Utica University faculty

Eugene Paul Nassar (20 June 1935 - 7 April 2017), was Professor of English Emeritus of Utica College, Utica, New York, the author of several books of literary criticism in the close analysis tradition of his teachers, John Crowe Ransom at Kenyon College, Christopher Ricks at Oxford University, Arthur Mizener of Cornell University, and his critical model and mentor, Cleanth Brooks. He wrote long studies of the figural images in Wallace Stevens, the lyric passages in The Cantos of Ezra Pound, and of Hart Crane’s The Bridge, along with numerous essays in criticism of poems, drama and fiction. He also edited an anthology of the illustrations to Dante’s “Inferno,” various essays in sociological criticism, essays and reviews in many journals, and several books. He held the Rhodes Scholarship and a Fellowship from the National Endowment for the Humanities. Professor Nassar wrote a memoir of growing up in a Lebanese Christian family in the Italian-American neighborhood of East Utica, NY, entitled Wind of the Land. Dr. Nassar was founder and former Director of the Ethnic Heritage Studies Center at Utica College. His Papers, which include many items—such as notices and reviews of his work— are housed in the Archives of Utica College.