Born in nearby Newark, Ohio and raised in the northlands, in Bay City, Michigan, Tim Shutt is the grandson of a Kenyon graduate ('23). He was educated at the Hotchkiss School, at Yale and at the University of Virginia, where he studied as a duPont Fellow and later as a Mellon Post-Doctoral Fellow.

Since 1986, Shutt has taught medieval and Renaissance literature in the Kenyon Department of English and more broadly — from antiquity to the twentieth century and beyond — in the Integrated Program in Humane Studies (IPHS). He has been honored with the Trustee Award for Distinguished Teaching and, on five occasions, with the Senior Cup, presented to the community member who in the judgment of the senior class has contributed most to Kenyon.

Shutt has served as faculty secretary and as chair of the faculty and has long worked with the Kenyon athletic program as an NCAA faculty representative. He offers regular nature talks at the Brown Family Environmental Center and he has spoken on behalf of the College at alumnae/i events nationwide.

Education

1984 — Doctor of Philosophy from Univ Virginia

1978 — Master of Arts from Univ Virginia

1972 — Bachelor of Arts from Yale University

Courses Recently Taught

In the first semester, we explore the themes of love and justice, purity and power, fidelity to the family and loyalty to the state. Through reading selections from the Hebrew Bible, Homer, Plato, Aristotle, Thucydides, Vergil, Dante and others, we investigate these themes as they find expression in the Judeo-Christian and Greco-Roman traditions and in their enduring European legacies. Students enrolled in this course will be automatically added to IPHS 114Y for the spring semester. This course is open to first-year and sophomore students. Juniors and senior declared concentrators may petition the department to enroll.

In the second semester, we focus on the themes of law and disorder, harmony and entropy, and modernity and its critics. Beginning with Machiavelli, Shakespeare and Hobbes, we investigate the desire to construct a unified vision through reason; then we examine the disruption or refinement of that vision in the works of such authors as Nietzsche, Darwin and Marx. Throughout the year, we explore the connections between the visual arts, literature and philosophy. In tutorial sessions, students concentrate on developing the craft of writing. IPHS 113Y-114Y will fulfill diversification in the Humanities Division. This course is open to first-year and sophomore students. Juniors and senior declared concentrators may petition the department to enroll.

In this course, we will study the whole of Dante's "Divine Comedy" in John Sinclair's Oxford translation. This interdisciplinary course does not count toward the completion of any diversification requirement. Prerequisite: sophomore standing.

This course, designed as a research and/or studio workshop, allows students to pursue their own interdisciplinary projects. Students are encouraged to take thoughtful, creative risks in developing their ideas and themes. Those engaged in major long-term projects may continue with them during the second semester. This interdisciplinary course does not count toward the completion of any diversification requirement. Prerequisite: junior standing.