

Associate Professor

Randall Knoper is associate professor of English. He received his B.A. in English from the University of Iowa (1977), and his M.A. in English (1981) and Ph.D. in English and American Studies (1986) from Indiana University. He previously taught at Lafayette College and has taught at the University of Massachusetts since 1990. He has served as director of American Studies, director of undergraduate studies in English, and associate chair of the English Department. He is now, once again, director of undergraduate studies in English. Along with other awards, grants, and fellowships, he is the recipient of the university's Outstanding Academic Adviser Award and, from the College of Humanities and Fine Arts, the Outstanding Teacher Award and the Distinguished Faculty Service Award.

The author of Acting Naturally: Mark Twain in the Culture of Performance (1995)—a book about Twain, popular theater, and ideas of theatricality and performance—his interests have been in the relations among literature, other cultural formations, and society. These interests, along with his commitment to interdisciplinary study, are continued in his current book project on American literature and the sciences of the brain and nervous system.

His research and teaching interests include American Studies and interdisciplinarity, nineteenth and early twentieth-century American literature and culture, and the relations between the humanities and the sciences. A selection of his writings, most of them in full-text form, is available at:
http://works.bepress.com/knoper/