School of Writing, Literature, and Film

David Robinson teaches courses in American Literature, and has particular interests in Literature and Environmental Studies, Trans-Atlantic literary culture, and the classic New England authors such as Ralph Waldo Emerson, Henry David Thoreau, and Emily Dickinson. He has written several books on American literary and religious culture, including Emerson and the Conduct of Life (Cambridge University Press, 1993); World of Relations: The Achievement of Peter Taylor (University Press of Kentucky, 1998); and Natural Life: Thoreau’s Worldly Transcendentalism (Cornell University Press, 2004). He has been awarded a Faculty Excellence Award for Teaching by the Oregon State Board of Higher Education, and the Distinguished Service Award by the Ralph Waldo Emerson Society.  He also taught as a Fulbright Guest Professor at the University of Heidelberg, Germany in 1985.  He serves as the Director of Oregon State University’s Center for the Humanities, and is currently at work on the New England Transcendentalist author Margaret Fuller, and on the contemporary philosopher and literary theorist Stanley Cavell.

Research Links:

Center for the Humanities:  http://oregonstate.edu/dept/humanities/

"The New Emerson and the Question of Religious Experience." Video of Lecture at Harvard Divinity School, October 15, 2000, with response by Lawrence Buell.  Program in celebration of the  Andover-Harvard Theological Library.

“Emerson and the Examined Life.”  C-Span Video Library. Video of Lecture and program at Faneuil Hall, Boston, for the 2003 Emerson Bicentennial.  Featuring Richard Geldard, David Robinson, and Robert Pinsky.  http://www.c-spanvideo.org/program/156135-1

“Emerson: Religion After Transcendentalism,” Text of lecture for the Emerson Bicentennial Observance, 2003.  http://archive.uua.org/aboutuu/emerson200/robinson.html

“Selected Works by David Robinson.” Selected bibliography available on the web: http://www.emersonsermons.com/robinson.html