2004 Fredericton Encaenia - Ceremony B
Shattock, E. Joanne
Doctor of Letters (D.Litt.)
Orator: Patterson, Stephen E.
Citation:
ENCAENIA, CEREMONY B, 20 MAY 2004
JOANNE SHATTOCK
to be Doctor of Letters
Forty years ago, when Joanne Shattock was a student at the University of New Brunswick, the field of Victorian Studies was it its infancy. In a real sense, her subsequent career paralleled the field’s growth to maturity as a distinctive academic activity. And with this growth, Professor Shattock emerged as one of the activists. She is recognized throughout the English-speaking world and beyond as one of the leading authorities in Victorian Studies.
She grew up in Saint John, New Brunswick, where she attended Saint John High and left the province in her matriculation examinations. Her academic career from then on was highlighted by one prestigious award after another. She spent four years at UNB, honouring in English and History, and supported by several scholarships, among them the valuable General Motors Scholarship. In her graduating year, 1963, she received the Governor-General’s Gold Medal as the academic leader of the graduating class, and the Douglas Gold Medal for the best essay written that year in a regular course of study. Everything about her record here promised future success and perhaps greatness. None of her teachers would be disappointed. She went on from here to specialize in Victorian literature with a Commonwealth Scholarship (for her MA at Leeds) and an IODE Scholarship and Canada Council Fellowship (for doctoral work at University College, London). Her thesis on the North British Review provided an entry into the study of nineteenth-century literary reviews and reviewers, a niche that has remained one of her specialties until the present.
Joanne Shattock made her mark in the scholarly world as a bibliographer at the Victorian Studies Centre at the University of Leicester, where she also lectured in English. In the thirty years since her initial appointment there, she has established her reputation as a prolific publishing scholar with several major books to her credit, over three dozen important articles or chapters in books, expanded from Victorian publishing and the periodical press to include travel writing, nineteenth-century editors, the literary journal, and women writers. Her mammoth bibliographies have become indispensable tools for every scholar in the field, among them The Cambridge Bibliography of English Literature, and The Oxford Guide to British Women Writers, both of which you can find in the Reference Section of the Harriet Irving Library, as in serious academic libraries throughout the English-speaking world.
Equally impressive has been her career as a teacher and administrator at Leicester. She has been Director of the Victorian Studies Centre since 1990, rose through the teaching ranks to become a full professor of Victorian Literature in 1997, and in 2003, was appointed Dean of the Faculty of Arts. Outside the University, she helped establish the British Association for Victorian Studies and served as its first president. She sits on the editorial board of several scholarly publications, and is a popular choice among universities all over Britain as an outside examiner for doctoral and master’s candidates in English Literature and Victorian Studies. That she has also found time to serve on numerous university committees, the University Senate, and the University Council simply illustrates what everything else about her career tells us: she is an academic dynamo. More than this: with a husband and two adult children, she has led a richly balanced life.
Joanne Shattock is yet another example of New Brunswick’s contribution to the world of scholarly achievement. While her career has taken her far from her roots, her accomplishments have resonated here as they have everywhere that Victorian novels are read, critics evaluate, scholars argue, and publishers respond to the ever widening interest in things Victorian. Where once Victorian Studies, for more people, focused on a handful of poets and the novels of Dickens and Thackeray, today—thanks in significant ways to Joanne Shattock and others who share her enthusiasms—the field is an exploration into the fascinating nooks and crannies of one of the most remarkable ages in history. It is a matter of great pride to us at UNB that one of the foremost explorers of that Victorian world is one of our graduates.
From: Honoris Causa, UA Case 70, Box 4
JOANNE SHATTOCK
to be Doctor of Letters
Forty years ago, when Joanne Shattock was a student at the University of New Brunswick, the field of Victorian Studies was it its infancy. In a real sense, her subsequent career paralleled the field’s growth to maturity as a distinctive academic activity. And with this growth, Professor Shattock emerged as one of the activists. She is recognized throughout the English-speaking world and beyond as one of the leading authorities in Victorian Studies.
She grew up in Saint John, New Brunswick, where she attended Saint John High and left the province in her matriculation examinations. Her academic career from then on was highlighted by one prestigious award after another. She spent four years at UNB, honouring in English and History, and supported by several scholarships, among them the valuable General Motors Scholarship. In her graduating year, 1963, she received the Governor-General’s Gold Medal as the academic leader of the graduating class, and the Douglas Gold Medal for the best essay written that year in a regular course of study. Everything about her record here promised future success and perhaps greatness. None of her teachers would be disappointed. She went on from here to specialize in Victorian literature with a Commonwealth Scholarship (for her MA at Leeds) and an IODE Scholarship and Canada Council Fellowship (for doctoral work at University College, London). Her thesis on the North British Review provided an entry into the study of nineteenth-century literary reviews and reviewers, a niche that has remained one of her specialties until the present.
Joanne Shattock made her mark in the scholarly world as a bibliographer at the Victorian Studies Centre at the University of Leicester, where she also lectured in English. In the thirty years since her initial appointment there, she has established her reputation as a prolific publishing scholar with several major books to her credit, over three dozen important articles or chapters in books, expanded from Victorian publishing and the periodical press to include travel writing, nineteenth-century editors, the literary journal, and women writers. Her mammoth bibliographies have become indispensable tools for every scholar in the field, among them The Cambridge Bibliography of English Literature, and The Oxford Guide to British Women Writers, both of which you can find in the Reference Section of the Harriet Irving Library, as in serious academic libraries throughout the English-speaking world.
Equally impressive has been her career as a teacher and administrator at Leicester. She has been Director of the Victorian Studies Centre since 1990, rose through the teaching ranks to become a full professor of Victorian Literature in 1997, and in 2003, was appointed Dean of the Faculty of Arts. Outside the University, she helped establish the British Association for Victorian Studies and served as its first president. She sits on the editorial board of several scholarly publications, and is a popular choice among universities all over Britain as an outside examiner for doctoral and master’s candidates in English Literature and Victorian Studies. That she has also found time to serve on numerous university committees, the University Senate, and the University Council simply illustrates what everything else about her career tells us: she is an academic dynamo. More than this: with a husband and two adult children, she has led a richly balanced life.
Joanne Shattock is yet another example of New Brunswick’s contribution to the world of scholarly achievement. While her career has taken her far from her roots, her accomplishments have resonated here as they have everywhere that Victorian novels are read, critics evaluate, scholars argue, and publishers respond to the ever widening interest in things Victorian. Where once Victorian Studies, for more people, focused on a handful of poets and the novels of Dickens and Thackeray, today—thanks in significant ways to Joanne Shattock and others who share her enthusiasms—the field is an exploration into the fascinating nooks and crannies of one of the most remarkable ages in history. It is a matter of great pride to us at UNB that one of the foremost explorers of that Victorian world is one of our graduates.
From: Honoris Causa, UA Case 70, Box 4
Citations may be reproduced for research purposes only. Publication in whole or in part requires written permission from the author.