John Bassett

president, Clark University

President Bassett has published books on authors such as William Faulkner, Mark Twain, and William Dean Howells, (as well as others.) In a sense, President Bassett believes the taxonomy of "English major" has become less and less descriptive, the term itself denotes study in a wide variety of disciplines. The term "literature" has not held a large position on college campuses until the last hundred years. "English" as a discipline plays the roles now that departments of Theology, or Classics might have played at one time. He believes that a college would be greatly impoverished if literature departments did not remain "central players" in universities. He believes the study of literature can teach us the nature of human experience just as history may teach us the nature of human experience. He believes a realization of this interconnectedness would be a desirable end.