Language and Literature

Robert Myers, Professor of English and of Creative Writing.
Ph.D (Yale, 1995); BA (Eckerd College)         
Email: rm33@aub.edu.lb                                                                                                                                            

Robert Myers (www.robert-myers.com) is a Professor of English and Creative Writing. He received a B.A. in English literature and creative writing from Eckerd College, where he studied with Edward Field, and a Ph.D. in Spanish and Portuguese languages and literatures from Yale (1995). His dissertation, The Language of Camões, directed by María Rosa Menocal, is a comparative study of modern readings, rewritings and translations of the Portuguese Renaissance epic, with chapters on Pessoa, Burton, Drummond and Pound. He is the author of over a dozen stage plays, including Atwater: Fixin' to Die (Playscripts, 2007), The Lynching of Leo Frank (Playscripts, 2007), Painting Persia (2010) and Mesopotamia (2009), about Gertrude Bell and the British occupation of Iraq. He has written on Orientalism and the arts, world theatre and Latin American culture for Middle East Critique, PAJ, Brasil/Brazil, The New York Times and other publications. He is the recipient of two Fulbright fellowships, a New York State "Individual Artist's Award," a Joseph Jefferson Award for "Best New Play," and a Franke Visiting Fellowship at the Whitney Humanities Center at Yale, where his play Mesopotamia will be staged in 2011 with the renowned actress Kathleen Chalfant. He was the chair of the English Department in 2009 and the director of the Center for American Studies and Research (CASAR) from 2009 to 2011. He teaches American theatre and literature, modern British and Irish theatre, world theatre, playwriting and screenwriting.