Rose Abdelnour Zimbardo (born Rose E. Abdelnour; May 29, 1932 – October 25, 2015) was an American professor of English literature. Her work covered such subjects as Shakespeare, Restoration drama, and the works of J. R. R. Tolkien. She was a pioneer in the academic study of Tolkien's works, and co-edited three collections with fellow Tolkien scholar Neil Isaacs: Tolkien and the Critics (University of Notre Dame Press, 1968); Tolkien: New Critical Perspectives (University Press of Kentucky, 1981); and Understanding The Lord of the Rings: The Best of Tolkien Criticism (Houghton Mifflin, 2004).[1]
Zimbardo began her career in 1960 at the City College of New York.[2] She later moved to the State University of New York at Stony Brook. At Stony Brook she was designated a Distinguished Teaching Professor in 1991.[3] After she retired from Stony Brook, she took an adjunct position at the University of San Francisco.