Michael Marcuse

Michael Marcuse taught in the English Department at the University of Maryland from 1979 until 2007. He was the founding Director of the Professional Writing Program which he led from 1980 until 1986, and again from 2002 until his retirement in July 2007. He taught in multiple fields including 18th Century Studies, Bibliography and Research Methods, and Rhetoric and Rhetorical Analysis. In 18th Century Studies his particular interests were in the history of literary criticism and in satire. His interest in bibliography and research methods led to the 1990 publication of his Reference Guide for English Studies and to his role as Editor of Literary Research: A Journal of Method and Technique. In rhetoric and rhetorical analysis, his attention was on the Literature and Rhetoric of AIDS, pro- and anti-gay rhetoric, and eventually led to his course on AIDS and African-America: History, Rhetoric, and Literature.

Among his publications are a series of essays on the mid-18th century controversy regarding Milton’s alleged plagiarism of Paradise Lost, several essays on Samuel Johnson, a variety of in-house documents for use in the Professional Writing Program, and the Reference Guide noted above. Marcuse is a former President of the Council of Editors of Learned Journals and a former member of the American Society for Eighteenth-Century Studies, the Council of Writing Program Administrators, the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force, and the Boards of Directors of the Whitman-Walker Clinic and the Free State Justice Campaign. He was a founding member of the Lesbian and Gay Staff and Faculty Association at the University of Maryland and was the 2007 recipient of its Pride Award.