Kathleen Lundeen joined Western’s English Department in the fall of 1991 as a specialist in British Romantic literature. Along with Romantic literature, she has taught courses in physics and literature, intermedia art, epic poetry, the nineteenth-century novel, biblical literature, and literary and cultural theory. Throughout her distinguished teaching career, students and colleagues have expressed great admiration for her ability to explain complex theoretical concepts, the clarity of her rigorous writing assignments and feedback on student writing, finely tuned lectures, respect for students, attention to the visual elements of texts, and expert facilitation of class discussions.
In addition to publishing on a range of Romantic authors and subjects, she has written articles and book chapters on literature and science, intermedia art, film, and biblical literature. In her book Knight of the Living Dead: William Blake and the Problem of Ontology, she shows how Blake creates an epistemological alternative to empiricism and rationalism in his poetry and art. After completing her long-range study of Blake, she began pursuing the engagement between Romantic texts and the discoveries of late eighteenth and early nineteenth astronomers, notably William Herschel. Her work in this area has appeared in several journals and was solicited for a book on literature and science.
Kathleen also served as an elected officer of PAMLA (Pacific and Ancient Modern Language Association), which culminated in her service as president of PAMLA in 2007. For several years she served on the editorial committee of Pacific Coast Philology, and she chaired the site committee when Western hosted PAMLA’s annual conference in 2002 and 2007. Her service outside of Western has included the mentoring of post-doctoral instructors through the Keats-Shelley Association mentoring program and participation as a grant referee of AAUW (American Association of University Women).
Kathleen’s participation in the English Department includes a term as department chair and several terms as associate chair, during which she attended to numerous personnel issues in a professional and compassionate manner, saw several faculty members successfully through the tenure and promotion process, initiated significant reforms in department procedures, developed a new and improved advising system, and developed a collaborative leadership style. We will miss her warm and compassionate presence.
