By: Audrey H. (’23)
Upper School English Teacher Dr. Andrew Williamson’s work was published in the Journal of Modern Literature, which is a journal that publishes articles about contemporary and 20th century works of literature.
With only a few revisions, the Journal of Modern Literature selectively chose the first chapter of Dr. Williamson’s dissertation to be published. This chapter of his dissertation focused on poet Ezra Pound.
Dr. Williamson got the inspiration to write this when he was thinking about the connection between imagism and modernist American poetry. “I actually had the idea for this initial article when I was just sitting on my living room couch early one morning and I was thinking about modernist American poetry and about Ezra Pound and about his relationship to a movement called imagism,” Dr. Williamson said.
Dr. Williamson’s profound interest in studying modernist American poetry stemmed from the moment he read the poem “The Waste Land” by T.S. Eliot. “When I read that poem, I really realized that I had found my passion and wanted to continue studying [modernist American poetry] more,” Dr. Williamson said. His realization in this interest also led him to pursue an undergraduate degree in English Literature at Yale University , and later a PhD in English Literature at Princeton University.
Dr. Williamson wrote this dissertation for a PhD in English Literature at Princeton University. This dissertation was finished in 2019. In further chapters following the first chapter about Ezra Pound, Dr. Williamson analyzes the works of other poets including Marianne Moore and Louis Zukofsky.
Prior to earning his PhD from Princeton University, Dr. Williamson taught first grade at the American School in London.
The process of writing a dissertation is a long and grueling one; Dr Williamson spent almost seven years writing his dissertation. However, after enduring this arduous process, Dr. Williamson was rewarded with feelings of satisfaction. “It was really gratifying to see the result of many years of work finally in print,” Dr. Williamson said.
