Dr. Nicholas Wallerstein

Dr. Nicholas Wallerstein, Professor of English and Distinguished Faculty, teaches early British poetry (with particular attention paid to Shakespeare, Chaucer, Spenser, Milton, and Donne), classical Roman poetry, post-WWII poetry, Biblical literature, and communication. He also teaches a variety of seminars, including courses in medieval romance, modern and contemporary English, Irish, and American poetry, religious epic, and existential themes in literature.

He was born and raised in Concord, Massachusetts (home to Emerson, Thoreau, Hawthorne, and Louisa May Alcott). He then attended the University of California-Santa Cruz for his BA in English and Latin literature. He received his PhD in English from the University of Oregon, and holds a master’s degree in theology from Harvard. His research is in rhetorical, linguistic, and theological approaches to Medieval, Renaissance, and modern literature, including African-American literature. His numerous scholarly articles have appeared in a variety of professional journals, including Pacific Coast Philology, The Eugene O’Neill Review, Language and Literature, the Middle-Atlantic Writers Association (MAWA) Review, The Literary Griot: International Journal of Black Expressive Culture Studies, In Geardagum: Essays in Old and Middle English, and Language Quarterly.

His studies in languages include Greek, Latin, Hebrew, Old and Middle English, and modern French. Dr. Wallerstein has an interest in translation and has produced original translations of the Latin odes of Horace and Old English elegies.

Dr. Wallerstein won the 2015 BHSU Distinguished Faculty Award, BHSU’s highest faculty honor (South Dakota Board of Regents Special Resolution 38-2015). He also previously won the Outstanding Faculty Award at the University of Providence (Great Falls, Montana).

Dr. Wallerstein is an active member of the National Association of Scholars, which “emboldens reasoned scholarship and propels civil debate. [It is] the leading organization of scholars and citizens committed to higher education as the catalyst of American freedom.”

Above all else, Dr. Wallerstein believes that it is better to light one candle than to curse the darkness.