Professor Rachel Rubin Receives Chancellor’s Award for Distinguished Scholarship

Professor Rachel Rubin, Department of American Studies, Receives 2012 Chancellor’s Award for Distinguished Scholarship

Professor Rubin has very quickly attained a level of stature and recognition in American studies that few achieve throughout their careers. Through her sophisticated examination of popular music and working people’s identities, she has brought a new level of understanding to how social class works in American life. She has written, edited, or co-edited seven volumes, published dozens of articles in tier-one journals, and edited one of the finest book series in the country on popular music, American Popular Music. She is also engaged in both essay production and literary criticism. The award committee’s recommendation was based on Professor Rubin’s high level of scholarly productivity, her ability to bridge a remarkable number of disciplines in her scholarly writing and methodological approaches, and her ability to engage a wide range of audiences successfully. Most recently, her book manuscript Well Met: The Renaissance Faire and the American Counterculture was accepted for publication by the NYU Press; it will be published in October 2012. According to her colleagues, her enthusiasm for her work and her dazzling scholarship have attracted and “inspired undergraduate and graduate students to pursue their own interdisciplinary research agendas with rigor and passion.”