Yale Bulletin and Calendar

February 23, 2001

Volume 29, Number 20

John Rogers

New Berkeley College master named

John Rogers, a scholar of the English poet John Milton and holder of three Yale degrees, has been named the next master of Berkeley College, President Richard C. Levin announced.

Rogers' five-year term will begin July 1. He and his wife, Cornelia Pearsall, both 1984 graduates of Yale College, will move into the master's house this summer with their young daughter, Lily.

Rogers, who is an associate professor of English, graduated from Yale College summa cum laude and went on to earn an M.A. in 1985 and a Ph.D. in 1989. A teacher of 17th-century English poetry, he is the author of "The Matter of Revolution: Science, Poetry and Politics in the Age of Milton," which won numerous awards, including the MLA Prize for a First Book in 1987, the James Holly Hanford Award of the Milton Society of America, Choice magazine's award for an Outstanding Academic Book in 1996, and the Samuel and Ronnie Heyman Prize for Outstanding Scholarly Publication by a Yale Junior Faculty Member in the Humanities. He is currently working on a book titled "Milton's Passion."

Rogers is also highly regarded as a teacher. In 1996 he was awarded the University's Sidonie Miskimin Clauss Prize for Teaching Excellence in the Humanities. In the citation for the prize, Rogers was noted for his ability to make approachable Milton's complex epic "Paradise Lost," and for his sensitivity, intellectual curiosity and amiability. When describing his skills in front of class, the citation noted that one student had said Rogers "could hold a class's interest even if the subject of discussion were the nutritional information on the side panel of a corn flakes box."

Currently the director of undergraduate studies in English, Rogers was formerly the director of undergraduate studies in Renaissance studies. He has served on numerous department and University committees, including the Yale College Executive Committee and the University Budget Committee.

In his letter to members of the Berkeley College community announcing the new master, Levin noted that Rogers and his wife met while the two were Yale seniors, when they arranged a tutorial on Shakespeare together. Pearsall, who will be the associate master of Berkeley College, also went on to earn an M.A. from Yale in 1986 and her Ph.D. in 1991. A scholar of Victorian literature, she has completed a book titled "Tennyson's Rapture" and, with support from a National Endowment for the Humanities Fellowship, is working on a second book, titled "Loved Remains: The Materialization of Mourning in Victorian Britain."

In addition to Shakespeare, Rogers also enjoyed singing as an undergraduate, and was a member of the Spizzwinks(?) and, later, the Whiffenpoofs.

Today, "[he] enjoys cooking and Professor Pearsall abets this avocation by finding tempting recipes for Professor Rogers to concoct," Levin wrote in his announcement. "Indeed the only tension in their relationship seems to lie in the matter of their former residential colleges. Since Professor Rogers was a Saybrugian [member of Saybrook College], and Professor Pearsall a J.E. Spider [member of Jonathan Edwards College], they have, for the sake of their 22-month-old daughter Lily, settled the matter by accepting the position in Berkeley, a college they both fondly remember from their attendance at the old Berkeley Film Society. They are all very excited by Berkeley's history, its ambience, its location, its beauty and by the excellent reputation of its students and Fellows."

In his letter, Levin also praised the 11 years of service of outgoing master Harry Stout and associate master Sue Stout. The Stouts, said Levin, "have been role models and wonderful friends to a whole generation of Berkeley students as well as hosts to an active and engaged fellowship."

Charles Baltay, the Eugene Higgins Professor of Physics and professor of astronomy, chaired the search committee that helped select Rogers as new master. Other committee members were Professors William Odom and Norma Thompson, and students Robert Bernheim '02, Margaret Meyers '01, Noelle Ortega '01, Jack Rubin '02 and Robert Wilkins '03.

T H I SW E E K ' SS T O R I E S

New Berkeley College master named

Bollingen Prize in Poetry honors 'anguish and humor' of Louise Glück's 'Vita Nova'

Yale Glee Club salutes music's power to mold lifelong friendships

Architect Cesar Pelli to design Yale's new engineering building

Comedian Carlin shares tales from his 'very lucky' life

Yale College term bill is set at $34,030

Bentley Layton appointed to Goff chair in religious studies

Race is not a factor in the delivery of mental health services . . .

Graduate students give voice to their poetry in colloquium

Valesio group is 'an ongoing poem'

Candid close-ups are Yale police officer's hobby

Pioneering nurses will be honored at center's annual convocation

Grant to support field research by F&ES students

YUHS names new medical director

Pianist (and trained chemist) makes his faculty debut

Shakespeare-inspired music will be featured in concert by Yale Jazz Ensemble

Campus Notes