Radulescu to Present Inaugural Lecture The title of Radulescu’s talk is: “Dream in a Suitcase: How Literature Saves/Changes Lives.”

By Louise Uffelman
April 27, 2018

Domnica Radulescu, the Edwin A. Morris Professor of Comparative Literature, will present an inaugural public lecture to celebrate her endowed professorship on May 3 at 5:30 p.m. in Washington and Lee University’s Stackhouse Theater.

The title of Radulescu’s talk, which is free and open to the public, is: “Dream in a Suitcase: How Literature Saves/Changes Lives.” A book signing will follow the lecture.

Radulescu, who has written extensively on East European theater and narrative, said, “I’m very happy to have this new professorship. I travel in so many directions artistically and intellectually, that this provides a grounding from which I can continue to grow. It will also fill a niche in the university curriculum. It is time for the area of comparative literature to be refreshed and taught with a more modern edge. It’s a synergistic field that I hope will encourage faculty from other disciplines to also offer courses that connect literature with philosophy, psychology, religion, classics and social sciences.”

In addition to reading from her works, Radulescu has invited several students to perform dramatic readings from her most recent plays. “It’s important for students to see that their professors create knowledge, art and scholarship and that they don’t just teach what others have produced. Everything I do, I bring back to the classroom.”

Radulescu is the author, editor or co-editor of 10 scholarly books and three novels, as well as book chapters, articles and plays. She joined W&L in 1992, and as well as teaching courses in French language and literature and in Italian Renaissance literature, Radulescu was the co-founding chair of W&L’s Women’s and Gender Studies Program and is the founding organizer and director of the National Symposium of Theater in Academe. She is the recipient of the 2011 Outstanding Faculty Award and has received two Fulbrights to work and do research in Romania.

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