Dr. Lisa Schnell, Associate Professor of English, is the Interim Associate Dean of the Honors College this fall. A Canadian by birth, Prof. Schnell received her B.A. (Honours) from the University of Alberta, her M.A. from the University of Western Ontario and, in 1990, her Ph.D. from Princeton University. After three years as an Assistant Professor at McMaster University in Ontario, Prof. Schnell left Canada so that she and her American husband could live under the same roof. They were both hired at UVM in 1992 (her husband, Andrew Barnaby, is also an English professor) and have been very happy at UVM. They live in Burlington with their daughter, Emma (14), and son Ian (7).
In the English Department, Prof. Schnell teaches courses on sixteenth- and seventeenth-century writers, and Bible as Literature, as well as courses in literary theory. In the Honors College, she taught a sophomore seminar for several years called Telling Stories: Truth and Fiction. This year she is teaching a fall section of the new first-year course, The Pursuit of Knowledge. Prof. Schnell is a 2008 recipient of UVM's prestigious Kroepsch-Maurice Teaching Award.
An active scholar, Prof. Schnell's research interests are divided between work on seventeenth-century writers and her more theoretical interests in narrative issues. In the spring, she will be on sabbatical completing a book-length project on grief and narrative called Learning How To Tell. Last year, she completed a large project in collaboration with her colleagues Robyn Warhol-Down and Mary Lou Kete in the Department of English, an anthology entitled Women's Worlds: The McGraw-Hill Anthology of Women's Writing. In 2002, she published Literate Experience: The Work of Knowing in Seventeenth-Century English Writing, a book she co-authored with Andrew Barnaby. She has also published several essays on seventeenth-century women writers.
As Interim Associate Dean of the Honors College, Prof. Schnell will continue to be the primary resource person in identifying and assisting students throughout UVM in applying for and securing nationally-competitive scholarships and fellowships. She has already broadened the selection of award opportunities for students, and is currently expanding our Undergraduate Research Opportunity Program (UROP) to assist Honors College students with their Honors thesis, practicum or senior project.
"It's a privilege to be working in the Honors College," says Prof. Schnell. "Helping students discover and live into their aspirations, particularly with the scholarship advising I'm doing, is genuinely gratifying. It's also a very supportive, even sometimes fun, place to work."