Faculty Bios

Peter Conn

Andrea Mitchell Professor of English

Peter Conn is the Andrea Mitchell Professor of English at the University of Pennsylvania. His publications include The Divided Mind: Ideology and Imagination in America, 1898-1917 (Cambridge University Press, 1983; paperback edition, 1988), which was nominated for a Pulitzer Prize, and Literature in America (Cambridge University Press, 1989), which was a main selection of Associated Book Clubs (UK). His most recent book, Pearl S. Buck: A Cultural Biography (Cambridge, 1996; Paperback 1998), was chosen as a New York Times Notable Book for that year, was included among the five finalists for the National Book Critics Circle award in biography, and received the Athenaeum Award. Conn's books have been translated into seven languages, including Chinese, Spanish, and Korean. He has lectured on a number of American artists, including Edward Hopper, William Christenberry, Thomas Wilmer Dewing, Maxfield Parrish, Charles Sheeler, and The Eight.

Recipient of fellowships from the John Simon Guggenheim Foundation and the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH), Conn has also directed NEH seminars for college and high school teachers. He has received the Lindback, Ira Abrams, and Mortarboard awards for distinguished teaching. He designed English 800, a graduate courses that combines literary study with teacher-training. His recent teaching projects have included English 401, which places undergraduate as teaching assistants in University City High School. Conn has served as literary consultant on numerous television projects, including "The American Short Story" series, and adaptations of novels by James Baldwin and Saul Bellow.

In 1993, Conn was named visiting professor at the University of Nanjing, in the People's Republic of China.

Conn has served as Dean of the College, chair of the graduate groups in American Civilization and English, Faculty Master of Robert Hill College House and Community House, and Faculty Advisor of Civic House. Currently, Conn serves as Deputy Provost of the University, and Board Chair of Pearl S. Buck International.

Peter Conn
109 Bennett Hall
Department of English
University of Pennsylvania
Philadelphia, PA 19104-6273

Tel: (215) 898-5726; (215) 898-6943
E-mail: pconn@dept.english.upenn.edu