Awards

Guggenheim Fellow - 1984

About Walter J. Meserve, Jr.

Walter Meserve was professor of theatre and drama at IU Bloomington for 20 years (1968-1988). He began as a visiting professor of speech and theatre in 1968 and was appointed to the Graduate School faculty and received tenure in 1969. He spent three years as associate dean for research and graduate development (1980-1983) and five years as director of the Institute for American Theatre Studies (1983-1988). Prior to his tenure at IU, he rose from an instructor to professor at the University of Kansas at Lawrence (1951-1968). He finished out his academic career as distinguished professor of theatre and English at the Graduate School of the City University of New York (1988-1993) and is currently distinguished professor emeritus. Meserve began his higher education at Portland Junior College in 1942, received an A.B. from Bates College in Lewiston, Maine, in 1947, an M.A. from Boston University in 1948, and a Ph.D. from the University of Washington in 1952.

Meserve has received three National Endowment for the Humanities Fellowships (1974-1975, 1983-1984, 1988-1989) and a Guggenheim Fellowship in Theatre Arts to study dramatic literature in America from 1890 to 1915 (1984-1985). He has published widely as an author of articles and books on theatre and is a founding editor of the Journal of American Drama and Theatre.