Retiring Professors: Dr. Dennis Berthold

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Dr. Dennis Berthold has made innumerable contributions to the world of Nineteenth-century American literature, specifically relating to Herman Melville. He has been at Texas A&M for 42 years, and has taught courses on literature of the sea, Gothicism, and others. Berthold has also published essays in nationally recognized journals such as American Literary History, American Literature, and Nineteenth-Century Literature, and has published five book, the most recent being American Risorgimento: Herman Melville and the Cultural Politics of Italy (Ohio State University Press, 2009).

While Dr. Berthold has contributed to the academic world in many ways, his leadership has been greatly appreciated, both as the Director of Graduate Studies in the Department of English and as the president of the Melville Society.

Dr. Larry Reynolds writes:
Dennis’s record as a teacher puts those of most of us to shame. He’s one of the most accomplished and influential teachers not only at Texas A&M but also in the entire United States. Year after year, I’ve witnessed his life-altering effect on the lives and careers of his students, while he remains one of the most demanding and rigorous members of the faculty. If you’ve seen him work, you know how he does it--with intellectual brilliance; deep compassion and concern for students; and enormous physical energy. (He also has a flair for the dramatic and risqué.) His success has been recognized with multiple awards: two undergraduate Teaching Excellence Awards, an Honors Teacher-Scholar Award, two Distinguished Teaching Awards from the Association of Former Students, and, most recently, the Texas A&M Eppright Professorship in Undergraduate Teaching Excellence.

“Whatever fortune brings, don’t be afraid of doing things.” 
-Herman Melville

 Please comment below with your own memories of Dr. Berthold!

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