Sacvan Bercovitch, Ph.D. 1965 - English

Sacvan Bercovitch is professor emeritus and Powell M. Cabot Research Professor of American Literature at Harvard University. Through groundbreaking critical works such as The Puritan Origins of the American Self and as general editor of the new Cambridge Literary History of the United States, Bercovitch has remained a seminal figure in American letters for nearly 40 years.

After completing his Ph.D. in English from the then Claremont Graduate School in 1965, Bercovitch began a series of academic appointments that took him from Brandeis University, to UC San Diego, to Columbia University. It was during this time that he published his first major works, The Puritan Origins of the American Self (1975), and The American Jeremiad (1978). From 1983 until his recent retirement, Bercovitch had been the Charles H. Carswell Professor of American and English literature at Harvard University, where he published such influential works as The Office of “The Scarlet Letter” (1991) and The Rites of Assent: Transformations in the Symbolic Construction of America (1993).

An extensive list of accomplishments includes fellowships from the Ford Foundation, the Guggenheim Foundation, the Newberry Library, the National Endowment for the Humanities, the American Council of Learned Societies, the Mellon Foundation and a Fulbright Senior Specialists Grant. He has served as President of the American Studies Association and was selected as a Fellow to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. In 1991, he received the Cabot Award for Achievement in the Humanities, and the next year was awarded the James Russell Lowell prize from the Modern Language Association for best scholarly book. He later won the Distinguished Scholar Award for Extraordinary Lifetime Contributions to the Study of Early American Literature as well as the Hubbell Award for Lifetime Achievement in American Literary Studies.

Bercovitch is a founding member of CGU’s Alumni Hall of Fame and received a distinguished alumni award in 1995.