Columbia University’s Joseph Albernaz to Give Annual Shannon-Clark Lecture at W&L Albernaz’s lecture on Oct. 22, titled “As on a Holiday: Poetic and Festival Time in the Age of Revolutions,” is free and open to the public.

By Emily Innes Stanley
October 9, 2026

Joseph Albernaz, assistant professor of English at Columbia University, will give the annual Shannon-Clark Lecture in English at Washington and Lee University at 6 p.m. on Oct. 22 in Northen Auditorium in Leyburn Library.

His talk, titled “As on a Holiday: Poetic and Festival Time in the Age of Revolutions,” is free and open to the public.

Albernaz specializes in the literature of the Romantic period, with a particular interest in the legacies of Romanticism across various theoretical, critical and political domains. His recent work uses comparative literary analysis and philosophical inquiry to examine historical trajectories of insurgency and revolt, with his current research tracing the history of May Day’s connections with mass rebellion before 1886.

Albernaz’s first book, “Common Measures: Romanticism and the Groundlessness of Community,” reimagines the shifting forms of political community that marked the beginning of the 19th century, while encouraging the reader to envision new ways of caring for and relating to one another in the present. He is currently working on his second book, tentatively titled “The Time Torn Holiday,” exploring calendars, festivals, work, temporality and revolt.

“Joseph Albernaz will be an exceptional guest to bring to campus, and the English Department very much looks forward to hosting him,” said Michael Berlin, visiting assistant professor of English and director of the writing program at W&L. “‘Common Measures’ received the MLA Prize for a First Book, which is the highest honor a first book can win in the field of literary studies in the United States. I am so glad that we will all get to learn from his field-defining work.”

Albernaz received his bachelor’s degree from the University of North Carolina and his Ph.D. from the University of California, Berkeley.

As part of his visit to W&L, Albernaz will also lead a retreat with students pursuing majors in English and creative writing on Oct. 23.

The Shannon-Clark Lectures in English, established by a gift from a Washington and Lee alumnus who wishes to remain anonymous, honor the memories of Edgar Finley Shannon, chair of Washington and Lee’s Department of English from 1914 until he died in 1938, and Harriet Mabel Fishburn Clark, a grandmother of the donor and a woman vitally interested in liberal arts education.