Belinda Jack is Fellow and Tutor in French literature and Language at Christ Church, Oxford at the University of Oxford,THE article on Professor Belinda Jack (accessed 26 January 2015) Professor of Rhetoric at Gresham CollegeGresham College Bio of Professor Belinda Jack (accessed 23 January 2015) and the author of books such as The Woman Reader and George Sand: A Woman's Life Writ Large.
Education and career After a period living in Paris and studying at the Sorbonne,Get to Know Gresham Professor Belinda Jack (accessed 26 January 2015) Belinda Jack was awarded a bachelor's degree in French with African and Caribbean Studies from the University of Kent. She then obtained her Doctor of Philosophy (D.Phil) in Négritude and Literary Criticism at St John's College, Oxford at the University of Oxford in 1989.
After completing her doctorate, Jack stayed on at the University of Oxford where she worked as a lecturer at a number of different colleges before being awarded a fellowship at Christ Church, Oxford. She continues to tutor at Christ Church, in French Literature and Language. Jack is an 'Official Student' at Christ Church, Oxford making her a Fellow and a Member of the Governing Body at the college. Jack teaches an Advanced Translation course at the Faculty of Medieval and Modern Languages, University of Oxford., and she is currently Director of the University of Oxford Undergraduate studies for Modern Languages.
In 2013, Jack was appointed as the 47th Professor of Rhetoric at Gresham College, following Richard J. Evans. In this role she delivers a series of free public lectures within the City of London. Her first series was on The Mysteries of Reading,The Mysteries of Reading on the Gresham College website (accessed 23 January 2015) and this was followed by The Mysteries of Writing Novels and Poems.The Mysteries of Writing Novels and Poems on the Gresham College website (accessed 23 January 2015)
In September 2023 Jack was awarded a Title of Distinction of Professor of French and Literary Studies by the University of Oxford.
Other research work and publications
Her books include:
Negritude and Literary Criticism: The History and Theory of 'Negro-African' Literature in French (Greenwood Press, 1996)archINFORM – Negritude and Literary Criticism: The History and Theory of 'Negro-African' Literature in French by Belinda Jack (accessed 27 January 2015) Francophone Literatures: An Introductory Survey (Oxford: OUP, 1996). George Sand: A Woman's Life Writ Large (Chatto and Windus, 1999) Beatrice's Spell: The Enduring Legend of Beatrice Cenci (Chatto and Windus, 2003) The Woman Reader (Yale, 2012) Reading: A Very Short Introduction (OUP, 2019), translations in Japanese, Chinese and Turkish
Jack co-authored Epreuve avant la lettre: George Sand et l'autobiographie renversee (Literature, 134 (2004), 121–130) which is written in French.
As well as books and academic publications, Jack has published articles, essays, chapters and reviews. These have appeared in The Wall Street Journal, Literary Review, The Times Literary Supplement, Times Higher Education and BBC History. She has appeared on BBC Radio and television, as well as at literary festivals across the UK.
Reception
Of The Woman Reader, Judith Flanders in The Sunday Telegraph wrote "A rarefied study of women's reading over the centuries – a subject that is vast, but also intensely private, and that has left little trace for most of history". Lesley McDowell for The Independent wrote "Jack's excellent history begins from a position of anxiety, which she argues is caused by women's access to the written word. What do women read and that happens to them, and the world, when they do?" Hermione Lee, in The Guardian, said that the book "repeatedly tells [a story of] of the way that the woman reader has persisted and thrived under all kinds of conditions", and described it as a "thorough and informative book".
References
External links Belinda Jack, Christ Church Oxford