{"id":15208260,"date":"2026-07-13T20:30:00","date_gmt":"2026-07-14T00:30:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.inthacity.com\/news\/arthur-bahr-named-head-of-mits-literature-section\/"},"modified":"2026-07-13T21:33:58","modified_gmt":"2026-07-14T01:33:58","slug":"arthur-bahr-named-head-of-mits-literature-section","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.inthacity.com\/news\/arthur-bahr-named-head-of-mits-literature-section\/","title":{"rendered":"Arthur Bahr named head of MIT\u2019s Literature Section"},"content":{"rendered":"

Professor Arthur Bahr has been named head of the MIT Literature Section<\/a>, effective July 1. <\/p>\n

\u201cArthur is an exceptional scholar and a proven leader. I am confident that he will guide the unit with judgment, insight, and a deep commitment to its continued success,\u201d says Agust\u00edn Rayo, the Kenan Sahin Dean of the School of Humanities, Arts, and Social Sciences. \u201cI very much look forward to having him join the school\u2019s leadership team.\u201d<\/p>\n

Bahr\u2019s work blends formalist and materialist approaches to find literary resonance in the physical particularities of medieval manuscripts. He joined the MIT faculty in 2007 and helped lead the Ancient and Medieval Studies program<\/a> in 2009-18 and 2022-23, working with colleagues from across the Institute to strengthen and expand the program. He has also been curriculum chair and undergraduate officer of the Literature Section.<\/p>\n

\u201cLit@MIT has some of the world\u2019s most innovative literary scholars and some of the Institute\u2019s most dedicated teachers,\u201d Bahr says. \u201cIt has also been my home for nearly 20 years, and I feel both humbled and energized by the opportunity to help shape its future. <\/p>\n

\u201cLiterature creates opportunities to slow down and reflect on what really matters, and in a fast-paced, increasingly automated world, those skills are more vital than ever,\u201d he continues.<\/p>\n

Bahr succeeds Associate Professor Sandy Alexandre, who served as head of the unit since July 2025.<\/p>\n

Bahr is the author of \u201cChasing the Pearl-Manuscript: Speculation, Shapes, Delight\u201d (University of Chicago Press, 2025); \u201cFragments and Assemblages: Forming Compilations of Medieval London\u201d (University of Chicago Press, 2013); and co-editor of \u201cMedieval English Manuscripts: Form, Aesthetics, and the Literary Text,\u201d a special volume of The Chaucer Review<\/em> (47.4, April 2013). His essays have appeared in ELH<\/em>, Studies in the Age of Chaucer<\/em>, Studies in Philology<\/em>, and The Chaucer Review<\/em>, among others. <\/p>\n

Bahr has been named a SHASS Faculty Fellow for the spring 2027 semester<\/a>. His next project combines his interest in manuscripts with his training as a figure skating judge to explore analogies between sheets of parchment and sheets of ice, as sites of performance, inscription, and erasure.  <\/p>\n

Bahr was named a MacVicar Faculty Fellow<\/a> in 2015. He received the James A. (\u201948) and Ruth Levitan Award for Excellence in Teaching<\/a> in 2012.<\/p>\n

Bahr has served MIT as chair of the Committee on the Undergraduate Program from 2019 to 2021, and served on the pandemic-era Academic Policies and Regulations Team. He was also a subcommittee chair of the Education Group of Task Force 2021 and Beyond, and member of the subsequent Refinement and Implementation Committee on the Undergraduate Program. <\/p>\n

Bahr earned his undergraduate degree from Amherst College and his PhD in English Language and Literature from the University of California at Berkeley.<\/p>\n

Source: News Boston \u2013 MIT<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A faculty member since 2007, the scholar of medieval literature explores how different parts of physical manuscripts combine to create interest and meaning.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":15208262,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[166],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-15208260","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-boston"],"featured_image_urls":{"full":["https:\/\/www.inthacity.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/15208260-mit-literature-arthur-bahr.jpg",900,600,false],"thumbnail":["https:\/\/www.inthacity.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/15208260-mit-literature-arthur-bahr-300x200.jpg",300,200,true],"medium":["https:\/\/www.inthacity.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/15208260-mit-literature-arthur-bahr-620x413.jpg",620,413,true],"medium_large":["https:\/\/www.inthacity.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/15208260-mit-literature-arthur-bahr-768x512.jpg",768,512,true],"large":["https:\/\/www.inthacity.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/15208260-mit-literature-arthur-bahr.jpg",900,600,false],"1536x1536":["https:\/\/www.inthacity.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/15208260-mit-literature-arthur-bahr.jpg",900,600,false],"2048x2048":["https:\/\/www.inthacity.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/15208260-mit-literature-arthur-bahr.jpg",900,600,false],"post-thumbnail":["https:\/\/www.inthacity.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/15208260-mit-literature-arthur-bahr.jpg",900,600,false],"ignition_item":["https:\/\/www.inthacity.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/15208260-mit-literature-arthur-bahr-670x446.jpg",670,446,true],"ignition_item_lg":["https:\/\/www.inthacity.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/15208260-mit-literature-arthur-bahr.jpg",900,600,false],"ignition_article_media":["https:\/\/www.inthacity.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/15208260-mit-literature-arthur-bahr-510x510.jpg",510,510,true],"ignition_minicart_item":["https:\/\/www.inthacity.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/15208260-mit-literature-arthur-bahr-160x160.jpg",160,160,true],"profile_24":["https:\/\/www.inthacity.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/15208260-mit-literature-arthur-bahr-24x24.jpg",24,24,true],"profile_48":["https:\/\/www.inthacity.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/15208260-mit-literature-arthur-bahr-48x48.jpg",48,48,true],"profile_96":["https:\/\/www.inthacity.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/15208260-mit-literature-arthur-bahr-96x96.jpg",96,96,true],"profile_150":["https:\/\/www.inthacity.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/15208260-mit-literature-arthur-bahr-150x150.jpg",150,150,true],"profile_300":["https:\/\/www.inthacity.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/15208260-mit-literature-arthur-bahr-300x300.jpg",300,300,true]},"author_info":{"display_name":"news.iNthacity","author_link":"https:\/\/www.inthacity.com\/news\/author\/atombo\/"},"category_info":"Boston<\/a>","tag_info":"Boston","comment_count":"0","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.inthacity.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15208260","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.inthacity.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.inthacity.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.inthacity.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.inthacity.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=15208260"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.inthacity.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15208260\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":15208261,"href":"https:\/\/www.inthacity.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15208260\/revisions\/15208261"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.inthacity.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/15208262"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.inthacity.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15208260"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.inthacity.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=15208260"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.inthacity.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=15208260"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}