Dr. Susan Shillinglaw

Dr. Susan Shillinglaw, a professor of English and comparative literature in the College of Applied Sciences and Arts and the director of the National Steinbeck Center in Salinas, will be the speaker at the last University Scholar Series lecture of the fall. She will be speaking Nov. 16, from noon to 1 p.m. in the Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Library Room 255/257.

Shillinglaw served as the director of San Jose State University’s Center for Steinbeck Studies for 18 years and received the President’s Scholar Award in 2012-13 for her prolific scholarship on Nobel Prize-winning author John Steinbeck. Her recent publications include “Carol and John Steinbeck:  Portrait of a Marriage” and “On Reading the Grapes of Wrath.”

She is currently working on a book about Steinbeck’s travels in Russia and was invited to speak at the second Tbilisi International Festival of Literature this past summer. She will discuss Steinbeck’s three visits to the U.S.S.R during her Nov. 16 lecture.

The University Scholars Series is supported by the University Library, the Spartan Bookstore, Faculty Affairs, the Office of Research and the Office of the Provost.