Esther Schor

Esther Schor
Schor in 2010 at an Esperanto-USA meetup
Born (1957-06-20) June 20, 1957 (age 67)
Academic background
Alma materYale University
Academic work
DisciplinePhilologist, literary scholar
Sub-disciplineBritish Romanticism, American Jewish studies
InstitutionsPrinceton University

Esther H. Schor is an American scholar, essayist, and professor of American Jewish studies at Princeton University. Completing a PhD at Yale University in 1985, she has been Professor of English at Princeton since 1986, where she focuses on subjects such as Romanticism in Britain and Jewish culture. Schor is a writer for several publications, including The Forward, The New York Times Book Review, and The Times Literary Supplement.[1][2]

In 2006, Schor completed a biography of American poet Emma Lazarus, entitled Emma Lazarus; the book won the 2006 National Jewish Book Award in the American Jewish Category.[3]

In 2016, Schor published Bridge of Words, a history of Esperanto as well as a personal memoir of her experience as an Esperantist. By the time of the book's release, Schor had been involved in the Esperanto movement for seven years,[4] and had previously written articles[5] and given a TEDxRoma talk entitled "The Transformative Vision of Esperanto" on the subject.[6] The book received mixed reviews from literary critics, with reviewers praising the depth of the book's research and some writers criticising the inclusion of autobiographic content. It was well received by Esperanto scholars, with Federico Gobbo [eo] writing:

Schor's work is not a purely academic and scholarly work, even though the quantity and quality of the notes supporting the arguments is impressive. So, the book can be read like a novel. Moreover, Schor's language style is a real pleasure for the reader.[7]

Schor has written two volumes of original poetry,[2] including The Hills of Holland in 2002 and Strange Nursery in 2012. In 2022, Schor was awarded a Guggenheim Fellowship for her upcoming biography of American philosopher Horace Kallen, which she said would look at Kallen's use of the term "cultural pluralism".[8][9]

  1. ^ "Schor, Esther H.". Encyclopedia.com.
  2. ^ a b Saxon, Jamie (April 4, 2020). "Hal Foster and Esther Schor receive Behrman Award for the humanities". Princeton University. Retrieved December 17, 2023.
  3. ^ "Past Winners of the National Jewish Book Award for American Jewish Studies". Jewish Book Council. Retrieved January 26, 2020.
  4. ^ Saxon, Jamie (April 4, 2020). "Hal Foster and Esther Schor receive Behrman Award for the humanities". Princeton University. Retrieved December 12, 2023.
  5. ^ "Esther Schor | John Benjamins". John Benjamins Publishing Catalog. Retrieved December 12, 2023.
  6. ^ Schor, Esther (July 17, 2018), "The Transformative Vision of Esperanto", TED, retrieved December 12, 2023
  7. ^ Gobbo, Federico (December 31, 2017). "Esther H. Schor. Bridge of words: Esperanto and the dream of a universal language". Language Problems and Language Planning. 41 (3): 321–323. doi:10.1075/lplp.00011.gob. hdl:11245.1/0e4d44f6-37d5-4e14-8269-5ec6daf1afbb. ISSN 0272-2690.
  8. ^ Kahn, Nadia (September 16, 2020). "Horace Kallen, George Washington, and the Borah Affair". Jewish Review of Books. Retrieved December 17, 2023.
  9. ^ "Four professors, eight Princeton University Press authors win 2022 Guggenheim Fellowship". The Princetonian. Retrieved December 17, 2023.