Faculty
![]() Edward M. GriffinProfessorDepartment
of English |
Special Interests
- American literature (especially colonial) and American Studies
- Use of early American history and literature by modern American writers
- American religion
- Teaching
Honors and Awards
- Ruth Christie Distinguished Teaching Award, 2002
- Academy of Distinguished Teachers, 2001
- Award for Distinguished Contributions to Graduate and Professional Teaching, University of Minnesota, 2001
- College of Liberal Arts Distinguished Teacher Award, University of Minnesota, 1998
- MidAmerica American Studies Association: Elizabeth Kolmer Award for Outstanding Teaching and Mentoring in American Studies, 1999
- Fellowships from Fulbright (Austria), Danforth Foundation, NEH, Bush Foundation
Background
- Education
- Stanford University, M.A., Ph.D.
- University of San Francisco, B.S.
Publications
- Books
- Editor (with Ayers L. Bagley and Austin McLean), The Telling Image: Explorations in the Emblem. AMS Studies in the Emblem, No. 12. New York: AMS Press, 1996.
- Old Brick: Charles Chauncy of Boston, 1705-1787. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 1980.
- Jonathan Edwards. University of Minnesota Pamphlets on American Writers 97. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 1971. Rpt. in American Writers: A Collection of Literary Biographies. Ed. Leonard Unger. New York: Scribner's, 1974.
- Articles
- "Dancing Around the Maypole, Ripping Up the Flag: The Merry Mount Caper and Issues in American History and Art." The Joseph M. Schwartz Memorial Essay, 2005. Renascence: Essays on Values in Literature, LVII.3 (2005), 177-202.
- "Hoops & Hurdles: The Unlikely Story of How I Learned How I Learn." University of Minnesota Center for Teaching and Learning, 2006. PDF at http://www1.umn.edu/ohr/img/assets/18007/griffin2.pdf
- Review of Jeffrey A. Hammond, The American Puritan Elegy: A Literary and Cultural Study. Cambridge: Cambridge U.P., 2000. In Early American Literature,36.2 (2001), 303-07.
- Review of James D. Hartman, Providence Tales and the Birth of American Literature. In American Studies, 41.1 (2000), 175-6.
- "The Melting Pot, Vegetable Soup, and the Martini Cocktail: Competing Explanations of U.S. Cultural Pluralism." The Midwest Quarterly: A Journal of Contemporary Thought 39.2 (1998): 133-52.
- "Cincinnatus and the 'Shaw Memorial': Monument as Emblem in Saint Gaudens, Dunbar, and Lowell." The Telling Image: Explorations in the Emblem. Eds. Ayers L. Bagley, Edward M. Griffin, Austin J. McClean. AMS Studies in the Emblem, No. 12. New York: AMS Press, 1996.
- "William Alfred's Hogan's Goat: Power and Poetry in Brooklyn." Prospects: An Annual of American Cultural Studies 19 (1994): 451-89.
- "Patricia Hearst and Her Foremothers: The Captivity Fable in America." The Centennial Review 36.2 (1992): 311-26.
- Other articles and reviews published in American Notes and Queries, American Studies, Early American Literature, Philological Quarterly, Eire-Ireland, Journal of Religion, Twentieth Century Literature, American Historical Review.
Teaching
- Graduate seminars
- American Literature, History, and Culture
- The American Jeremiad
- The First American Novels
- Proseminar in Early American Literature
- Undergraduate courses
- Survey of American Poetry
- The American Novel
- Flannery O'Connor
- Courses for undergraduate majors
- Survey of American Literature to 1850
- Shakespeare
- Junior-Senior Seminar
- General education courses
- Introduction to American Literature



